Case Study for Vocational Course of Study
I first had a talk with Dr. Nicole Scott last fall, when I was researching the coaching profession, and also researching coaching schools. As I learned more about ICA, I asked my recruiter for an ICA graduate I could speak with about both the industry and ICA as a school to attend. Dr. Scott was gracious with her time and was a big part of my choosing ICA. As an ICA graduate and full-time consultant/coach in the business arena, she was a perfect person to connect with then, and as I thought about it, to ask to be the subject of my expert interview to satisfy a graduation requirement from ICA. The purpose of my interview was to gain insights from an ICA grad who has been in the field for many years, hear her professional journey, and gather “real world” insights into getting started in the field, and working with clients. The interview exceeded my expectations!
Dr. Nicole Scott Interview
I interviewed Dr. Scott on the morning of May 16th, 2024, via phone call. The call lasted 50 minutes. I was excited to ask about her career path, advice for coaches starting in the profession, the “real-world” structure of sessions, assessment tools, and in-house coaching at larger institutions. It was a fantastic and educational 50 minutes!
The interview transcript is available.
Analysis and Discussion
As I transcribed and reflected on the interview, I had many major takeaways:
Coaching career paths come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and directions! They stem from a variety of backgrounds and take many turns. Coaching is also integrated into many different roles within companies. Dr. Scott’s career took many twists and turns … she got her master’s degree in psychology and joked that she couldn’t get a job with that. She quickly found herself in a training role, which she really enjoyed. She then got a teaching certification. After not finding a job in secondary ed, she merged training and teaching – as a trainer for Temple
University, implementing their school reform program. She really enjoyed this, but eventually was asked to move to Philadelphia; she wanted to stay in Pittsburgh. She then moved into an instruction role with Goodwill and concurrently got her master’s in Adult and Community Education. As she spent her 14 years at Goodwill, she pursued her Doctorate, and during that process, she was introduced to the concept of coaching. Her next stop was at FedEx Ground … here she was trained as a Gallup Strengths coach (everyone at FedEx was) … which further made her interested in coaching. After that training, she asked her boss if FedEx would pay for her to become certified as a coach. He agreed, and she enrolled at ICA in 2018. She had been thinking about training to be a therapist, but coaching felt like more of a fit for her – as she wanted to deal with “human potential and strength.” She finished the PCC program at ICA and also brought along another 15+ FedEx employees to go through ICA as well. She started a culture of coaching at the manager level, as she realized that she and another employee could not coach all of the employees at FedEx. She currently works at PSP Metrics as a Vice President. PSP helps companies delivery assessments on employees or candidates to a variety of companies. She also has operated her own LLC, focusing on helping mid to upper-level executives pursue their next step, or manage their overall career path. She also has a passion for helping teams at work become safe and high-performing. She mentions “detoxifying” the workplace.
What a winding course she has taken – and never what she envisioned when she majored in Psychology as an undergrad. Her experience at FedEx really brought things together for her as she saw the benefits coaching skills and a coaching culture could bring both to individuals and an organization. She summed it up best with “It’s a ride!”
Coaches have a lot of assessment tools at their disposal that they could use; use them judiciously and thoughtfully. Dr. Scott made me realize there are many considerations to consider as a new coach decides if he/she wants to use an assessment tool: What is your niche? What are you trying to get out of them? What is their usefulness? What is the cost to get certified? Dr. Scott has always been connected with Gallup Strength Finder … she loves the “general” aspect of it – something that helps her get an idea of how the client is oriented. She noted that some people “mischaracterize it as a personality test.” She sees it as a tool “that creates a language around how people are oriented towards life.” Dr. Scott got certified in DISC; she thinks of that as helping with group dynamics. But she has never used it! She uses some components of Gallup for group work. Finally, she did mention Hogan and other emotional intelligence assessments, which are omnipresent. Overall, she advised you to consider what types of clients are gravitating towards you, and what they or you are looking for in getting more information on them. That will help you decide what tools/assessments you may want to choose to use. It is not a light investment! She mentioned spending $7500 to get certified. Overall, make sure you know what the tool provides, why you are getting certified with this tool, and how and with what population you plan to use it.
- Starting a career in Coaching
Much like her advice when it came to using tools, Dr. Scott advised considering what type of client you were attracted to working with, and what kind of client seems to find you. She wasn’t crazy about being an “executive coach”! She says there are a million of them out there … LOL. Here are a couple of other “nuggets” of advice on starting out:
- Network your tail off! Share your thoughts/views on things. When a potential client thinks of getting some help, you want your name to be a consideration for them. When asked to elaborate on this, I found that she was mainly talking about social media. If someone posts something interesting, she will add her thoughts to it. If someone wants to connect on social media, she will do so, but if she feels that the person is simply trying to sell her something, she will stop. If she feels that the connection can provide mutual value, she is more than willing to do so.
- Find the sweet spot for pricing as a new coach. “Don’t overprice yourself, but don’t underprice yourself either.” She emphasized feeling confident in the value you bring, and that it has to “hurt a little bit” for the client, so they value their time with you and have some skin in the game. This ensures that your client is serious about getting coached and working toward goals.
- Starting a Coaching Culture / Program within a corporation
One of my interests is potentially getting on board with my current company’s training program, or looking to join another corporation’s coaching program. With her experience in starting a coaching culture and infrastructure at FedEx, I was really interested in her insights on this. They had internal coaches who coached up to a certain level of management, and then outside coaches worked with C-Suite execs, mainly because of confidentiality reasons. When starting a coaching platform or delivery system within an organization, Dr. Scott really emphasized understanding the “why.” Why are we doing this, and what will the impact on the company look like? Finally, she suggested starting coaching within a company around first-time managers – taking what is worked on in management training in the classroom, and following that up in the field, “extending the learning into practice.” She called it accountability coaching, helping to see that the new behaviors being taught are being utilized in their day-to-day. A very practical way to bring coaching to the workplace, and one on which upper-level executives would probably see an ROI.
- Pure Coaching in the “Real World”
Dr Scott laughed when I asked if “pure coaching” was used in the real world of coaching/consulting. Or as Linda Deluca says … “out in the wild.” First, she flat out said “No.” But as she continued, it became a little more layered. She pointed out that in order to pass your final session for ICA and to get certified for ICF, you have to understand and use pure coaching. In her actual sessions, she says she rarely gives advice. In certain circumstances, she will say “I think I have had a similar experience. Would it be helpful if I share my story?” After sharing that she will ask what it brought up for the client.
Some questions/strategies she always uses came out in our conversation. She always wants to know what success looks like – “At the end of this, what will be different?” She likes to use a scale of 1-10 at the beginning and end of sessions. She also always gives homework; she likes her clients to practice what they are working on in between sessions.
What I found really interesting was that Dr. Scott said, laughing, “After a while, everything is life coaching.” She also summarized this part of the interview with some powerful words … “Here’s what I’ll say – the closer you can lean to pure coaching – the actual better results you will get for your clients.”
- Other practical considerations in a coaching profession.
I simply asked for anything else that I was not asking … things I should be thinking about starting out in coaching:
- She suggested if a coach is working within an organization, not to take notes. Coaching is not protected the same way therapy is. We can’t redact notes, so the coaching can be easily discoverable. This can be an issue if some legal matters arise. She advises simply keeping a spreadsheet – date, time, and the basic topic discussed. That’s it. This is simply to protect yourself.
- Coaching Agreement
- Be sure to discuss what coaching is and isn’t. Be very specific about it and put it in writing before your first session. Do not enter into coaching relationships that are bound to fail because of a lack of communication at the beginning. Be sure they understand it is not therapy.
- Therapy
- Speaking of therapy, if a client needs therapy – don’t coach them until they have taken care of what they need to in therapy. The only way she would do that is if she had the therapist’s permission; they would have a three-way conversation. She would also need a release of information from the therapist. This has happened rarely!
Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent talking with Dr. Scott, and her energy, clear passion for her daily work, drive to succeed in her profession, and commitment to making a difference in her clients’ lives were inspirational. As often happens when I talk to “real-life” coaches, I keep thinking to myself – “this would be so great to do for a living!” Now it’s just time to start making that happen, step-by-step. Focusing on what kind of client I’m drawn to, and who is drawn to me will be critical. Thinking about how I can start within a business or other organization in some kind of coaching/training role is exciting, and her simple suggestion of a company starting with follow-up training and accountability coaching for new managers is a window into a means of dipping my (and a company’s) feet into the waters of a coaching culture. Her career path is a reminder to say “yes” to new opportunities, learn and grow from them, and see where they lead – usually to something exciting and challenging. I can’t wait to connect back with her to share how my coaching journey is first, starting out – and later, evolving. Confirmed for me, because of the excitement it generated, that this is the area for me to pursue in my next professional and personal chapter.
