IAC IBC Exam key terms

A written or verbal understanding between coach and client that sets out goals, roles, logistics, confidentiality, fees, and how either party may end the engagement.

The ongoing conversation in which coach and client negotiate expectations, boundaries, and working arrangements, revisited as needs change rather than settled once at the start.

The boundaries of what a coach is trained and qualified to do, distinguishing coaching from therapy, consulting, mentoring, and other services that require separate credentials.

The client's voluntary agreement to coaching after understanding its nature, limits, confidentiality rules, and alternatives, given without pressure and revisable at any time.

The coach's duty to keep client information private, including the agreed exceptions such as supervision, legal requirements, or serious risk of harm to self or others.

A situation in which competing obligations, such as loyalty to a client and duty to a sponsor, make any available action carry a cost, requiring structured reasoning rather than habit.

Directing a client to another professional when the presenting issue lies outside the coach's competence or when a different service would serve the client better.

A structured, confidential relationship in which a more experienced coach helps the practitioner reflect on client work, ethical questions, and their own reactions and development.

Sustained learning after initial training, through courses, reading, supervision, and practice review, that maintains and deepens the coach's competence over a career.

Formal recognition by a professional body that a coach has met defined training, experience, and assessment standards, often renewable through ongoing development requirements.

A published set of principles and standards, such as honesty, integrity, and respect, that guides practitioner conduct and provides a basis for accountability to the profession.

A situation where the coach holds another significant role with the client, such as manager, friend, or relative, creating conflicting obligations that can impair objectivity.

The imbalance of influence between coach and client, or between sponsor and participant, that requires attention so that choice and voice remain genuinely voluntary.

The party, often an employer, that funds or commissions coaching for someone else, raising questions about reporting, confidentiality, and whose goals take priority.

The coach's ability to be fully attentive and responsive in the moment, calm and open, while holding the client's agenda without imposing the coach's own ideas.

A sense of ease and connection between coach and client that makes candid conversation possible, built through warmth, genuine interest, and consistent reliability.

The client's confidence that the coach is competent, honest, and safe to be vulnerable with, developed through kept promises, clear boundaries, and non-judgmental responses.

Listening with full attention in order to understand meaning, emotion, and intent, then reflecting what was heard so the client can confirm or correct it.

Restating the essence of what the client said, including feeling and meaning, so they hear their own words returned and can explore them further.

Briefly restating a client's message in the coach's own words to check understanding and signal that the client has been heard accurately.

Drawing together the main threads of a longer conversation into a concise statement, used to confirm progress, create closure, or refocus the session.

Asking open, concise questions that open new thinking rather than seek information the coach wants, avoiding leading or advice hidden inside a question.

The client's expanded perception of their situation, patterns, feelings, and choices, which creates the conditions for deliberate change rather than automatic reaction.

Agreeing with the client what they want from coaching and from each session, expressed clearly enough that progress can later be recognized.

A concrete set of steps the client commits to, with timing and support identified, that converts insight from a session into something testable in real life.

The client's ownership of their commitments, supported by the coach through follow-up and honest review rather than pressure or rescue.

The client's current motivation and confidence to act, which shapes whether the coach should raise awareness, build commitment, or plan concrete steps.

A directive, client-centered conversation style that strengthens a person's own reasons for change by exploring ambivalence without argument or persuasion.

Specific, timely information offered to the client about observed behavior and its effect, given with permission and in service of the client's stated aims.

Gathering structured information, through tools, interviews, or observation, to understand a client's starting point and to inform coaching decisions.

The coach's disciplined habit of reviewing their own work, assumptions, and reactions in order to improve judgment and avoid repeating blind spots.

The coach's recognition of their own values, triggers, biases, and habitual patterns, which is a precondition for keeping the client's agenda central.

The client's unconscious redirection onto the coach of feelings and expectations from earlier relationships, which can distort the working alliance if unnoticed.

The predictable arc of a coaching conversation, from check-in and goal agreement through exploration to commitment and close, which keeps the work purposeful.

The coach's practice of storing notes and agreements securely, limited to what serves the work, with agreed retention periods and client access rights.

The limits a coach maintains around time, contact, personal disclosure, and intimacy so the relationship stays focused on the client's development rather than the coach's needs.

A new understanding that connects previously separate observations, often arriving with surprise or relief, which the coach supports rather than supplies.