One person, scoped against something you can check

Coaching that is scoped against a business outcome is measurable. Coaching that is not is a series of good conversations. What separates them is settled before anyone is appointed.

Craig Fearn is a board advisor who coaches, not an accredited coach. That distinction is set out below rather than left for you to discover.

Start a conversation On accreditation
Who it is for
Chief executives, directors, and the tier immediately below
Scoped against
A stated outcome, agreed before the first session
Carried out by
Craig Fearn, FCMI Fellow and former member of the EMCC
Confidential
Nothing said in the room is reported to the organisation
A small quiet room with one worn armchair beside a tall window, a low table holding a glass of water and a closed notebook, bare floorboards.
One room, two people, and nothing else on the agenda. The value is in what can be said there that cannot be said anywhere else in the organisation.

01 — Accreditation

Ask every coach this. Here is the answer.

Coaching is unregulated. Anyone may use the title, which is why accreditation from the ICF, the EMCC or the Association for Coaching is a reasonable thing to ask about, and why you should ask it of everyone you consider.

Craig Fearn holds no coaching accreditation. He held EMCC UK membership at Professional Member grade, which expired in August 2018. That is a membership grade, not an accreditation: it is a subscription with a code of conduct attached, where an accreditation is awarded against assessed competence and supervised practice hours. The two are one word apart and are not the same thing, which is precisely how an accreditation Craig has never held once ended up published on this site.

What he holds is Fellowship of the Chartered Management Institute, Fellowship of the Royal Society for Public Health, and board-level advisory work since 2021. If accredited coaching methodology is what is wanted, an accredited coach is the right purchase and there is no shortage of good ones. If what is wanted is somebody who has sat in the meetings being described, that is this.

02 — What is actually being bought

Four different conversations, sold as one.

Most engagements go wrong because nobody said which of these was wanted. Naming it in the first conversation costs nothing and saves the first month.

The four conversations an executive engagement can be, what each sounds like, and when each is the right one.
Kind What it sounds like When it is the right one
Coaching What do you think you should do? The person has the answer and cannot reach it from inside the problem
Mentoring Here is what happened when I did it. The person is missing experience rather than clarity
Advisory Here is what I would do, and why. The decision is technical or structural and a view is what is wanted
Therapy Why does this keep happening to you? Outside this scope entirely, and referred on rather than attempted
Six identical plain grey document dividers fanned slightly apart on a pale desk, one pulled further out than the rest.
Six sessions, or twelve, or four. The number matters far less than whether the engagement was scoped against something.

03 — How it runs

Scoped first, ended on purpose.

  1. 1

    The outcome

    Before session one

    What has to be different, stated before anyone is appointed and written down. An engagement without this is a series of good conversations, and there is no way to tell afterwards whether it worked.

  2. 2

    Chemistry

    60 minutes

    A conversation to establish whether this pairing will work. It costs nothing, and either side saying no is a normal outcome rather than a failed sale.

  3. 3

    The work

    Typically 4 to 6 months

    Sessions every two to three weeks, on the real problem rather than a curriculum. What happens between sessions is where the change is, so each one starts with what was tried.

  4. 4

    The end

    At the agreed point

    Measured against the outcome agreed at stage one, and concluded. Coaching that works ends; the measure is whether the person needs it again for the same reason.

An office doorway with the door standing half open onto an empty room beyond, seen from the corridor in cool daylight.
Coaching that works ends. The measure is whether the person needs it again for the same reason.

04 — Whether it is the right thing

Commissioned for a person, not for a tier.

The usual triggers

A promotion into a job that differs in kind from the last one rather than in size. A first hundred days. A leader whose competence is not reading as competence to the people who decide. A first non-executive appointment being considered. Or a chief executive with nobody left to think out loud with, which is the most common one and the least often said.

When it is the wrong purchase

If the problem is the organisation rather than the person, coaching the person is an expensive way to avoid saying so, and an assessment of the work itself is the honest alternative. If the problem is the board rather than an individual, board advisory is the right shape. If somebody has been sent rather than come, very little happens.

Questions before appointing anyone

Common questions answered

What accreditation does Craig hold as a coach?

None, and the honest answer matters more here than a comfortable one. Coaching is an unregulated industry, which is exactly why accreditation from the ICF, EMCC or the Association for Coaching is worth asking any coach about. Craig held EMCC UK membership at Professional Member grade, which expired in August 2018. That is a membership grade rather than an accreditation. He was never accredited by them and does not claim to be.

What he holds instead: Fellowship of the Chartered Management Institute, Fellowship of the Royal Society for Public Health, and board-level advisory work since 2021 across NHS trusts, technology, financial services, manufacturing and premium spirits. If accredited coaching methodology is the thing being bought, an accredited coach is the right purchase and there are many good ones. If what is wanted is someone who has sat in the meetings being described, this is that.

Is this coaching, or mentoring?

Both, chosen deliberately rather than blurred. Coaching helps someone reach an answer they already hold. Mentoring hands over experience they do not have yet. A first hundred days in a job that differs in kind from the last one usually needs mentoring early and coaching later, and pretending otherwise wastes the early sessions.

What it is not is therapy. Where something belongs with a clinician, that is said plainly and early, and the referral is to somebody qualified to take it.

Who commissions it, and who is the client?

Either the individual or the chief executive on their behalf. Where an organisation pays, the organisation is told whether the engagement is running and whether the agreed outcome was met. It is not told what was said.

That boundary is written into the engagement before it starts. Without it the sessions become a reporting line, and nobody says anything worth hearing in a reporting line.

How long does it run?

Typically four to six months at a session every two or three weeks, against an outcome agreed before the first one. Some engagements are shorter and built around a single transition.

Open-ended arrangements are avoided. An engagement with no end point has stopped being scoped against anything, which is the failure mode this whole page is arranged around.

What does it cost?

It depends on frequency and length, and a written proposal with a fixed figure follows the chemistry conversation. The chemistry conversation itself is free and carries no obligation on either side.

Still have questions?

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Start with what has to be different.

Not a package, and not a number of sessions. The first conversation establishes whether there is an outcome worth scoping against, and it costs nothing.

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On coaching, and how to buy it well