Advanced Mentor Coaching Formation

Become the mentor coach who develops coaches—not just prepares them for a credential.

Mentor coaching is rapidly evolving into one of the most important disciplines within the coaching profession. As coaching standards continue to rise, mentor coaches play a critical role in helping coaches develop their competence, deepen their practice, and uphold the quality of the profession.

Advanced Mentor Coaching Formation is a 65-hour professional education program designed to prepare experienced coaches to become confident, ethical and evidence-based mentor coaches aligned with the latest ICF Mentor Coaching Competencies.

Unlike traditional mentor coach training, this program does not simply teach evaluation tools or credential preparation. It develops the professional capability to observe coaching objectively, facilitate meaningful developmental conversations, manage bias, provide high-quality feedback, and support coaches across different stages of professional development.

Who is this for?

This program is designed for experienced professional coaches who want to:

• expand into mentor coaching 
• prepare for ICF Mentor Coach Specialization 
• strengthen their understanding of coaching quality 
• mentor coaches pursuing ACC, PCC or MCC credentials 
• improve their ability to provide developmental feedback 
• deepen their own coaching through observing others

Why mentor coaching matters

Excellent coaching rarely develops by accident. Behind every exceptional coach is usually someone who helped them see what they could not yet see themselves.

Mentor coaching provides that developmental partnership. A skilled mentor coach does far more than identify strengths and developmental gaps. They help coaches understand how their coaching is evolving, recognize recurring patterns, strengthen professional judgment, and integrate coaching competencies into their own authentic coaching style.

As the coaching profession matures, mentor coaching is becoming a discipline in its own right—requiring its own competencies, ethical standards and professional identity.

This program prepares you for that role.

Program structure

Duration: 65 hours

Live Intensive (32.5 hours)

Five highly interactive learning days including:

• teaching 
• demonstrations 
• case discussions 
• observed practice 
• mentoring-on-mentoring 
• calibration 
• reflective learning 

Applied Learning (32.5 hours)

Participants complete:

• guided study 
• mentor coaching with real coaches 
• written observation reports 
• competency reviews 
• reflective assignments 

readiness portfolio

What makes this program different?

100% dedicated to mentor coaching

Every hour of the curriculum is devoted to mentor coaching. Unlike many programs that combine coaching education with mentor coaching, every synchronous and asynchronous activity develops mentor coaching capability—from ethical contracting and evidence-based observation to developmental feedback, mentoring-on-mentoring and reflective practice.

Nothing is included simply because it is interesting. Every learning activity develops one or more of the ICF Mentor Coaching Competencies.

Learn the whole developmental journey

Most mentor coach education focuses on a single credential level. This program takes a different approach. You will learn how coaching develops across the complete professional continuum—from ACC through PCC to MCC.

Understanding the developmental journey allows mentor coaches to calibrate their feedback appropriately, recognize what is developmentally “enough” at each level, and avoid expecting every coach to coach like an MCC.

Participants may prepare for one, two, or all three Mentor Coach Specializations (ACC, PCC, and MCC). The shared developmental foundation is completed once, while each specialization includes additional level-specific applied practice and evidence demonstrating readiness to mentor coaches at that credential level.

Choose your specialization

Participants select one primary pathway:

• ACC Mentor Coach 
• PCC Mentor Coach 
• MCC Mentor Coach 

Your practical work, mentoring projects and portfolio are aligned with your chosen pathway. If you later wish to qualify in another pathway, you build on the shared foundation rather than repeating the entire program.

Learn by mentoring real coaches

Learning does not stop when the live training ends. Throughout the program you will work with real mentor coaching clients.

You will:

• review coaching recordings 
• conduct mentor coaching sessions 
• provide developmental feedback 
• complete written observation reports 
• prepare competency reviews 
• reflect on your own mentor coaching 
• receive mentoring-on-mentoring 
• build a professional readiness portfolio 

This ensures that learning is grounded in authentic practice rather than classroom simulation alone.

What you will learn

During the program you will develop the ability to:

Understand the mentor coach role

• distinguish mentor coaching from coaching, supervision, consulting, training and assessment 
• establish ethical mentor coaching agreements 
• create psychologically safe developmental relationships 

Observe coaching objectively

• recognize coaching evidence rather than personal preference 
• distinguish evidence from interpretation 
• manage personal bias 
• calibrate coaching across credential levels 

Facilitate developmental learning

• conduct mentor coaching conversations 
• ask reflective developmental questions 
• help coaches identify recurring patterns 
• support sustainable professional growth 

Provide evidence-based feedback

• communicate strengths clearly 
• identify developmental opportunities 
• connect observations with ICF standards 
• provide feedback that supports learning rather than judgment 

Mentor coaches across credential levels

Develop a sophisticated understanding of coaching development from:

• ACC 
• PCC 
• MCC 

and adapt your mentor coaching appropriately for each stage.

Facilitate group mentor coaching

Learn how to:

• manage group dynamics 
• create psychological safety 
• facilitate peer learning 
• balance participation 
• protect confidentiality 
• maintain developmental rather than evaluative conversations 

Our learning philosophy

We believe mentor coaches develop in the same way coaches do:

• not by memorizing standards,
• but by learning to observe more accurately,
• reflect more deeply,
• hold complexity more comfortably,
• and support development more skilfully.

For this reason, the program combines knowledge, deliberate practice, reflection, observation, feedback and real-life application throughout the entire learning journey.

Why learn with L-CON?

At L-CON, we believe mentor coaching is one of the most important investments a coach can make—not simply to achieve a credential, but to become a more discerning practitioner and to contribute to the quality of the coaching profession.

Our approach integrates rigorous professional standards with adult development, reflective practice, and evidence-based learning. Rather than teaching participants to “tick markers,” we help them understand the developmental logic behind coaching competence and cultivate the judgment required to support coaches with fairness, clarity, and integrity.

The program is built on extensive international experience in coach education, mentor coaching, coaching assessment, and leadership development, and reflects the latest evolution of ICF mentor coaching standards while preparing participants for the realities of contemporary professional practice.