ICF Advanced Certification in Team Coaching (ACTC): A Valuable Next Step for Experienced Coaches
What happens when a group of highly capable executives struggles to work effectively as a team? Individual leadership coaching can help, but sometimes the most important opportunity for improvement is how the team works together.
Team coaching is a growing specialization that helps teams strengthen relationships, improve communication, and achieve shared goals. For executive coaches, it offers an opportunity to expand their services and make a broader organizational impact.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) now offers the Advanced Certification in Team Coaching (ACTC), providing professional recognition for coaches who develop specialized expertise in this area.
What is Team Coaching, and how does it work?
Team coaching is a process in which a professional coach partners with a team to improve its collective effectiveness, relationships, and performance.
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Unlike individual coaching, where the focus is one person, team coaching addresses the team as a whole. The coach helps members recognize how they communicate, make decisions, manage disagreements, and work toward shared goals.
How is Team Coaching different from team building or facilitation?
Team building generally focuses on improving relationships, often through relatively short activities. Facilitation helps a group conduct productive meetings or reach decisions.
Team coaching goes further. It helps members understand and improve their ongoing patterns of interaction.
For example, a leadership team may consistently avoid discussing disagreements. A team coach might help members explore why this happens, how it affects decisions, and what they want to do differently.
The objectives often include helping the team to strengthen the their ability to handle future challenges independently.
Why is Team Coaching becoming more important?
Recent research demonstrates the importance of effective teamwork.
McKinsey reports that organizations whose top teams work together toward a shared vision are approximately 1.9 times more likely to achieve above-median financial performance. Although this does not establish that team coaching itself produces those results, it demonstrates the importance of the organizational conditions team coaching seeks to improve.
Meanwhile, the 2025 ICF Global Coaching Study identified approximately 123,000 professional coaches worldwide, with annual coaching revenue reaching $5.34 billion.
These figures reflect the growth of coaching generally, while organizations' increasing reliance on collaboration creates promising opportunities for specialized team coaches.
What problems can Team Coaching help solve?
- Improving communication, trust, and psychological safety
- Strengthening accountability and decision-making
- Resolving persistent conflict between team members
- Improving collaboration across organizational departments
- Helping newly formed leadership teams become effective
- Supporting teams through mergers, restructuring, and organizational change
For executive coaches already working with organizational leaders, team coaching offers a logical extension of their services.
What is the ICF Advanced Certification in Team Coaching (ACTC)?
The ICF Advanced Certification in Team Coaching (ACTC) recognizes professional coaches who have completed specialized team coaching education, demonstrated practical experience, and passed an ICF certification examination.
The ACTC complements the ICF's ACC, PCC, and MCC credentials rather than replacing them.
The ICF developed specific team coaching competencies because working effectively with teams requires additional knowledge and skills beyond individual coaching.
What are the requirements for ACTC certification?
- ICF credential: Hold an active ACC, PCC, or MCC credential in good standing
- Education: Complete at least 60 hours of qualifying team coaching education
- Experience: Complete five team coaching engagements within the preceding five years
- Supervision: Complete five hours of qualifying coaching supervision
- Examination: Pass the ICF Team Coaching Certification Exam
Applicants who graduate from an ICF Advanced Accredited Team Coaching (AATC) program use a streamlined application pathway because their education and required supervision are included in the accredited program.
Coaches must still document their qualifying team coaching experience and pass the examination. ICF also offers alternative pathways for experienced practitioners.
Why is Team Coaching a good specialization for experienced coaches?
Experienced executive coaches already possess many foundational skills needed for team coaching, including active listening, coaching presence, powerful questioning, emotional intelligence, and supporting accountability.
However, coaching an entire team adds complexity. The coach must recognize group dynamics, remain neutral when disagreements arise, understand organizational systems, and help team members develop their collective capabilities.
How can Team Coaching expand your executive coaching practice?
Consider an executive coaching client who has made substantial progress personally but whose leadership team continues to struggle with accountability or collaboration.
Rather than simply coaching individual team members, you may have an opportunity to help the entire team work more effectively.
Team coaching also allows coaches to develop relationships with additional organizational stakeholders and participate in more comprehensive leadership development engagements.
For these reasons, specialized education is worthwhile even for highly experienced executive coaches.
How do you choose an ICF-accredited Team Coaching training program?
When evaluating team coaching certification programs, I suggest considering the faculty's practical experience, the underlying team coaching methodologies, opportunities for observed practice, and whether the program provides the education and supervision required for ACTC certification.
College of Executive Coaching's ICF-accredited Team Coaching Program
One option is College of Executive Coaching's Team Coaching Certification.
College of Executive Coaching offers a 60-hour ICF-accredited team coaching program, organized into a 40-hour Professional Team Coach Certification and a 20-hour Advanced Team Coach Certification.
The curriculum emphasizes practical application, including team assessments, coaching agreements, managing conflict, stakeholder relationships, psychological safety, and team effectiveness.
The program integrates the team coaching framework, ICF team coaching philosophy, positive psychology, Appreciative Inquiry, observed coaching practice, feedback, and coaching supervision. Participants learn to apply these approaches to actual organizational situations.
Experienced Team Coaching Faculty
CEC's multidisciplinary faculty includes:
- Susan Douglas, Ph.D., PCC, ACTC, a Vanderbilt University professor, professional coach, and certified team coach with expertise in coaching supervision
- Relly Nadler, Psy.D., MCC, a psychologist, Master Certified Coach, and author specializing in emotional intelligence and executive leadership
- Patricia Rachel Schwartz, M.A., MCC, a Master Certified Coach and certified team coach with over 23 years of executive coaching experience
- Rashad Nelms, J.D., ACC, a leader with global organizational and team coaching experience and perspectives
This combination of advanced coaching credentials, psychological knowledge, and organizational experience is particularly valuable in preparing coaches to work with complex leadership teams.
Frequently Asked Questions About Team Coaching Certification
Do I need an ICF credential before starting Team Coaching training?
No. You can begin training without an ICF credential, but you must hold an active ACC, PCC, or MCC credential to receive the ACTC.
Does completing an accredited 60-hour program automatically earn the ACTC?
No. You must also meet ICF's team coaching experience requirements and pass its Team Coaching Certification Exam.
Is Team Coaching a Good Career Opportunity for Executive Coaches?
Team coaching can be a valuable specialization, particularly for coaches who already work with organizational leaders. It allows coaches to address broader organizational challenges and develop additional services for existing and prospective clients.
Is Team Coaching the right next step for you?
Team coaching provides experienced coaches an opportunity to build on their existing skills while learning to work with the more complex dynamics of teams.
The ICF ACTC establishes a professional standard for this specialization, while accredited education programs provide the foundation for developing the necessary competencies.
If you enjoy working with leaders, understanding organizational behavior, and helping people work more effectively together, advanced team coaching may be an excellent next step in your professional development.
Learn more about the Team Coaching Certification.
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About the Author
Jeffrey E. Auerbach, Ph.D., MCC, NBC-HWC, is a psychologist, executive coach, author, and President and Founder of the College of Executive Coaching. He is a former Vice President of the International Coaching Federation and has been involved in professional coaching and coach education for more than three decades.
