International Prism Award: the epitome of coaching excellence

More and more organizations are utilizing coaching as a leadership strategy and experiencing great results. The ICF wants to reward these organizations! Since 2005, 14 organizations have been honored with an ICF International Prism Award. The award has become an epitome of coaching excellence for companies using professional coaching to achieve impressive returns on investment/expectations. 

If you know of an organization successfully and effectively using coaching—nominate them! Nominations will be accepted through July 20 through the online application form. Selection criteria for the award are centered around effectiveness; impact; strategic significance; and ROI/ROE.

Learn more:

ICF International Prism Award nomination eligibility criteria and application questions.
See past ICF International Prism Award winners.
Peruse case studies of past winners.
Access the online application.

2011 ICF Award Overview

The ICF annually awards individual members, chapters and organizations that have demonstrated remarkable commitment to advancing the art, science and practice of professional coaching in their community and beyond. These awards, embodied by the ICF President’s Award, ICF Chapter Awards, and International Prism Awards, are presented each year during the Annual International Conference.
This year, these awards were presented in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA during two special ceremonies.

During the Appreciation and Recognition Luncheon for ICF leadership on September 24, six chapters were recognized in two awards categories for their local marketing and community outreach efforts. The recipients of the 2011 ICF Chapter Awards were:

Chapter Award winners. Not pictured: ICF Spain.

Local Spirit, Global Presence—Community Activism Award

• Heartland Coaches Association—Greater Kansas City: for its partnership with the Heartland Habitat for Humanity (HHFH), a local nonprofit group, to provide professional coaching services to the HHFH team.
• ICF Gauteng Chapter: for implementing its Coaching Caravan, which enabled the South African coaching community to offer free coaching, training and facilitation skills/services to individuals and community groups who would not normally have the opportunity to experience and benefit from these services.
• ICF Metro DC: for its aggressive community outreach agenda which included partnerships with: Leadership Arlington (LA), Capital Youth Empowerment Program (CYEP), and Homeward Deployed.

Finding our Voice—Marketing/PR Award

• ICF Uruguay: for organizing the first International Coaching Workshop (which drew over 100 participants), and for creating the first local association (AUCOP)—all during their first year as an ICF Chapter.
• ICF Brazil: for the successful implementation of a cross channel advertising campaign, as well as the creation of a local website to facilitate the call for services and advertising of the ICF brand.
• ICF Spain: for organizing the eighth ICF European Coaching Conference held in Madrid, Spain in 2011—an event attended by more than 450 participants from 29 countries.

During the Annual Business Meeting on September 26, two individuals were honored with the ICF President’s Award: Peter Goryalov and Irina Goryalova of Bulgaria.

2011 ICF President Ed Modell, PCC, selected Peter and Irina, a married couple, for the great contributions they have made in the name of coaching over the last several years. They formed the first coaching company in Bulgaria in 2006 and subsequently founded the ICF Bulgaria Chapter.


Peter Goryalov and Irina Goryalova

In the year since the chapter opened for business, membership has increased to 22 (including seven coaches trained through ICF approved coach training programs and two who hold an ICF Associate Certified Coach credential) and they have begun providing a series of masterclasses using the most modern video conferencing technology to bring top notch speakers “into” Bulgaria.

Also during the Annual Business Meeting, the ICF awarded two organizations with the International Prism Award. ICF has been issuing the international award since 2005 as a way to recognize those organizations that have enhanced excellence and business achievement through their commitment to coaching as a leadership strategy. The 2011 award winners are BC Housing and JOEY RESTAURANT GROUOP, both of Canada.

BC Housing
In 2007, BC Housing partnered with MICA (now Knightsbridge) to create its Leadership Development Program in an effort to develop its leadership talent and create a coaching for performance culture as part of its overall people strategy.

The initiative was first introduced at the executive level and was launched with senior level leader participation. Following a successful pilot, the program was expanded to include all leaders throughout the organization.

BC Housing’s commitment to coaching has helped transform the culture internally by closing the leadership gap, increasing the pool of competent leaders and creating a coaching culture. And overall, they have experienced better performance results.

It has been calculated that BC Housing has experienced a 70 percent return on investment!

BC Housing continues to invest in coaching and most recently launched ‘Coach2Coach’ for its senior leaders to deepen their coaching skills, broaden their leadership perspectives and build a community of practice.


On site to accept the award on behalf of BC Housing was Agnes Ross and Dian Patterson. And from Knightsbridge: Julie Jones, Senior Consultant of Leadership Solutions.

JOEY RESTAURANT GROUP Armed with the knowledge that coaching can benefit leadership in virtually any area of an organization, the JOEY RESTAURANT GROUP began its coaching initiative as the rest of the restaurant industry was faced with recession-related dilemmas.

The coaching initiative began with the strategic selection of the most senior leaders in the organization, essentially so they could be coached and be trained as internal coaches, all while running their restaurant regions! Since then, numerous coaching strategies and processes have been used with employees across the organization for leadership development, conflict management and personal growth.

In the last 30 months, they have experienced more than 30 percent revenue growth, reduced turnover and made the Top 100 employers list for the first time ever. Not only that, but JOEY calculates a 682 percent return on investment from their coaching initiative!

JOEY believes in coaching as a key development tool and an integral part of supporting growth at all levels in the organization—particularly so they will have an abundance of talent ready to step up to the next level of leadership when needed.

On site to accept the award on behalf of JOEY RESTAURANT GROUP was Andrew Martin and Al Jessa. And from Essential Impact: Marjorie Busse, MCC; Dave Busse, PCC; and Carollyne Conlinn, MCC.

Stay tuned: the videos from the 2011 award winners will be posted to the ICF channel on YouTube shortly. Learn more about ICF Awards at Coachfederation.org/awards.

Living it up in Las Vegas

Late last month, more than 1,000 coaching professionals, including 295 first timers, met in *fabulous* Las Vegas, Nevada, USA at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for the 2011 ICF Annual International Conference.

Audience during a general session

Before the conference even officially began, attendees were busy with the Global Leadership Forum (where the six Chapter Award winners were announced; congratulations to ICF Greater Kansas City Chapter—Heartland Coaches Association; ICF Gauteng Chapter; ICF Metro DC; ICF Uruguay; ICF Brazil; and ICF Spain!)* and the ICF Assessor’s Meeting.



2011 Chapter Award winners (not pictured: ICF Spain)

Once conference kicked off the evening of September 24, attendees from 43 countries played to the edge through 32 targeted breakout educational sessions (47 speakers from 39 countries facilitated)—including three world class keynote presentations provided by Michael Gelb, Sir Ken Robinson and Steve Farber.

Sir John Whitmore, September 26 keynote

Steve Farber, September 27 keynote

Tagged onto the September 26 general session was the Annual Business Meeting, led by ICF President Ed Modell, PCC. It was during this segment that the 2011 President’s and International Prism Awards were presented. Congratulations to Peter Goryalov and Irina Goryalova of Bulgaria (recipients of the 2011 President’s Award), and BC Housing and JOEY RESTAURANT GROUP (recipients of the International Prism Award)!*


Peter Goryalov and Irina Goryalova 



BC Housing and Knightsbridge representatives

JOEY RESTAURANT GROUP and Essential Impact representatives

In addition to educational offerings, attendees had the option to sift through the 48 exhibits in the exhibit hall, offering the latest tools and services to coaching professionals. [The ICF would like to offer a huge THANK YOU to all ICF Conference sponsors and exhibitors! Thanks for being a part of our 2011 conference!] And, of course, there were networking receptions each night to cap off each day.

The Exhibit Hall

The Opening Reception was especially popular. This event, led by opening keynote Michael Gelb, included a wine and chocolate tasting as well as a poetry writing contest. In fact, Michael took every submission back to his room that night and selected his top four poems—and gave out prizes at the conclusion of his keynote the next morning.


Michael Gelb (opening keynote presenter) at the Opening Reception

All in all, the event appears to have been an immense success! Were you in Las Vegas for the ICF Conference? We want to know what you thought! What was your biggest takeaway? Favorite feature

*Look for a more detailed post on all award winners coming next week to the ICF blog.

ICF award recognizes organizations that benefit from coaching

The 2010 Global Consumer Awareness Study found that professional coaching is being used to help people around the world improve work performance, expand career opportunities and increase self-esteem.

More than 42.6 percent of respondents who had experienced coaching chose “optimize individual and/or team performance” as their motivation for being coached. Other motivations to choose coaching included to “expand professional career opportunities” at 38.8 percent and to “improve business management strategies” at 36.1 percent.

And since 2005, the ICF has recognized 12 organizations that have used coaching as a leadership strategy and experienced a return on investment (ROI) and/or return on expectation (ROE) through the International Prism Award program.

Recipients of the International Prism Award have committed to coaching as a leadership strategy and have experienced enhanced excellence and business achievement. Winning organizations have been held to stringent eligibility criteria, standing apart from other applicants in terms of their effective use of coaching and documented ROI and/or ROE.

The award is open to any organization—of any size, from any industry, located in any part of the world. All it takes is the time to submit the nomination application. The deadline for 2011 nominations is coming quickly: Monday, July 11. If you plan to nominate an organization for this year’s International Prism Award, please email the completed application to icfpr@coachfederation.org.

YOUR organization could be the next International Prism Award recipient! Past winners of the ICF International Prism Award have included:

• 2010: Genentech and The TINE Group
• 2009: ibm.com and Solaglas Windowcare
• 2008: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and SYSCO Food Services of Canada
• 2007: NASA (APPEL 4-D Systems) and Deloitte and Touche
• 2006: University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and Verizon Business
• 2005: IBM and MCI

Download the application.

Be the next ICF award winner!

In the coming months, applications for the ICF International Prism Award and the ICF Chapter Awards will be due. Not sure if you are eligible to apply? Read on to learn more:


2010 Prism Recipients from the TINE Group


ICF International Prism Award: Do you know of an organization that is committed to coaching as a leadership strategy? Do you coach for a company that is using coaching to achieve real business results? Has your company experienced a return on investment from its unique coaching initiative? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should nominate that organization for an ICF International Prism Award.

The ICF is looking for coaching success stories to honor through this award program. Since 2005, ICF Headquarters has honored 12 diverse organizations for remarkable improvements in business directly related to coaching and coaching programs. No organization is too large or too small to win this prestigious award. You can download the Prism Award application here.

International Prism Award nominations are due at 5 p.m. on Monday, July 11.

ICF Chapter Award: Has your chapter established a coaching presence in your community? Has your chapter created a successful marketing/PR campaign in your community? If you answered yes to either of these questions, your chapter should be nominated!

The ICF Chapter Award is offered in two categories: the Local Spirit, Global Presence—Community Activism Award and the Finding our Voice—Marketing/PR Award. Three awards are presented in each category to small, medium and large chapters.

Tell us what your chapter is doing to promote the ICF and professional coaching in your community. Chapter leaders may nominate their own chapter or a fellow chapter for an ICF Chapter Award. You can download the ICF Chapter Award application here.

ICF Chapter Award nominations are due at 5 p.m. on Monday, August 1.

All 2011 award recipients will be honored at the ICF Annual International Conference this September in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.