JANUARY 19, 2026

How do you choose well?

Hi there,

How was your weekend? Mine included something many of you know well. Saturday morning, I took the ICF PCC credentialing exam.

For those of you who’ve been through it, you know it’s designed to evaluate how you think in nuance and how effectively you apply the core competencies and ethics in real-world coaching scenarios. What choices do you make when there’s not a clear-cut “best” and “worst”?

Well… it depends. And that’s life, isn’t it? Rarely are things not nuanced.

What I found most helpful in approaching the exam scenarios, and what I want to share for you to try out in your day-to-day, is the practice of thinking on a continuum. Visualize a continuum of least to most effectiveness and stack-rank your choices based on the goals you’re trying to achieve or what’s valued in the situation. Based on the defined success criteria, what’s the least effective option? What’s the most effective option?

When we think on a continuum, we start to see the nuance more clearly.

What’s going to move you forward?
What might push you backward?
What’s going to spin you around in a circle or kick the proverbial can down the road?

Thinking on a continuum is not a novel concept, but it’s often underutilized. It takes us off autopilot so we can check in with our decision-making and how effectively we’re choosing based on what we’re trying to achieve and what we value most.

Keeping in mind, this only works well when we’ve defined clear success criteria (in the case of the exam, it was the ICF core competencies and coaching ethics). In coaching and our work projects, we ask: What does success look like? How will we know we’ve achieved it? Success criteria are a must. Otherwise, we wind up with noise and congestion instead of clarity.

I’m excited to hear what you notice.

Alright, let's get to it...hope you have a great week.

Mallory

P.S. I passed the exam! I’m very proud to have achieved the ICF PCC credential, and even more proud that I did none of it alone. The training hours, client hours, supervision, and peer coaching—every bit has been partnered and co-created (including with many of you!). And that’s what makes it such a meaningful milestone.