In this instructional video, Susan Britton MCC and Jessica Burdett walk through ICF Situational Judgment Exam sample questions for PCC and MCC candidates. They begin by introducing the purpose of the session—helping coaches understand how to approach the new ICF credentialing exam—then present two sample scenarios. For each, they read the situation, list the four answer options, and discuss which is best and which is worst, grounding their reasoning in ICF Core Values (professionalism, collaboration, humanity, equity) and specific ICF competencies (e.g., Cultivating Trust and Safety, Maintaining Presence, Embodying a Coaching Mindset, Managing Coach Emotions). They demonstrate a test‑taking strategy that involves eliminating clearly incorrect answers, using gut instinct, flagging uncertain items, and avoiding second‑guessing. Throughout, they emphasize transparency, ethical conflict‑of‑interest disclosure, client responsibility, and the coach’s self‑management. The video concludes with a reminder that the walkthrough is a learning exercise and encourages viewers to comment with questions.
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Greetings everyone, Susan Britton, founder and president of the Academies for Neuroscience Coaching, and I am here today with Jessica Burdett. Jessica, I will invite you to introduce yourself as well.
Hello everyone, I'm the Director of Coaching Education for the Academies, and we are excited to be here today to share with you our walkthrough and commentary on the ICF Credentialing Exam sample questions that are on the ICF website. We'll link those below, so no stress if you're not sure how to find them, you can find those in the description of the video.
And we've had a lot of questions from people who are getting their credential and then having to take the ICF, the new ICF Situational Judgment Credentialing Exam, and so we wanted to walk through those and give you some ideas about how we would navigate them. I took the test myself recently when I was doing my MCC credential. Jessica's Gonna get to do that one of these days.
Uh, yeah, I've not gotten to yet, but I have talked with most of our alumni who have taken it, and I love to stay up to date on all the current news on how people's experiences with it are going.
And she has great ideas about how to prepare for tests and test-taking strategies, so you'll benefit from her wisdom in that regard as well. So All right, I'm going to share my screen. We have taken the sample questions that are on the ICF website and just plopped them into a Google Doc for us to be able to work with a little more easily here. And so Jessica, would you like to take the first question?
Yes. So I'm going to go ahead and read the scenario for us and you can follow along. A coach is meeting with a prospective client who is growing a new business. The coach and potential client quickly establish an easy connection. The coach is excited about the opportunity to work with the client, and the coach and client are ending their— as the coach and client are ending their conversation, the prospective client briefly mentions the name of their new business. The coach recognizes the business as the coach is an investor in a more established competitor business in the same community. What should the coach do? So initial reactions to this before I even read the possible actions are this sounds like an ethics question, and so being able to have the ICF Core Values in mind that the Code of Ethics is based on is going to be valuable and some understanding of the ethics as well. Susan, would you like to read the actions and tell us which you think is best?
Absolutely. And so we are reading information that's on the screen because I know there are some people that might just be listening and not be able to look at them as well, but for the benefit of all, so the best Action, as I'm reading through, the first item is not say anything, try to keep their role as an investor in a competing business separate from the role as coach. Share that the business name sounds familiar is the second one and make a mental note to determine whether it is a competitor business later that evening. Third item, share their role as investor in the competitor business only If the potential client follows up to pursue coaching with the coach. And then the fourth option, share their role as an investor in a competing business and acknowledge the possibility of a conflict of interest with the client. So best actions, if I'm thinking through that, I'm looking for the qualities of a coach, the values of coaching, and I'm thinking transparency, in-the-moment communication, some of those things are going to be the most important. So not saying anything feels like a really not great way to have a conversation with someone. Making a mental— the second item, making a mental note to determine that the competitor business, you know, looking into it a little bit later. Again, it's not in the moment. You're not really responding to your gut at that time. Um, so that just feels a little bit off for me. The third one I don't love as the best because it says only if the potential client follows up to pursue coaching, and that could have some ramifications down the road if the client came back a little bit later or found out more about the coach's involvement and had already known that they'd talked about that. And then the fourth item, share their role as an investor in a competing business and acknowledge the possibility of a conflict of interest. To me, that feels the most open, transparent, honest, curious, and it keeps the coach in that role of partner with the client. So that's the one that is calling me the most for best.
I would agree with you, and just noting that the 4 core values of the ICF that the Code of Ethics are based on is professionalism, collaboration, humanity, and equity. So this feels like something that taps collaboration, equity, professionalism. So that fourth one feels best. And I love what you did, Susan, there going through and saying, I don't think that one, I don't think that one, I don't think that one, this one seems right. Being able to roll things out is so helpful because You will not get negative points for answering a question incorrectly, but you won't get points if you don't answer it. So we want to answer all of these. And in terms of worst, for this one, I'm going to say of those 3 that we don't think are the best, that I think the worst does not say anything because you're not collaborating in the moment. You're not being transparent.
And, um, it— you talked about ruling things out. I think that's an important strategy in, in the test-taking as well, because the way it's set up is that you have these 4 answers and you slide one of your answers over to what's best, the way the, the software is actually set up during the test. And once that's over there, it helps your mind to be able to kind of, okay, I've ruled this one out, Actually, it's the best. Now I only have 3 to work with as opposed to 4 to work with in choosing the next answer. So.
Yeah, and another important thing is once you've got those narrowed down options, go with your gut. And when you've chosen something, trust it. Like if you're really not sure, I would recommend just choosing something and then flagging the question to come back to. But when you come back to it, if you don't have a good reason to switch it, don't change it because the research has shown that when we are taking exams and we come back and second-guess things, rarely do we choose a better option than the first one we chose. Yep. All right. Should we fill in the answers, Susan?
Sure. All right. So you've got the answers.
Yes. So the best action is 4. And the worst action is 1. If you're watching this and you have a different perspective or question as to why, um, that we haven't addressed here, please leave it in the comments. We'd love to continue the conversation.
Absolutely. And I will say I've been through these questions more than once. It's been a couple of months now. and I did not get all of the right answers when I first went through them. So, and I didn't get 100% on the actual Situational Judgment Exam. So, um, it's a good learning exercise. So let's go to our second question. We're ready for that.
Yes. All right. You wanna read the scenario this time, Susan?
Mm-hmm. So a client struggles with delegating tasks at work to other team members. During the last coaching session, the client shared that an important project they are leading is falling behind schedule, and the coach supported the client in identifying strategies to delegate tasks to other team members. At the next session, the client reports back and says, "In the end, I decided to complete all the tasks myself. That was the only way to get them done on time." The coach feels disappointment that the client did not follow through on their plans to delegate. What should the coach do?
All right, so our options here in terms of actions are immediately reflect back on their last session with the client and identify what they could have done differently to support the client in following through on their plans. Second, take a breath and acknowledge that the client is responsible for their own choice of whether to follow through with their stated plans or not. Thirdly, set aside their disappointment for now and focus on the current session with the client. Decide to reflect on this situation during an upcoming session with their mentor coach. And fourth, praise the client for meeting the project deadlines, but ask why the client failed to support their team members' development. So with this one, and I'll share how I would approach this, my strategy when I'm taking a multiple choice exam is to, as I go through, see if something immediately pops out to me as best or worst. Where I'm going immediately is that it seems like the worst option here is this last one: to praise the client for meeting the project deadlines but ask why the client failed to support their team members' development. Because there's two things happening there: the coach is praising the client and asking this question of why the client failed to support the team members' development. That sounds pretty judgmental and Assumptive. Um, so this feels like a question that taps ICF Competency 4 and 5, Cultivates Trust and Safety and Maintains Presence. Um, maybe also some of Competency 2, Embodies a Coaching Mindset, with allowing the client to take responsibility. So that's where I would go for worst. And then I've narrowed down 3 options to choose from for best. Would you agree, Susan, or go somewhere different for worst?
Uh, I think that is absolutely the worst. That— I think that's probably a clear example of clearly the worst. So I agree.
Okay. Where are you going for best?
So for best, this one I had a couple of thoughts. I liked take a breath and acknowledge the client is responsible for their own choice and whether to follow through with their stated plans or not, because you did mention several competencies that that could relate to. And there is something in Embodies a Coaching Mindset that actually says, acknowledges that clients are responsible for their own choices. So that's nicely aligned with that, that second one. So I'm thinking that could be best. The other one that drew me a little bit is set aside their disappointment for now and focus on the current session with the client. Decide to reflect on this situation during an upcoming session with their mentor coach. That's plausible, right? That could be it. Yeah.
It's certainly a good action. To take as a coach. So I think one of the tricky things here is we get to a point where we're choosing between multiple options that could be valuable. So if you're not sure, I would say go with the one that seems best to you, and, um, that is the best we can do in the moment. For this one, I would also lean towards the second, take a breath and acknowledge that the client's responsible. Because it's an in-the-moment action that focuses it back towards client-centeredness, whereas that third one is more focused on the coach and their emotion that they're experiencing.
Right, that's an important point. And I think that is the piece that's going to slip it over for me to say the best is the second one. If I'm talking about my disappointment, now I've made it about me, as you said.
Yeah, and that gets back to Competency 5, where we've got the sub-competency around managing the coach's own emotions so that they don't impact the client.
And being fully responsive to the client. So, yeah, I think that leans me more towards number 2. Yeah, you've got the answer key.
Yes. So best action here is number 2, take a breath. And worst here is number 4. Praise the client and ask them why they failed to support the team member's development. And again, if you have a different response or a question around it, feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.
