Standards
Who we certify, and who we don’t.
A credential is only worth what it refuses. These are the checks every applicant goes through, published so that a client hiring one of our practitioners can see exactly what the badge means.
Admission criteria
Sign in with LinkedIn. We check that a real, established professional profile sits behind the application — name, current role and history. Anonymous applications are not accepted.
Leading, managing, advising or developing people. It does not have to be coaching experience — most of our practitioners come from HR, L&D or senior line management. We set the bar here because you cannot credibly coach someone through a room you have never sat in.
One of three routes. Hold an ACC, PCC or MCC — you skip the readiness screen entirely, verified against the ICF registry. Completed formal coach training (60+ hours with any recognised provider) but never credentialed — tell us the programme, and take the free screen; your training will show. Neither — the free readiness screen alone is a valid route.
Read and accept the practitioner code below. It is short, specific, and we enforce it.
Declare any upheld finding of professional misconduct, or any coaching or HR body that has sanctioned you. A declaration is not automatically disqualifying — concealing one is.
After enrolment: run three real assessments and submit a written debrief. Reviewed against a rubric. This is where certification is actually earned.
Why we insist on LinkedIn
Certification bodies fail in one of two ways: they certify anyone who pays, or nobody can check who they certified. Requiring a verified LinkedIn identity fixes both. Every practitioner in our directory links to a real professional profile you can click through and judge for yourself. We do not post anything to LinkedIn, and we read only your name, headline and profile URL.
Practitioner code of ethics
Version 1.0 · accepted by every practitioner at application
- 1Confidentiality is the client's, not the payer's
When an employer sponsors the coaching, the employer does not acquire rights to session content. You share only what the client agrees to share, and you tell the sponsor that boundary exists before the engagement starts.
- 2Consent before disclosure, every time
You never show a client's report to a third party — employer, colleague or another coach — without that client's explicit, specific permission. The platform enforces this; you must not work around it.
- 3Stay inside coaching
You do not diagnose, treat or advise on mental health, legal or medical matters. When something belongs to a therapist, a doctor or a lawyer, you say so and help them get there.
- 4No dual relationships that compromise the work
You do not take paid coaching engagements with people whose relationship to you undermines confidentiality, challenge or neutrality — direct reports, close friends, family.
- 5Represent the credential accurately
You describe this as a LightningCoach practitioner certification in our methodology. You never present it as an ICF accreditation, a psychological qualification, or a licence to practise therapy.
- 6The instrument is a conversation-starter, not a verdict
You do not use an imprint to make hiring, firing, promotion or pay decisions about a person, and you push back when a client organisation asks you to.
- 7Escalate harm
If a client discloses harassment, abuse or risk to themselves or others, you take it seriously, make sure they know their options, and leave the choice with them unless there is immediate danger.
How we enforce it
- ·Consent is enforced in software, not policy. A practitioner cannot see a client's report unless the client granted it. There is no override, including for us.
- ·Anyone can report a practitioner. Complaints go to admin@lightningcoach.com and are reviewed by a human. We will tell you what we found.
- ·Certification can be revoked. An upheld breach removes the credential and the directory listing, and the verification page will say so.
- ·Annual re-attestation. Practitioners re-sign the code each year. Lapse it and the listing goes dormant.
Nobody regulates coaching certification. We act as if someone did.
There is no government licence for coach certification in India or the United States — every body in this industry, including the largest, is private and self-governed. Most treat that as permission to promise anything. We treat it as the reason to hold a visibly higher line, because the only regulator this credential answers to is your ability to check our claims.
Who we certify and who we refuse, in public, before you pay.
Signed at application, re-attested annually, enforced in software where possible.
Every credential verifiable by anyone at /verify — and a revoked one says revoked, not 'not found'.
Identity, experience and professional standing, checked by a person.
Anyone can report a practitioner, and we tell you what we found.
External validation we are pursuing
So our modules count toward ICF coaches' renewal hours — external currency for the credential.
Test-retest reliability and criterion validity with an academic partner, published openly.
The international standard for bodies certifying people. A multi-year ambition, stated so you can hold us to it.
Status labels are accurate as of today. None of these is claimed until it is granted — the same rule we apply to our patent and trademark.