When you submit your recordings for a PCC credential, an assessor does not score them on vibes. They listen for specific, observable behaviors called the PCC Markers — the International Coaching Federation's published behavioral indicators, organized under the Core Competencies. Understanding what the markers are pointing at is the difference between "I think that was a good session" and knowing why it was, or wasn't.
A note before we start: ICF's exact marker wording is copyrighted, and you should read the official list on the ICF website. What follows is a plain-language paraphrase of what each competency group sounds like at PCC level, with examples of strong and weak moments — not a reproduction of the markers themselves.
What the PCC Markers are (and aren't)
The markers are evidence. For each relevant Core Competency, they describe concrete things an assessor can hear in the recording that show the competency was demonstrated. They are not a script to perform and not a checklist to rush through — a session that mechanically hits surface behaviors while missing the client usually scores poorly. The markers exist so assessment is consistent and behavior-based rather than a matter of taste.
By competency group
Establishing and maintaining the agreement
Assessors listen for you partnering with the client to define what they want from this session, why it matters, and what success looks like — then revisiting it as the conversation develops.
- •Strong: "What would make this hour worth it for you?" followed, later, by "We said you'd know this worked if you felt clearer — where are you now?"
- •Weak: diving into the client's story with no contracted outcome, so the session has nothing to measure against.
Trust, safety, and presence
Markers here point at a client who feels free to think out loud, and a coach who is responsive, comfortable with silence, and working with what the client brings rather than a pre-planned agenda.
- •Strong: letting a pause sit while the client works something out; acknowledging an emotion without rushing past it.
- •Weak: filling every silence, interrupting, or steering the client back to the topic you find interesting.
Active listening
Assessors want to hear that your questions and reflections clearly build on what the client just said — including tone, emotion, and what went unspoken — not on a mental list of good coaching questions.
- •Strong: "You said ‘supposed to’ twice — whose expectation is that?" — a reflection that could only come from listening.
- •Weak: a strong question that ignores what the client just revealed, because you were planning it while they spoke.
Evoking awareness
This is the heart of PCC-level coaching: helping the client see something new through open, uncomplicated questions, reflection, or a shared observation — and creating a real shift rather than confirming what they already knew.
- •Strong: a short, open question that makes the client pause and say "huh — I hadn't thought of it that way."
- •Weak: long, multi-part questions; or advice disguised as a question ("Have you considered just...?").
Facilitating client growth
Markers look for the client converting awareness into their own learning and action, designing next steps and accountability, with ownership staying firmly with them — and a clean close.
- •Strong: "So what do you want to do with this?" and the client names the steps themselves.
- •Weak: you summarizing the insights and handing the client an action plan you built.
The pattern across all of them
Read those examples back to back and a theme emerges: strong markers keep the client in the driver's seat, weak ones quietly move you into it. Most failed PCC recordings are not failures of warmth or rapport — they are recordings where the coach worked too hard, talked too much, and took ownership of the thinking. The markers are simply a precise way of naming that.
Do you have to hit every marker?
A natural question is whether you must demonstrate every single marker to pass. ICF sets how the markers combine into a passing standard at PCC level, and those rules are best read directly from the source rather than paraphrased. The safe takeaway for your preparation: consistency across the competencies matters more than nailing any one marker. A recording that demonstrates the competencies steadily throughout will fare better than one with a few standout moments surrounded by long stretches of advice-giving.
Use the markers as a lens, not a script
The biggest mistake students make with the markers is performing them — mechanically asking a contracting question, then a feelings question, then a "what's your action" question, as if ticking boxes. Assessors hear that immediately, and it usually scores worse than a natural session, because performing markers pulls you out of presence and away from the client.
Treat the markers as a lens for reviewing your sessions afterward, not a checklist to run during them. The goal is coaching that demonstrates the behaviors because it is genuinely good coaching — not coaching contorted to display them.
Hearing the markers in your own sessions
The hard part is that these behaviors are invisible to you in the moment. You cannot feel your own talk-time creeping up or notice that your last three questions were really suggestions. That is why structured review matters. Coala analyzes your recording against the ICF Core Competencies and surfaces the concrete signals the markers care about — open versus closed questions, talk-time balance, advice-giving, presence cues — so you can hear where a session is strong and where it slips.
Coala paraphrases and aligns to the competencies; it is a preparation tool, not an official ICF assessment, and it does not replace mentor coaching or reading ICF's own marker text. To put this into practice on a real recording, see our checklist for the ICF performance evaluation, or learn how Coala works.