First, the reassuring part: not passing the PCC performance evaluation on the first try is common, and it is fixable. It rarely means you are not a real coach. It almost always means a few specific, recurring habits showed up in the recording — habits that are easier to fix once you can name them. Below are the usual culprits, what each one sounds like, and how to address it.
(Quick reminder of what the evaluation is: for PCC, two recorded coaching sessions of roughly 20–60 minutes each, plus written transcripts, scored against the PCC Markers — ICF's published behavioral indicators, organized under the Core Competencies.)
1. Talking too much
What it sounds like: coach monologues, long reflections that become mini- lectures, summarizing the client back to themselves at length. The client's share of the conversation shrinks.
The fix: aim for the client doing most of the talking. After you ask something, stop. Resist the urge to add a second sentence that explains your question. Brevity from the coach creates room for depth from the client.
2. Advice-giving and drifting into consulting
What it sounds like: "What's worked for me is...", "Have you tried...?", or slipping into teaching mode about the client's industry. The coach becomes the source of answers.
The fix: trust the client's own resourcefulness. When you feel the pull to suggest, convert it into a genuine question: not "Have you tried delegating?" but "What options do you see?" Consulting and mentoring are valuable — they are just not what is being assessed here.
3. Leading and stacked questions
What it sounds like: "Don't you think it would help to...?" (leading), or three questions fired in one breath (stacked). Both quietly take control of the client's thinking.
The fix: ask one open question, then wait. If you catch yourself about to steer, pause and ask what the client sees instead. Our guide to open vs closed questions has a rewrite cheat sheet for exactly this.
4. Staying surface-level
What it sounds like: a session that covers the situation competently but never deepens — lots of what happened, little what it means. Awareness is never really evoked; the client leaves with information, not insight.
The fix: follow emotion and values, not just facts. When something lands, stay there a beat longer than feels comfortable. Reflect what you notice beneath the words and let the client go inward.
5. A weak or missing session agreement
What it sounds like: diving into the client's story without establishing what they want from this session, or how they will know it was worthwhile. With no measure of success, the session has nothing to coach toward.
The fix: early on, partner with the client to define the outcome and what success looks like — and revisit it as the session evolves. This is its own competency (Establishes and Maintains Agreements), and it anchors everything else.
6. Not partnering on direction
What it sounds like: the coach decides where the conversation goes, when to shift, and what matters — the client is a passenger. Even with good questions, the ownership sits in the wrong place.
The fix: hand the wheel back, often. "Where do you want to take this?", "What's most useful to focus on?" Partnering on direction is a hallmark of PCC-level coaching.
What PCC actually expects
Notice the thread running through all six: they are really one meta-issue. Many coaches who do not pass are coaching at an ACC level of partnership and depth when PCC expects more — more client ownership, more evoked awareness, less coach control. It is not that the coaching is bad; it is that the bar has moved up, and the recording shows the older habits. That is genuinely encouraging, because depth and partnership are learnable with focused practice.
Why this is good news
It is worth sitting with how encouraging this actually is. Every one of these culprits is a habit, not a talent you were born without. Talking less, asking one open question instead of three, contracting clearly, following emotion — these are all trainable, and most coaches improve them noticeably within a handful of focused sessions once they can see the pattern. A not-yet-pass is feedback on specific behaviors in one recording, not a ceiling on your ability. The coaches who pass on a later attempt are rarely more gifted; they have simply made the invisible habits visible and practiced the fix.
A pre-submission self-check
Before you submit, listen back to your candidate recording and ask:
- •Did the client talk more than I did?
- •Did I give advice, or stay in genuine inquiry?
- •Were my questions mostly open and singular — not leading or stacked?
- •Did we get beneath the facts to meaning?
- •Was there a clear agreement, and did I revisit it?
- •Did the client own the direction and the next steps?
Doing this honestly by ear is hard, because the habits are invisible to you in the moment. Coala analyzes your recording against the ICF Core Competencies and shows the concrete signals — talk-time, advice moments, open versus closed questions, where awareness was (or wasn't) evoked — so you can catch these patterns before you submit, and practice smarter, not just more.
Coala is a structured preparation tool, not an official ICF evaluation tool, and it does not replace mentor coaching; it is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Coaching Federation. For the full pre-submission workflow, see our ICF assessment preparation guide, and the resources for coaches on building the underlying habits.