Beyond the toolkit: why experienced coaches need CPD that works on them, not just their skills

For experienced coaches, the journey doesn’t end with models, credentials or frameworks. It deepens. And the most impactful CPD isn’t about adding more tools to your belt – it’s about stepping into your own humanity and evolving who you are as a coach.

Many coaches reach a point where technique alone is no longer enough. The conversations may be competent, but not courageous. Skilled, but not transformational. That’s when it’s time to seek development that challenges you to show up with more ease, more presence, and more of you in the coaching space.

As Claire Pedrick and Lucia Baldelli write in The Human Behind the Coach: “The journey to becoming a better coach does not begin with reading a book or going on another course. It begins with you.”

From doing the coaching to being the coach

Professional bodies may talk about coaching presence, but embodying it is something else. It’s not just about what you know – it’s about how you listen, how you hold space, how you let go of needing to fix. And that’s not something a checklist or CPD points can teach.

As Pedrick and Baldelli succinctly put it: “Artful coaching is about being more human in moving from thinking about skillset and toolset to life-set and mindset.”

The right development at this stage in your coaching maturity won’t just refresh your techniques. It will support you in coaching the whole client – not just their goals, but the context they’re navigating, the system they’re a part of, and the human behind their own performance.

It will ask you to look inward too:

• Are you present?
• Are you holding space or filling it?
• Are you coaching from who you truly are?

Rehumanising the coaching conversation

As the coaching profession grows, so does the risk of becoming formulaic. More tools, more frameworks, more jargon. But depth isn’t created by process – it’s created in relationship.

As David Clutterbuck cautions in his foreword of The Human Behind the Coach: “…when processes and models become substitutes for presence and being, they lead to sterile, predictable conversations.”

Experienced coaches who want to keep growing are beginning to ask different questions. Not “What more do I need to know?” – but “How do I need to shift?”

John Leary-Joyce explores this in The Fertile Void: “Defined in the everyday sense, Presence is the ability to communicate with confidence, authority and an element of charisma; in business often spoken of as ‘gravitas’. This presentational style is utilised by politicians, media professionals, business leaders, trainers, presenters and celebrities to make an impact.”

He goes on to highlight the deeper power of signature presence: “Signature Presence, however, is much more an expression of yourself; it is a genuine communication of who you authentically are in relation to the other. It would be about creating a rich dialogue rather than an impressive presentation. We would say that the actress Marilyn Monroe had Presence, but Nelson Mandela had Signature Presence.”

As Claire Pedrick and Lucia Baldelli remind us: “If you are going to deepen the work that you will co-create in coaching conversations, there’s a point where you will need to address your own shift.”

The most meaningful CPD creates space for that kind of inquiry. It helps you return to your own centre as a practitioner. And instead of performing “coach,” you start simply being one – with more humility, trust, and openness to what might emerge.

What to look for in development at this level

If you’re considering next-level CPD, look beyond the syllabus. Seek out experiences that:

• Hold space for your own growth as a human being
• Prioritise presence over performance
• Invite you to coach the whole person in their wider context
• Offer real-time feedback in a safe, developmental container
• Encourage you to explore what gets in your way – not just what’s in your toolkit

As Claire Pedrick and Lucia Baldelli encourage: “Ask yourself not just “What will I learn?”, but “Who will I become by doing this?”

A call to the human behind the coach

Pedrick and Baldelli raise an important challenge: “Are we human or are we coach? Is our industry raising a generation of coaches who are afraid to take one step out of line?”

At some point, every coach must decide whether they want to go deeper or simply go broader. The deepest work in coaching doesn’t lie in clever questions or sharper contracting. It lies in our capacity to hold space, to stay curious in discomfort, and to bring our full human selves into the room.

If you’re ready for development that sees you as more than a set of competencies, trust that instinct. The best CPD doesn’t just sharpen what you do. It draws out who you are – and that’s where coaching gets truly powerful.