ICF PCC Markers explained: what assessors listen for

This guide explains the markers in our own words. For each competency you get what an assessor listens for, what it sounds like in a session, and what coaches often miss. The clients in the examples are invented.

We don't list ICF's 37 sentences here. ICF's own document is short, and you should read it beside this guide. The link is under Sources at the end.

What the PCC Markers are

A competency is broad. "Listens Actively" could mean many things. A marker is narrow: one thing a coach does that a listener can hear in a recording. The markers turn each competency into moments that an assessor can find in a session.

ICF's document is dated November 2020, with a revision dated June 2021. People call it the 2020 or the 2021 markers, and both names mean the same document. ICF updated its Core Competencies in 2025. On 9 November 2026, the markers on ICF's site were still this version.

How the 37 markers are spread

Two competencies have no markers of their own, and the reasons differ:

• Ethical Practice runs through the whole session. A PCC candidate coaches in line with ICF's Code of Ethics and stays in the role of coach from start to end. See the Code of Ethics, explained.
• A coaching mindset grows over a career, and one session can't show all of it. ICF names 11 markers under other competencies that show part of it.

Who uses the markers, and for what

Assessors. On the Portfolio path, a PCC applicant sends ICF two recordings of real sessions, each with a transcript. Assessors listen and note the evidence for each competency, with the markers as their criteria. On the Level 2 path, the evaluation is part of the coach's training programme. ICF's document says a coach needs to show a minimum number of markers in each competency area to pass. It doesn't say what the numbers are.

Mentor coaches and trainers. A mentor coach listens to your sessions and gives feedback against the competencies. The markers give you both one language for what happened.

You. ICF says the markers can help a coach find where to grow. It also warns against using them as a formula for passing the evaluation. A session where the coach works down a list sounds like a list, and the client pays for it.

What an assessor listens for, competency by competency

3. Establishes and Maintains Agreements (4 markers)

What they listen for. A session with a direction that the client chose. The coach doesn't assume the topic is the goal. Early on, the two of them get clear on what the client wants from this conversation and what would make it worth the time.

What it sounds like. "What would you like to leave with today?" Then: "How will you know you've got it?" And: "What makes this important now?"

What coaches miss. They take the first topic as the agreement. The client says "my team", and the coach starts on the story. The measure of success and the reason it matters never get asked.

4. Cultivates Trust and Safety (4 markers)

What they listen for. Two things. The first is respect that the client can hear: the coach treats the client as a capable adult whose feelings and ideas belong in the room. The second is freedom to disagree. When the coach says something, the client can answer it in any way they like, and the coach doesn't argue.

What it sounds like. "You've thought hard about this already." Later: "I notice you went quiet when I said that. What's your reaction?"

What coaches miss. They offer an observation as a fact. With no invitation to disagree, the client has little room to say "no, that's not it".

5. Maintains Presence (5 markers)

What they listen for. A coach who is with this person, in this moment. Curiosity about the person, not only about the problem. Room for the client to think, with silence left alone. And a client who steers: the session goes where they want it to go, towards what they asked for.

What it sounds like. The client stops in the middle of a sentence. The coach waits. After a while the client says, "I've never said that out loud before."

What coaches miss. They fill the silence. A second question arrives before the first one has done its work.

6. Listens Actively (7 markers)

What they listen for. Proof that the coach heard this client. The coach gets curious about the client's own language and about what sits under it, such as a feeling or a change in tone. The coach's next move comes from what the client just said, not from a plan made before the session.

What it sounds like. "You've said 'trapped' twice now. What does 'trapped' mean for you?"

What coaches miss. They paraphrase into their own words. The client's exact word carried the meaning, and it is gone.

7. Evokes Awareness (8 markers)

What they listen for. New thinking on the client's side. The coach's questions look past the story to the person who tells it, and they invite the client to see something in a different way. How the coach asks counts as much as what they ask: clear questions, one at a time, with most of the airtime left to the client.

What it sounds like. "If the fear had no say in this, what would you choose?"

What coaches miss. They stack questions. Three questions in one breath leave the client to answer the easiest one.

8. Facilitates Client Growth (9 markers)

What they listen for. A session that ends with something the client owns. The client puts their learning into their own words, and the next steps are theirs: what they will do, and how they will keep to it. The coach is a partner in that, not the author of a plan.

What it sounds like. "What do you know now that you didn't know an hour ago?" Then: "What will you do with that?" And: "How would you like to finish today?"

What coaches miss. They run out of time. This competency has the most markers, and in most sessions the moments for them come late. A coach who starts to close with two minutes left has little room to show them.

Why the markers aren't a checklist

A marker is evidence of a skill. It isn't the skill. A coach can ask "How will you know you've got it?" in every session and still not listen to the answer.

Use the markers after a session, not during it. Record a session with the client's consent. Listen once with no list at all, and note where the client's thinking changed. Then listen again with the markers, one competency at a time. Ask what was there, what wasn't, and whether the client needed it.

What changes in 2027

For ACC and PCC applicants on the Portfolio path, the way ICF checks coaching skill changes in 2027. The markers' place in the new process isn't yet stated.

• Until 31 March 2027: Portfolio applicants can send recordings for a performance evaluation.
• From 1 January to 31 March 2027: Portfolio applicants can choose. They send recordings, or a mentor coach who holds ICF's Mentor Coach Specialization at the right level observes their coaching and completes a Competency Review Form.
• From 1 April 2027: the form is required for ACC and PCC Portfolio applications. Performance evaluations go on until 1 August 2027 for candidates in transition.
• MCC: the performance evaluation stays.

ICF's announcement of the change doesn't mention the PCC Markers. So we can't tell you whether the Competency Review Form uses them. The eight competency names didn't change in the 2025 update, and ICF's PCC-MCC exam page still suggests the markers as material to review before the exam. For the mentor coaching rules, read what changes for mentor coaching in 2027. For the dates and the evidence to keep, read what your ICF application needs.

The markers and the Core Competencies

The markers describe one level, the PCC. The competencies under them are the same for every ICF credential. If you are working towards an ACC, start with the 8 ICF Core Competencies, explained. To see the skills together in one session, read a coaching session example, start to end.