What do clients want most from a coach? According to research from the International Coaching Federation, the answer is authenticity, not credentials. On this episode of The Coaching Edge Podcast, Dr. Steve Jeffs and Erwin de Grave talk with Cynthia Loy Darst, a co-active coaching pioneer who started with CTI in 1992 and helped found both the ICF and ACTO.
Cynthia oversees leader selection, training, and development at CTI today. The conversation explores three ideas worth sitting with. First, presence and honest curiosity matter more than having the right answer, whether you lead, coach, or train. Second, humans find it hard to be curious about themselves because we assume our way of seeing life makes sense. Third, AI handles transactional work, while human coaches hold the space for blind spots, authenticity, and depth.
Cynthia also discusses her book Meet Your Inside Team, which applies relationship coaching to the internal voices clients bring to sessions.
Guest: Cynthia Loy Darst
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