ICF performance evaluation
The PCC Markers: What Assessors Actually Listen For
By Gary Malcolm, Master Certified Coach (ICF) · Updated 1 September 2026
Key takeaways
- The PCC Markers are 37 observable behaviors across the 8 ICF Core Competencies that assessors use to evaluate PCC performance recordings. Last revised November 2020; the 2025 Minimum Skills Requirements present the same behaviors reorganised as "behaviors consistent with ICF coaching standards".
- Markers are additive: assessors mark the behaviors they observe across the whole session, not a single make-or-break moment.
- The competencies that most often decide Pass vs Below Standard are Listens Actively, Evokes Awareness, and Facilitates Client Growth, and the failing patterns are habits: steering summaries, stacked or leading questions, coach-authored actions.
- The official marker document is free from ICF; the hard part is hearing the behaviors in your own recording.
The PCC Markers are 37 observable behaviors, organised under the 8 ICF Core Competencies, that assessors use to evaluate PCC performance recordings. They were last revised in November 2020, and the 2025 Minimum Skills Requirements carry the same behaviors forward in a new format. The document itself is free from ICF. What it does not tell you is how the markers behave in a real evaluation, which is what this guide covers.
How assessors use the markers
Markers are additive and observational: the assessor works through your recording noting the behaviors they can evidence, competency by competency, across the whole session. There is no single make-or-break moment, which cuts both ways: one brilliant question cannot carry a session, and one clumsy one rarely sinks it. What sinks sessions is a recurring habit that works against a competency on every page of the transcript.
The competencies, as they play out in evaluations
Ethical Practice and Coaching Mindset. Foundational and rarely the deciding factor in a marked session, but boundary slips (advising, consulting, therapy territory) are marked where they occur.
Establishes and Maintains Agreements. Assessors listen for a session agreement with three parts: what the client wants to work on, what would make the session valuable, and how the client will know. A topic alone is the most common shortfall.
Cultivates Trust and Safety. Marked through acknowledgement, respect for the client’s language and frame of reference, and support for the client’s expression. Evaluative praise works against it.
Maintains Presence. Observed in responsiveness to the client rather than an agenda: who fills silences, whether curiosity follows the client’s cues, whether the coach dances in the moment or executes a plan.
Listens Actively. The decisive competency in many evaluations. Assessors listen for reflections that capture what the client actually said, attention to emotion and energy shifts, and summaries that hand the thread back rather than steering it.
Evokes Awareness. Clear, direct, one-at-a-time questions about the client and their thinking. Stacked questions, leading questions, and questions with the coach’s answer embedded are marked against this competency more than any other.
Facilitates Client Growth. The close is marked on who authors it: the client designs actions, accountability and support. Coach-proposed homework the client accepts is the classic shortfall.
Reading the markers is free. Hearing them in your own recording is the hard part.
Why self-marking fails
Coaches who study the markers still fail evaluations, because the failing behaviors do not feel like failures from the inside. A summary that steers feels like synthesis. A leading question feels like insight generosity. Praise feels like trust-building. The markers name these precisely, but only an outside listener applies them to your session the way an assessor will.
Five assessor perspectives apply the standards to every minute of your session, and an MCC signs the verdict.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the ICF PCC Markers?
- The PCC Markers are 37 observable coaching behaviors, organised under the 8 ICF Core Competencies, that trained assessors use to evaluate whether a recorded coaching session demonstrates PCC-level skill. They were last revised in November 2020 and are published free by ICF.
- How many PCC markers are there?
- There are 37 markers across the 8 Core Competencies. The 2025 Minimum Skills Requirements documents present the same behaviors as unnumbered bullets under "Behaviors Consistent With ICF Coaching Standards".
- Do I need to hit every marker to pass?
- No. Assessors evaluate the pattern of observable behavior across the whole session. A session can miss individual markers and pass; what reliably fails sessions is recurring behavior that works against the competencies, such as steering summaries or leading questions.
- Which markers fail most candidates?
- In practice the deciding competencies are Listens Actively (summaries that narrow or steer what the client said), Evokes Awareness (stacked questions, leading questions, the coach’s answer embedded in the question), and Facilitates Client Growth (the coach designing the actions the client should own).
- Where do I get the official PCC Markers document?
- From ICF’s website, free. The document is the standard; this guide is about how the markers behave in real evaluations, which is a different kind of knowledge.
- Can I check my recording against the markers before submitting?
- Yes. Review My Coaching evaluates your full submission against the current ICF standards with five calibrated assessor perspectives and returns a Submit, Not Yet, or Do Not Submit verdict with timestamped evidence per competency, signed by a Master Certified Coach.
- Are the markers changing before the 2027 pathway change?
- The marker behaviors were not changed by the 2025 Minimum Skills Requirements release; they were reformatted. The bigger change is the pathway itself: ACC and PCC portfolio candidates can submit recordings only through 31 March 2027.