I am not credentialed yet. Can I take this?

You can enroll, but the course assumes coaching foundations. If you have not trained in the ICF Core Competencies yet, start with the free Coaching Foundations module on the ACC certification page first. If you are pre-credential but have been through coaching training elsewhere, you will be fine.

What do I get at the end of the course?

Three artifacts you keep using: a personal Tool-Selection Map built in Module 6, 17 resources (reference cards, worksheets, guides, the ten-case Case Lab Casebook, and three capstone resources), and a certificate of completion carrying the ICF CCE-Approved Program badge, shareable on LinkedIn and suitable for L&D reimbursement.

How is this different from Tandem's ACC or PCC programs?

Tandem's ICF Level 1 (ACC) and Level 2 (PCC) programs are credential-earning programs that take coaches from no ICF credential to ACC or PCC. They are months long, instructor-led, and include practice sessions and mentor coaching. Coaching Tools Mastery is a specialization for coaches who already have foundations. It is narrower in scope, shorter (20 hours), self-paced, and complements rather than replaces credential training.

The Practitioner Series

Coaching Tools Course: Master Selection and Sequencing

Build the discernment to choose, sequence, and hold coaching tools well. This is training in tool selection and tool-chains for practicing coaches, so the tool serves presence instead of replacing it.

20 hours, self-paced 6 modules, 66 videos Lifetime access

Start free trial Watch the first lesson

3-day free trial, then one payment of $199. Or Buy now for $199.

Coaching Tools Mastery - Right Tool, Right Mind

Cherie Silas, MCC

Course author and instructor

ICF CCE-Approved Program 20.0 hours - 13 Core Competency + 7 Resource Development

From the first unit

Right Tool, Right Mind

The lesson the course's framework is named for, and the ethos that runs through all six modules: one client, two coaches with the same tool library, and what one question finds that a worksheet misses.

Lesson 1.1.2 · 7 minutes · Module 1, Unit 1: The Hand, Not the Tool. Or browse the full course playlist.

How this is different

Not a 90-minute webinar with CCE attached

Most CCE on the market is a single talk you sit through, claim hours for, and forget. This course is built differently.

A typical CCE webinar

One session, one topic, one hour, one certificate.

Single session, no structured curriculum
No competency mapping you can show a panel
Access expires after 30 to 90 days
No artifacts you keep using after

This course

Six modules, 20 hours, mapped to ICF competencies, with Lifetime Access as defined in our Additional Terms.

Structured discernment method across six modules
Per-unit ICF Core Competency mapping (Step 8 packet)
Lifetime access - revisit when you change niches
17 resources you keep, from reference cards to a ten-case Casebook and your Tool-Selection Map

What you'll be able to do

What changes in your sessions after this course

Six practical shifts. Each is something you'll do differently in your next session.

Read whether a tool fits this moment

Run the five-move discernment loop before reaching for a worksheet - and recognise the moments when staying with what's alive beats any structured tool.

Name the shift you intend

Co-name the intended shift with the client - awareness, clarity, action, integration - before picking the instrument. The conversation changes when the purpose has a name.

Match a tool on four dimensions

Purpose, format, time, readiness. A repeatable check you can run in real time, not a memorised tool list.

Design and repair a tool-chain

Sequence tools across sessions toward client growth - and diagnose what to do when a chain breaks mid-engagement.

Hold presence while tools are running

Tools as vehicles for the client's insight, never a substitute for your presence. The mind behind the tool stays the point.

Walk away with your own Tool-Selection Map

A personal decision aid you can pull up in a session, tuned to the niches you actually coach. Tested on a case you haven't seen in the final module.

What's inside

Six modules built around the five moves

Each module goes deep on one move in the discernment loop. Hours and ICF Core Competency split are documented per lesson in your learner workspace.

20h

Approved ICF CCE

Videos

Resources to keep

Modules

Hours shown are the totals ICF accredited for this course: 20.0 CCE hours, 13 Core Competency and 7 Resource Development. The 66 videos run about 7 hours; the rest is practice in the Discernment Lab, worksheets, and exercises with your own clients.

The Discernment Mindset

The hand behind the tool

2.5h · 7 videos

Silence and a well-placed question are tools too. This module redefines what a tool is, sets out the five moves the course is built on, and looks honestly at both ways tool use goes wrong: reaching too fast and holding back too long.

Right Tool, Right Mind - collection vs mastery
The tool spectrum - silence, a question, a model, a structured instrument
The five moves - map of the course
The cost of over-tooling, and the cost of under-tooling
The urge to reach - choosing presence on purpose

Read the Moment

Where in the arc, and what's alive now

3.0h · 8 videos

Before you choose a tool, you read the moment. The engagement arc - discovery, goal-setting, action, reflection, review - and eight signals: four that say structure would help, four that say wait.

The five phases of an engagement arc, and what each phase asks for
Phase mismatch - an action tool in a discovery moment, and the reverse
Signals a tool will help - circling, abstraction, momentum, decision pressure
Signals to wait - fresh emotion, insight forming, presence requested, structural overwhelm
Your Turn - six client moments: tool or wait?

Name the Purpose and Match the Tool

The heart of selection

4.0h · 13 videos

Name the shift you intend, agree it with your client, choose the tool that fits on four dimensions, offer it without attachment, and debrief what it produced. Then use our 352-tool library as a selection lens instead of a catalog to memorise.

The four intents - awareness, clarity, action, integration - and how to tell them apart
Co-naming the purpose with the client, with room to decline
The four fit dimensions - purpose, format, time, readiness
Lighter or heavier - choosing between near-equivalent tools
Offering without attachment, and the debrief as the real output
Searching the library by need, and evaluating a new tool

The Craft of Tool-Chains

Design, diagnose, repair, retire

4.5h · 13 videos

How tools connect across an engagement: what makes a chain hold, how long it should be, why structure should fade, and how a chain completes the learning cycle (Kolb's experiential cycle). Then how to spot a break and repair it with the client instead of around them.

Output becomes input - a chain as a shared hypothesis, not a script
Chain design principles - length, scaffolds that fade, completing the learning cycle
A worked build, link by link, for a client returning to work after caregiving
Diagnosing breaks - dead-ends, mis-orders, redundancy, over-length
Re-contracting first, then extending, branching, pruning, or retiring a tool

Tool-Chains in Context: The Case Lab

Ten cases along the engagement arc

4.0h · 21 videos

All five moves applied to ten client cases across life, career, executive, and ADHD coaching, arranged where they happen in an engagement. Some need one tool, some need a chain across months, and four need no tool at all. You work each case first, then watch the reveal.

Cases at the start - laid off yesterday, a sponsor who wants a report, a possible career change
Cases in the middle - six weeks and one decision, a VP who can't delegate, everything urgent
Cases that interrupt - news that arrived last night, “Can you tell if it's ADHD?”
Cases across a whole engagement - good on paper but feeling nothing, six months with sponsor check-ins

Build Your Tool-Selection Map

The capstone artifact

2.0h · 4 videos

Turn the five moves into a personal decision aid you can pull up in a session, then work a case you haven't seen. The artifact you keep using long after the course ends.

From five moves to a one-page personal map - your defaults and your edges
Working an unseen case, and holding presence through it
The capstone - your map plus a written practicum on one of three unseen cases, reviewed by Cherie Silas, MCC
The scenario quiz - 20 questions, 80% to pass, up to three attempts

ICF Core Competencies

Which competencies this course goes deep on

If you're claiming these hours toward a credential, here's how each of the eight ICF Core Competencies shows up in the course - the ones we go deep on and the ones we touch in passing.

Ethical Practice

Touched

Embodies a Coaching Mindset

Deepened

Establishes & Maintains Agreements

Deepened

Cultivates Trust & Safety

Touched

Maintains Presence

Deepened

Listens Actively

Deepened

Evokes Awareness

Deepened

Facilitates Client Growth

Deepened

Deepened means at least one full lesson teaches the competency directly. Touched means it shows up in a chain or selection moment. The course does not document ethics-instruction hours for renewal, so meet that requirement through another eligible source. A detailed lesson-by-competency map is included in your learner workspace once you enroll.

Is this course for you?

Who this course is for, and who it isn't

Two quick lists so you can self-select before you enroll.

For you if

You're a credentialed coach (ACC, PCC, MCC) who feels you collect tools faster than you use them well
You're working toward ACC and want a discipline for tool-selection before you build bad habits
You coach across mainstream solo niches - life, career, executive, ADHD, general practice
You want CCE hours that come with structured curriculum, not single-session webinars
You'd value a personal decision aid you can pull up in a real session

Not the right fit if

You're pre-credential and haven't been through coaching foundations - start with our Coaching Foundations course first
You're looking for a single-niche specialty - choose ADHD, career transition, AI, or systemic coaching instead
You want a magic tool list - this course teaches the judgment to choose, not what to memorise
You need the three ICF ethics renewal hours - this course doesn't claim them
You're looking for synchronous live cohort instruction - this is fully self-paced

Your instructor

Authored end-to-end by an MCC.

Not "led by" - written, recorded, and reviewed by an active Master Certified Coach. No guest faculty, no ghostwritten modules.

Cherie Silas, MCC

CEO & Managing Partner, Tandem Coaching

ICF MCC ICF MCS ICF CSS EMCC ESIA CEC CPCC

Cherie is the co-founder and CEO of Tandem Coaching with over 20 years as a corporate leader turned professional coach. She ranks in the top 3.7% of 56,000+ credentialed coaches worldwide and was named the #16 most influential coach by Global Gurus. Her background in executive, leadership, and agile coaching - paired with deep organizational design expertise - shapes how this course teaches discernment over collection. Cherie is one of only 215 Accredited Coaching Supervisors worldwide with EMCC and co-author of the Enterprise Agile Coaching book. She also holds ICF’s Mentor Coach Specialization (MCS) at all three levels and its Coaching Supervisor Specialization (CSS).

About Cherie

Format and certificate

What you get when you enroll

Self-paced, on your schedule

66 short videos (2 to 10 minutes each), about 7 hours in all, plus the Discernment Lab, a set of practice drills that runs in your browser. Watch on any device. No live sessions to schedule around.

Lifetime access

No 30-day, 90-day, or one-year limit. Come back to a module when you take on a new client niche or your practice shifts.

Certificate of completion

Complete the lessons, pass the scenario quiz (20 questions, 80% to pass, up to three attempts), and submit your Tool-Selection Map with a written practicum on an unseen case, reviewed by Cherie Silas, MCC. You'll get a shareable certificate of completion suitable for LinkedIn and L&D reimbursement.

17 resources to keep

13 reference cards, worksheets, and guides, the Case Lab Casebook with all ten cases, and three capstone resources. Yours to use in client sessions long after the course.

ICF CCE-Approved Program

ICF has accredited this course for 20.0 CCE hours: 13 Core Competency and 7 Resource Development. The hours count toward ACC, PCC, and MCC renewal, and your certificate carries the ICF CCE-Approved Program badge.

Enroll in Coaching Tools Mastery

20 hours of structured content from Cherie Silas, MCC. Six modules, 66 videos, 17 resources, the Discernment Lab for practice, and the capstone Tool-Selection Map you’ll use in real sessions.

ICF has accredited this course for 20.0 CCE hours, 13 of them Core Competency — the scarce half of the renewal requirement.

Instant access Lifetime access 3-day free trial

Coaching Tools Mastery

Self-paced · 20 hours · 66 videos · Lifetime access

$199

3-day free trial, then one payment of $199 — Lifetime Access under our Additional Terms

Start free trial

Or Buy now and pay $199 today.
Every course: All-Access ($597/yr), 3-day free trial.

Free trial: cancel within 3 days and pay nothing. Your certificate is issued after the $199 payment, which is not refundable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Before you enroll

What does this course cost?

$199 one-time with Lifetime Access as defined in our Additional Terms. You can start with a 3-day free trial: we charge $199 when the trial ends unless you cancel first, and that payment is not refundable. No certificate is issued during the trial. You can also access it through All-Access ($597/yr, 3-day free trial) or the bundle ($949), which includes every course in The Practitioner Series.

Will the hours count toward my ACC, PCC, or MCC renewal?

Yes. ICF has accredited this course for 20.0 instructional hours - 13 Core Competency, 7 Resource Development - and they count toward your ACC, PCC, or MCC renewal CCE requirement.

The course does not document ethics-instruction hours for renewal - meet that requirement through another eligible source.

What's the framework, in plain English?

Right Tool, Right Mind. Five moves you run in the moment: Read the Moment (is a tool called for at all?), Name the Purpose (what shift am I after?), Match the Tool (four-dimension fit check), Chain the Sequence (sequencing across sessions), Hold Presence (the tool serves presence, never substitutes for it).

The "mind" is the point. A tool in the wrong hands is dangerous. The course teaches the hand.

I'm not credentialed yet. Can I take this?

You can enroll, but the course assumes coaching foundations. If you haven't trained in the ICF Core Competencies yet, start with our free Coaching Foundations module on the ACC certification page - that gives you the grounding this course builds on.

If you're pre-credential but have been through coaching training elsewhere, you'll be fine.

How long does it take?

20 hours of structured content: 66 videos that run about 7 hours, plus practice in the Discernment Lab, worksheets, and exercises with your own clients. At 3 to 5 hours a week, plan on roughly 4 to 7 weeks. There is no current completion deadline while the course remains available under the Lifetime Access terms.

Module 5 (the Case Lab) arranges its ten cases along the engagement arc rather than by niche, and the certificate asks you to complete every lesson, so plan to work all ten.

What do I actually get at the end?

Three things you keep using:

1. A personal Tool-Selection Map - a one-page decision aid you build during Module 6 and can pull up in a real session.

2. 17 resources - 13 reference cards, worksheets, and guides, the Case Lab Casebook with all ten cases, and three capstone resources.

3. A certificate of completion carrying the ICF CCE-Approved Program badge - shareable on LinkedIn, suitable for L&D reimbursement, and the record you keep for your renewal.

Will my employer reimburse this?

We issue an invoice and a verifiable certificate of completion — both standard L&D documentation. The certificate carries the ICF CCE-Approved Program badge. Confirm your specific reimbursement policy with HR.

How is this different from other Tandem programs?

Tandem's flagship programs are ICF Level 1 (ACC) and Level 2 (PCC) - those are credential-earning programs that take you from no coaching credential to ACC or PCC. Months long, instructor-led, with practice sessions and mentor coaching.

This course is a specialization for coaches who already have foundations. It's narrower in scope (tool discernment specifically), shorter (20 hours), self-paced, and complements - rather than replaces - credential training.

Can I verify this course’s ICF CCE approval?

Yes. ICF lists this course as The Practitioner Series: Coaching Tools Mastery. View the official ICF Education Search Service record →

The Practitioner Series

Stop collecting tools. Start choosing them well.

3-day free trial, then one payment of $199. Self-paced, with Lifetime Access as defined in our Additional Terms. ICF CCE-approved for 20 hours, 13 of them Core Competency.

Start free trial See the whole pathway

Or Buy now for $199.