Prism Award

The International Prism Award honors businesses and organizations with coaching programs that:

• Fulfill rigorous professional standards
• Address key strategic goals
• Shape organizational culture
• Yield discernible and measurable positive impacts

2018 Nominations

ICF is now accepting nominations for the 2018 International Prism Award. The deadline to submit a nomination is May 30, 2018, at 12 Noon (New York).

All nominations must be submitted via ICF’s online awards platform.

The award will be presented at the Human Capital Institute’s 2018 Learning and Leadership Development Conference, September 26–28, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Before You Begin

ICF’s awards management team has assembled a list of seven tips to keep in mind as you prepare your Prism Award nomination. Download the list below.

Eligibility Criteria

• The ICF International Prism Award is open to businesses and organizations that use coaching. It is not open to coach-training organizations or to organizations that provide external coach practitioners to organizations and/or individuals.
• The organization must be nominated by an external or internal coach who holds an up-to-date ICF Credential and has participated in the coaching initiative.
• The organization must have started to implement coaching no later than December 31, 2016.
• During the nomination review process, the nominating coach and/or coaching sponsor must be willing and able to provide additional/clarifying information about the nomination if they are asked to do so.
• If selected as a finalist, the nominating coach and coaching sponsor must be willing and able to participate in an interview conducted by ICF staff during July 2018.
• Nominating coaches and nominee organizations consent to provide ICF with additional information about their coaching initiative that may be published in future press releases, testimonials, ads, marketing materials and/or case studies.
• Previously honored (award or honorable mention) organizations must wait one full year between International Prism Award nominations.

Scoring Criteria

There are three rounds of competition in the International Prism Award program.

In the preliminary round, entries are scored according to the Strong Coaching Cultures index developed by ICF and the Human Capital Institute (HCI). The index includes six markers:

• Strongly/somewhat agree that employees value coaching
• Strongly/somewhat agree that senior executives value coaching
• Managers/leaders (and/or internal coaches) received accredited coach-specific training
• Coaching is a fixture in the organization with a dedicated line item in the budget
• All employees in the organization have an equal opportunity to receive coaching from a professional coach practitioner
• All three coaching modalities (internal coach practitioners, external coach practitioners, and managers/leaders using coaching skills) are present in the organization

Organizations that fulfill an above-average number of the criteria (in relation to their fellow nominees) will advance to the semifinal round.

Semifinalists’ nominations will be evaluated by a panel of volunteer judges according to four criteria:

• Impact
• Standards
• Strategy
• Sustainability

As judges score each nomination, they will refer to the rubric below.

Organizations identified as finalists will be invited to participate in a one-hour interview on the Zoom conferencing platform. Afterwards, their nominations and interviews will once again be scored according to the criteria of impact, standards, strategy and sustainability.

Nomination Worksheet

All Prism Award nominations will be submitted via ICF’s online awards management platform. Many nominating coaches find it helpful to use the worksheet below as they prepare to submit their nomination.

Template – Participating Coaches

As part of your Prism nomination package, you will be required to upload an Excel spreadsheet listing all external and internal coach practitioners who have delivered coaching in the organization since April 4, 2017. Please provide this information using the template below.

Local Programs

Some ICF Chapters and regional groups also honor local organizations with Prism Awards each year. Please contact your local Chapter for more information.

If you are an ICF Chapter Leader interested in launching a local Prism Award program, contact ICF Communications and Awards Manager Abby Heverin at abby.heverin@coachfederation.org.