CLC Professional Standards & Ethics 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A coach posts a client success story on their website without identifying the client by name but includes enough detail that colleagues could identify them. This action is:
- Acceptable because no name was used
- Acceptable if the story is positive
- A confidentiality breach because the client could still be identified (Correct answer)
- Required for marketing purposes under professional standards
Correct answer: A confidentiality breach because the client could still be identified
Confidentiality is breached whenever a client can be identified from shared information, even if no name is explicitly stated.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes the ethical principle of 'non-maleficence' as applied to coaching?
- Charging fair market rates for services
- Avoiding actions that could harm the client physically, emotionally, or professionally (Correct answer)
- Ensuring all coaching sessions are recorded for quality purposes
- Maintaining strict neutrality on all client decisions
Correct answer: Avoiding actions that could harm the client physically, emotionally, or professionally
Non-maleficence in coaching means actively avoiding interventions or behaviors that could cause harm to the client.
Question 3: A corporate sponsor pays for coaching services for their employees. Who is the coach's primary ethical obligation to?
- The corporate sponsor, since they are paying
- The coach's professional association
- The individual client being coached (Correct answer)
- Equally to the sponsor and the client with no priority
Correct answer: The individual client being coached
Even when a third party funds coaching, the coach's primary ethical duty is to the individual client being coached.
Question 4: A coach notices they feel strong personal attraction to a client and it is affecting their objectivity. The ethically appropriate first step is to:
- Continue the engagement and maintain professionalism outwardly
- Disclose the attraction to the client to be transparent
- Seek supervision or consultation to address the countertransference (Correct answer)
- Immediately terminate the client without explanation
Correct answer: Seek supervision or consultation to address the countertransference
When personal feelings threaten professional objectivity, seeking supervision is the ethical response to protect the client's interests.
Question 5: Under what circumstance is it ethically permissible for a CLC coach to break client confidentiality?
- When the client's organization requests a progress update
- When the coach believes the client is making poor career decisions
- When there is a credible risk of imminent harm to the client or others (Correct answer)
- When the coach wants to use the case as a training example
Correct answer: When there is a credible risk of imminent harm to the client or others
Confidentiality may be broken when there is imminent risk of serious harm, as duty to protect overrides confidentiality in such cases.
Question 6: A client asks their coach to provide a character reference letter for a legal proceeding. What is the most ethical response?
- Write the letter since it helps the client
- Decline, as this role conflicts with the coaching relationship and could compromise both parties (Correct answer)
- Write the letter but mark it as unofficial
- Ask the client's employer to write it instead
Correct answer: Decline, as this role conflicts with the coaching relationship and could compromise both parties
Taking on dual roles such as coach and character witness creates role confusion and conflicts of interest that ethical coaches must avoid.
Question 7: Ethical use of psychometric or assessment tools in coaching requires that a coach:
- Use any available assessment tool regardless of training
- Only use tools they are trained to administer and interpret accurately (Correct answer)
- Share all assessment results with the client's employer by default
- Avoid using any assessments to maintain pure coaching neutrality
Correct answer: Only use tools they are trained to administer and interpret accurately
Ethical use of assessments requires that coaches only use tools they are properly trained and qualified to administer and interpret.
CLC Professional Standards & Ethics 3
A coach posts a client success story on their website without identifying the client by name but includes enough detail that colleagues could identify them.
This action is: