INTERESTED IN BECOMING A COACH?

We offer two training programs designed for social impact leaders:

Coaching Foundations
Empower your leadership with coaching skills.
Learn how to integrate coaching into your leadership style to better support, develop, and inspire your team. This course equips you with foundational coaching tools and mindsets to help you foster a coaching culture within your organization—one that encourages growth, accountability, and deeper connection.

Messy Roots Coaching Academy
For social impact leaders ready to go deeper.
Designed for leaders who want to take their coaching practice to the next level, the Messy Roots Coaching Academy offers a full coaching certification. Whether you aim to coach part-time, full-time, or weave coaching into your current leadership role, this program gives you the skills, confidence, and credentialing to do it with intention and impact.

Messy Roots Coaching Approaches Overview

Each coaching approach in the Messy Roots framework offers a unique lens for supporting leaders rooted in community, justice, and healing. Rather than one-size-fits-all strategies, these approaches reflect the lived experiences of Social Impact leaders and equip coaches to facilitate powerful coaching conversations. We utilize these coaching approaches to help all of our coaching students find their unique coaching voice and to establish a well rounded coaching practice. 

Narrative Healing & Radical Storytelling Coaching Approach

Core Belief: Story is medicine.
Purpose: Reclaim the voice, reshape identity, and challenge inherited narratives.

This approach is grounded in oral tradition, liberation psychology, and trauma-informed practice. It views storytelling not just as a communication tool, but as a radical act of healing and leadership. Coaches use this approach to help leaders examine, deconstruct, and reauthor the stories that shape their identity, work, and vision—especially those shaped by oppression or invisibility.

• Coaching Focus: Identity exploration, reframing trauma, and legacy-building

• Sample Coaching Questions: “What story are you ready to rewrite?” “Who benefits from the current story—and what would it mean to center your own voice?”

2. Afro-Indigenous Coaching Approach

Core Belief: Healing and leadership are collective, ancestral, and relational.
Purpose: Root coaching in cycles of land, lineage, spirit, and community.

This approach centers Afro-Indigenous wisdom and recognizes leadership as a practice of interconnection—not performance. Coaches draw from ritual, ecology, and collective rhythm to guide leaders in reclaiming ancestral knowledge, restoring balance, and slowing down to align with deeper truths. Sessions may include somatic work, spiritual grounding, and seasonal rhythms as tools for insight and decision-making.

• Coaching Focus: Land-body connection, ancestral memory, community accountability

• Sample Coaching Questions: “What season are you in?” “Whose wisdom walks with you in this work?”

3. Transformative Coaching Approach

Core Belief: Healing is the foundation of sustainable leadership.
Purpose: Support internal transformation that leads to systemic impact.

Inspired by Dr. Shawn Ginwright’s Healing-Centered Engagement, this approach recognizes that social change begins within. Coaches help leaders shift from problem-solving to possibility-creating, from grind to healing, and from control to alignment. It calls forth a leadership style that integrates emotional truth, imagination, and sustainable strategy.

• Coaching Focus: Emotional awareness, healing from leadership harm, values-aligned growth

• Sample Coaching Questions: “What are you becoming?” “What part of you needs to be restored for your leadership to flourish?”

4. Liberation-Centered Coaching Approach

Core Belief: Leadership is a tool for dismantling systems of oppression.
Purpose: Equip leaders to resist domination and build more just, dignified futures.

This approach draws from abolitionist thought, Black feminism, and movement strategy. It positions the coaching space as a site for visioning, resistance, and repair. Coaches using this approach support leaders in identifying oppressive patterns—both external and internal—and creating strategies rooted in dignity, justice, and collective well-being.

• Coaching Focus: Power analysis, anti-oppressive strategy, visionary planning

• Sample Coaching Questions: “Where are you complicit in what you’re trying to dismantle?” “What would leadership rooted in liberation look like today?”

Messy Roots Coaching Curriculum: Module Overview

The Messy Roots Coaching Program is designed for social impact leaders committed to equity, transformation, and sustained community leadership. Grounded in the Ironic Hustle Coaching Model, this 6-module curriculum equips coaches to foster growth and healing while driving systemic change. Each module aligns with key AC Coaching Competencies and addresses the lived realities of leaders working within and for their communities.

Module 1 – Here and Now (H)

Focus: Building the foundation for trust and clarity
AC Competencies: 1, 2, 3, 12
Coaches learn how to establish clear coaching agreements and create a relationship rooted in mutual understanding. Emphasis is placed on leadership identity, ethical grounding, and setting the tone for social impact-driven coaching partnerships.

Module 2 – Understanding Your Coachee (U)

Focus: Deep discovery of goals, values, and context
AC Competencies: 3, 4, 10, 11
This module helps coaches explore a leader’s present reality, community context, and desired future. Tools like leadership assessments, values clarification, and visioning exercises support coaches in guiding social impact leaders toward clarity and alignment.

Module 3 – Strategic Questions (S)

Focus: Expanding awareness through inquiry
AC Competencies: 4, 6, 11
Coaches practice powerful questioning techniques that help coachees unlock insight, challenge limiting beliefs, and access new perspectives. Questions are crafted to be both rigorous and compassionate—supporting leaders as they navigate complexity and impact.

Module 4 – Tell the Truth (T)

Focus: Facilitating courageous dialogue and perspective shifts
AC Competencies: 3, 5, 6
Coaches develop the ability to offer feedback and challenge in ways that promote growth without harm. This module equips coaches to hold space for truth-telling and resistance work, especially when supporting leaders confronting inequities in their communities.

Module 5 – Learning & Listening (L)

Focus: Deep listening and lifelong growth
AC Competencies: 4, 5, 9
This module strengthens a coach’s reflective capacity and presence. Coaches are taught to listen beyond words, integrate feedback, and model continuous learning—skills essential for guiding social impact leaders who are often on the frontlines of change.

Module 6 – Experiences (E)

Focus: Action, accountability, and leadership application
AC Competencies: 7, 8, 11, 12
Coaches learn to support coachees in taking action through SMARTER goals, resourcing, and ongoing accountability. Emphasis is placed on how leaders apply learning to real-life leadership challenges and how that drives sustainable community impact.

DATA POINTS

• 90% of leaders of Color state that they would love to have a coach that looks like them/similar backgrounds. 

• People of Color only make up 27% of the coaching industry (13% Latinx, 9% Black, 5% Asian, .2% Native American.

• 75% of leaders of color stated never having a BIPOC Social Impact Leadership Coach.

• 95% of our Messy Roots Participants  have not received any formal training for coaching or received development to grow as a coach prior to joining our program. This is compared to 45% of coaches nationally. 

• 100% of Messy Roots coaching certification graduates stated that the program prepared them to support team members and/or coachees.

• Messy Roots has provided leadership coaching certificates to over 50 leaders of color and supported over 10 organizations. 

• According to the International Coaching Federation, organizations are dedicated to cultivating a coaching culture. The survey reveals that 85% of respondents collaborate with managers and leaders proficient in coaching skills, 64% enlist external coach practitioners, and half engage internal coach practitioners. This trend indicates a promising outlook for integrated coaching methodologies, with most intending to enhance or sustain these approaches in the coming five years.

  BUILDING A COACHING CULTURE

  A coaching culture fosters continuous growth, leadership development, and deeper engagement within an organization or community. By integrating coaching principles into daily interactions, leaders empower individuals to maximize their potential and create lasting impact.

  Why Build a Coaching Culture?

  • Enhances personal and professional development.

  • Strengthens collaboration and team dynamics.

  • Encourages reflective practice and learning.

  • Drives social impact by equipping individuals to lead effectively.