All around the world, organizations are navigating changing expectations of leadership, employee development and workplace culture. For Erickson’s Global Partner in Côte d’Ivoire, Raphael “Ralph” Tchomnou Ngantchop of FOCUS TL, one question sits at the centre of that transformation: What changes when leaders genuinely learn how to listen?
This October, FOCUS TL and Erickson Coaching International will take an important step in expanding access to professional coach training on the continent as we launch one of the first French-language deliveries of The Art & Science of Coaching™ in Africa, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The program will run in two parts, from 28 - 31 October and 4 - 7 November 2026. For Ralph, himself a proud graduate of The Art & Science of Coaching™ Level 2, the significance goes well beyond bringing another training program to a new location.
“I define myself as a human ambassador,” he says. “And for me, this is part of a personal mission to help develop professional coaching in Francophone Africa.”
While the continent is experiencing a massive leadership transformation wave and investment in human capital, Ralph acknowledges a big challenge in the need to distinguish professional coaching, backed by substantial training and globally recognized International Coaching Federation (ICF) standards, from the many different services using the coaching label.
“The demand for certified world-class coaching has never been higher in Africa,” Ralph says. “But there’s a gap: while the demand exists, the supply of ICF-certified coaches does not.”
That gap has practical implications. Ralph says leaders across the markets in which FOCUS TL operates are increasingly interested in structured, evidence-based coaching, yet accessing internationally recognized training has historically presented barriers.
“Getting certified meant flying to Europe for some, and America for the others,” he says. Bringing Erickson’s training to Abidjan, however, offers a more direct pathway: internationally recognized coach education delivered onsite - and in French.
Ralph’s commitment to coaching grew from his own experience in business and leadership development.
After working in industry, including with ExxonMobil, he founded the company that would become FOCUS TL in 2007. His work evolved from training in areas such as marketing and communication toward leadership and management development across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Over time, however, he began questioning what conventional training could achieve.
“With conventional training, you give people tools, and you help them improve in what they want to achieve. But what do you do for them as humans, who are constantly changing and growing?”
That question led him into professional coach training, but it wasn’t until he discovered Erickson and its unique solution-focused methodology that his passion for coach training as a form of human development truly ignited.
"After I completed The Art & Science of Coaching™ Level 1 and 2, I knew that I needed to share this journey,” he explains, “Who I am today is not who I was two years ago - the program has influenced not only how he coaches, but also how I lead and how I live."
Not only does Ralph say that solution-focused coaching gives people another perspective for approaching situations in their personal and professional life, but because the questions a coach learns to ask others also become questions they ask themselves, you end up in a dialogue with yourself on a daily basis, and this transforms everything that you do.
The Abidjan training is part of a broader ambition. FOCUS TL is working with Erickson across Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Cameroon, with coaching positioned within the company’s wider work in leadership, execution and workplace well-being.
“We’ve built something that goes beyond a typical agency relationship,” Ralph says.
Within FOCUS TL’s approach, coaching acts as what Ralph calls “the thread” connecting different areas of organizational transformation. “They are not just buying a coaching program,” he says of organizational clients. “They are accessing a holistic transformation methodology, where Erickson’s coach training excellence sits at the heart.”
The October/November cohort is expected to bring together a diverse group, including practicing coaches seeking a pathway toward ICF credentials, HR professionals, senior HR business partners, internal organizational coaches, consultants and trainers.
Ralph is also clear that Abidjan is intended as a beginning rather than an isolated event.
“For us, it’s not just a one-shot. It’s something that will keep happening, and it’s part of a bigger dream of making conversations better - conversations between managers and collaborators, between parents and children, and conversations between all humans. That’s the dream I have.”
In true Erickson style, Erickson and FOCUS TL prepare to “change the world, one conversation at a time” by welcoming participants to Abidjan this October.
For more information and to register your spot in the training, visit https://optimus.focus-tl.com/s/certfication-erickson-icf/accueil.