Most people who haven’t received coaching before have similar questions: What can I expect from a coaching relationship? What will it look like? To get a clear picture, let’s walk through how I structure my coaching relationships.
Coaching is a relationship with a purpose. So the first step is determining what you are really trying to accomplish in a coaching relationship. To do that, we usually arrange a complimentary conversation to explore the possibilities of a coaching relationship. We zero in on what you’re trying to achieve and then determine if working together would be a good fit, given your goals. If not, I can help point you in the right direction.
If we decide to work together, we agree on the frequency of coaching sessions. In most cases, I find monthly coaching sessions for a period of one year to be optimal, but we can decide on a case-by-case basis according to your needs and goals.
Preparation before the session. I have found that preparing for a coaching conversation beforehand easily doubles the effectiveness of coaching. For this reason, I assign prep questions to clients before each session. Sample questions include:
- What wins are you celebrating?
- What obstacles are you facing?
- What are you learning?
- What do you want to process or discuss during this coaching conversation?
- How can I be praying for you?
Thinking through your answers to those kinds of questions helps shape the agenda for the next conversation, as well as dramatically increasing focus.
Coaching conversation. During the session itself, we then identify the key issues and dig deeper to get insights. From there, we can brainstorm options for moving forward and then decide on action items. You receive prayer at the end of the session. During the next session, we follow up on progress that has been made.
Coaching allows you to really focus in on what’s truly important and move forward. Sometimes it includes things like figuring out how to free up time and energy to do the things you know you need to do. What can you stop doing? What can you offload and delegate? What can be delayed so you can do what’s truly important? By building on this foundation from month to month, you make significant and concrete progress toward your goals.
If you want to see more tangible results coming from your efforts, it’s amazing what a little bit of focused energy and effort can do in helping you move forward with what’s really important. Let’s talk to explore the possibilities.