Although every coaching session will look a little different depending on the topic and goals that a client chooses, there are also some consistencies in structure that you can expect for each session.
In each session, you will open by greeting your client and checking in on their progress since the last time you met. Here are some examples of questions you can use to start a session:
- How have things been going for you?
- What were you able to accomplish since our last session?
- How did the action items from our last session work out for you?
- What worked well for you in accomplishing the action items?
- What obstacles got in the way of accomplishing the action items?
- What is one positive thing that has happened for you since our last session?
- What was a challenge that you have encountered since our last session?
Once the agenda is set, you will proceed through the session using powerful questions and coaching tools as you see fit to achieve the shared agenda.
At the end of the session, you will want to check in with your client to see how things went. Did you achieve what they were hoping to in the session? Here are some sample questions that might work well to close a session:
- What did we accomplish in this session?
- What was the most beneficial thing about this session for you?
- What are you taking away from today’s session?
- What did you learn about yourself in today’s session?
- What next steps would you like to take based on our discussion?
- What are you thinking about differently from today’s session?
- What question from today’s session was the most helpful for you?
- What went well with today’s session?
- What would you like to see look different in future sessions?
- How did we do with the session agenda today?
- What was most useful for you today?
The close of a session is also the time to build an accountability plan with your client. At the end of each session, as you create the framework for your client’s accountability for that session’s action items, here are some helpful questions to ask:
- How would you like to hold yourself accountable for your next steps?
- How can I help to hold you accountable for your next steps?
- What do you need to do to stay accountable to your next steps?
- What tools will help you to stay accountable to your next steps?
- What has helped you in the past to stay accountable to your actions?
- What obstacles do you anticipate as you go about your next steps?
- What is your plan for accomplishing your next steps?
- How will it feel to successfully complete your next steps?
- What will you do to celebrate achieving your goals?