A few weeks ago I wrote about some of the ways that a coach can prepare for a coaching session. What has surprised me since then is the number of people finding the site by searching for how a client can prepare for coaching session.

I’m presuming that this search is being done by individuals who are either:

(i)                 A coach wondering how their clients should be preparing

or

(ii)                A client wanting to know what they should be doing.

So let’s look at this for both of those groups:

Coaches who are wondering how their clients should be preparing.

Firstly, I’m not convinced that is the most useful phrasing of that question. Rather than looking for the way that it “should” be done, how would you like your clients to be prepared? This is your work; find the way that works best for you and your clients.

Lay the foundations by setting the expectations right at the start of your coaching relationship and the chances are that it won’t be something that you will have to revisit again.

Things you may want to think about:

Eliminating Interruptions
Are you working with clients that feel they are pressed for time? You may want to consider including a request to ensure that they schedule the entire time of your session to be free from disruptions.

Physical surroundings, while not applicable if you select the location, it will help considerably if your client is not somewhere where there are distractions or they feel they can’t talk
openly. This is something that can apply equally to face to face and phone coaching.

If you are physically coaching face to face you can always provide a pen and paper for your client to make notes or as part of any exercises during the coaching session. However, if you are coaching via the phone you may wish to request that your client has something to write with and on available – this will save time during your actual session as they try and find a pen that actually wants to write etc 🙂

Questions you may want them to answer prior to your actual session
These are generally questions that provide an answer that allows time during the session to be spent on follow up. For example, “What do you want to get from today’s session?” If your client comes fully prepared which such answers it allows you to spend the coaching session focusing upon that “goal.”

Alternatively, you may like your client to answer a/some question(s) that focuses them in a specific direction. Typically these are questions that allow them to start paying attention to something they may otherwise miss acknowledging – for example, listing their accomplishments that week.

Depending upon how you like to work and the client you are working with you may want to ask your client to report on the progress of previous agreements.

Clients wanting to know what preparation they can do prior to a coaching session

If you are a coach reading this piece I encourage you to ensure that your clients are aware of what preparation you would like them to do. This will ensure that they are not distracted away from what you want them to be focusing upon prior to a coaching session.

Each coach will have their own unique approach to how they work, however, the following is some general guidance for a client about what preparation it may benefit you to do:

• Remember that a coaching session is time just to focus upon you. It will be a lot easier to do this if you remove the opportunities for interruptions. Ensure that you have scheduled time where you will not be disturbed. If you are having a coaching session via the phone, select somewhere to take the call where you can fully focus and on a phone number where you can actually hear and in a location where you can talk freely.

• Your coach may have provided you with some questions that they would like you to answer prior to any session.

If they haven’t, you may want to have given some thought about what you would like to get from this specific coaching session. While your coach will be able to assist you in determining that, if you already have an answer it frees up more of your coaching session to actually focus on finding that solution.

• You could find it really useful to make sure you have a pen and paper handy in case you want to make a note during the session.

Do you think that there is some preparation that is not included and should be? Want to make a comment?

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