structure

Turn Your Coaching Session Into a Coaching Experience

 in Guest Post  tagged Allan N. Mulholland / clients / coach / coaching / experience / session / structure

In today’s guest post Allan N. Mulholland shares criteria he considers essential for how he works:" Turn Your Coaching Session Into a Coaching Experience" by Allan N. Mulholland

Turn Your Coaching Session Into a Coaching Experience

By Allan N. Mulholland

There is much more to coaching than simply picking up the phone at a pre-arranged time and connecting with your client for a 30 minute chat! The old axiom “You only get out of it, what you put into it” was never more true than for your coaching session. The client must receive maximum value from the session, while the coach receives maximum fees.

If you want to facilitate the successful achievement of your client’s Desired Outcome, every one of your coaching sessions must be purposeful, results-driven and goal-oriented! If you want to charge top coaching fees, you better be prepared to go the extra mile and turn your coaching session into a coaching experience.

There are many elements that make up a properly executed coaching session. Here are the 10 session criteria that I consider essential for creating a coaching experience!

1 – Preparation

Before I connect with a client, I always allow myself 15 minutes to properly prepare for the session. This is the time when I do all of the following:

  • a) I review all my notes.

Every time I conduct a coaching session, I take detailed notes on everything that happens during the session. I am always amazed at how many coaches rely on memory from one session to the next. If you don’t take notes, you are not a credible and professional coach! Winging it is for the birds!

  • b) I check my Coaching Timeline.

Every Coaching Program that I prepare for a client is based on a 3 – 6 month timeline. I use this timeline to hold both the client and myself accountable for achieving measurable progress toward a Desired Outcome.

  • c) I read the “Prep Sheet”.

Prior to every session, my clients submit a Coaching Prep Sheet where they write a brief summary of the progress they made since the last session and where they want to spend some extra time during the next session.

  • d) I prepare a Session Agenda.

Based on the notes, timeline and prep sheet, I create a simple agenda that I will use to keep the coaching session on track and on time. Now I’m ready to make the call!

2 – Maintaining Control

When you engage in a coaching session with your client, it is imperative that you are in control of the conversation at all times! You are the conductor of your “coaching bus” and your client is the passenger! While your client may have an itinerary of places he or she wants to go, you’re the one who is driving the bus that will take them there!

This is especially true if you’re giving away a free initial coaching session! You’re passenger hasn’t even paid for the bus ticket yet, so don’t let them grab the steering wheel! If they can drive the bus themselves, why do they need you? Yet so many coaches allow their clients to “hijack” the coaching bus and take control of the session.

If you want to deliver a quality coaching session, you’ve got to be in control! How do you maintain control? By asking questions!

3 – Asking Questions

Lead the conversation by asking questions! These questions must be targeted and focused on the Desired Outcome. Listen intently to your client’s answers!

Ask more questions! Maintain control! And then wait for the “Coaching Climax”!

4 – Creating Coaching Climaxes

A Coaching Climax is the ‘mental trigger’ that validates and authenticates a pivotal point in a coaching session. I deliberately chose the word ‘climax’ as a metaphor for the powerful impact it has on a coaching client. A skillful Coach can achieve multiple Coaching Climaxes for a client during a coaching session.

If your client does not experience at least one coaching climax for every 15 minutes of coaching, your coaching session did not measure up to the rigorous standards of a Coaching EXPERT!

5 – Achieving Milestones

A sure-fire way to keep your clients motivated and on track is to provide measurable accomplishments during and following each coaching session. Recognize the progress the client has made since the last session and point out any recent ‘milestones’ that he/she has reached. A ‘Success Formula’ is created when a string of ‘milestones’ are recorded along the path to achieving a Desired Outcome.

6 – Keeping focus on the Desired Outcome

If you don’t keep focus on the Desired Outcome, the client may start to wander in different directions. While you certainly do not want to stifle any opportunity for your clients to achieve a Coaching Climax, you must guard against any random deviations from the session agenda. If you don’t, the session will miss its objective and will be difficult to record in your notes in the context of the overall Desired Outcome.

7 – Inserting the Accountability Factor

The “accountability factor” must be ever present throughout the session! As a Coach, you must hold your clients accountable for their actions.

  • Without accountability, there can be no discipline.
  • Without discipline, there can be no commitment.
  • Without commitment, there can be no achievement.

8 – Reviewing the session

Before you wrap up your coaching session, you must do a quick verbal recap of the things your client achieved during the call. This will re-enforce the client’s perception of value and the investment the client is making in you as a coach!

9 – The Assignment

Always assign some homework that the client must complete by the next session. This could be writing a new resume, drinking less alcohol, starting a new project for their home or business, celebrating a special occasion, etc.

10 – The follow-up email

For me, this is the ‘icing on the cake’! As a true professional, you must send a brief email to your clients that recognizes the Coaching Climaxes that were created, the Milestones that were achieved and the Assignment that is to be completed by the next session!

Incorporate these 10 elements in your coaching sessions and discover how you can create a unique and valuable coaching experience for your clients!

About Allan N. Mulholland

Allan N. Mulholland is the founder and president of PersonaCoach (Int’l) LLC, which provides training and certification for life & business coaches. He is the author of “Change Your Perception, Change Yourself!” and writes on all aspects of coaching training and development.

To get Allan’s free eBook “Become a Coaching EXPERT and Charge EXPERT Coaching Fees!” go to http://www.personacoach.com

CLICK HERE to join Allan’s LinkedIn Group.

Coaching in schools

 in Guest Post  tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / Coaching Connect / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / Liz Scott / mentoring / nlp coach / non-directive / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / Smart Coaching In Schools / solutions / structure / Students / teachers / teenagers

What’s the best way to deliver coaching in schools?

How can pupils and staff benefit from coaching when budgets are so tight?

Liz Scott is a coach working extensively in education; she’s discovered that pure ‘leadership coaching’ isn’t the answer when working with teenagers. Here are the three key points she learnt from coaching in schools.

Coaching in schools

by Liz Scott

You would think that it would be pretty straight forward when coaching students. You would think that all you need to do is to slightly adapt head teacher coaching to suit a teenager. So when I was asked to coach students I was excited, enthusiastic and very naïve. I thought about ‘Dead Poets Society’ and imaged I would inspire these students to great things using coaching instead of poetry. It wasn’t quite that simple. I rapidly had to modify my technique to suit young people. Here are the three key things I learnt.

1. You need a liberal sprinkling of mentoring.

Realisation dawned rapidly as I sat with my first 15 year old that pure leadership coaching wasn’t the answer.

Students spend such a lot of time at school being told what to do and when to do it. The looseness of pure non-directive coaching wasn’t something they were comfortable with. The students responded best when a structured, mentoring approach was mixed with a non-directive framework.

2. Coaching could produce rapid change

The year 10 students had issues ranging from confidence, communication and organisational-skills.

It was astonishing how quickly they adjusted their habits and behaviours when they saw something from a new perspective. For example, one young lad was incredibly disorganised, he’d forget books, homework and pencils on a daily basis. His teachers were frustrated and he felt they were ‘picking’ on him. After a bit of coaching he realised (for himself) that he needed to do something differently.

As a result of the session he decided he would pack his bag every night before school. When he left I couldn’t believe he would remember this on a daily basis. However, he did. When someone ‘finds their own solution’ through coaching, then things can change quickly,

3. It’s better to train the staff in coaching skills

In an ideal world it would be great for students to have an experienced, qualified coach working with them. However, in reality there isn’t the time or money to do this.

I felt real frustration at the small impact I was able to make with individual students. I could only see a limited number of youngsters and time was tight when I saw them (each session was 20 minutes).

It seems that the real leverage is when the staff are trained in coaching skills and can scatter coaching into their conversations and interactions with the students. This is the area I began to focus on. Instead of me delivering coaching with an ad-hoc number of students I began to work with teachers and TA’s to help them use coaching skills to transform student-relationships, lessons and day to day conversations.

It’s so much better to help the staff learn fundamental coaching skills. When they can do this then the impact can be felt across the school.

Summary

Working in schools is incredibly rewarding. For me the biggest reward is helping the existing staff to adapt their communication using coaching skills. Teachers are already highly skilled in working with young people, so giving them the additional skill of coaching can make a real difference in a school.

About the Author/Further Resources

Liz Scott is part of www.smartcoachingforschools.com. She works with a coach delivering coaching skill training courses in education. Liz also brings coaches together as part of Coaching Connect. You can come to the next Coaching Connect event in October www.coachingconnect.eventbrite.com