How We Start
Coaching sessions are highly structured to help clients achieve their goals. The beginning is important because it helps us hone in on what you want to get out of the session. Here’s how I do it.
When we meet, we start by seeing where you are. That means checking in to see what has been going on in your life since the last time we talked and exploring what you might have been learning from any commitments ("experiments," in yesterday's post) you made at the end of the previous session.
This debrief is important for any number of reasons. It helps us settle into the conversation. It helps me see where you are so I can come to you. It might also be an opportunity to coach gently around any loose threads that might be dangling. And it sets up the first big question for our time together:
“What do you want for yourself out of our conversation today?”
Sometimes clients can answer this question right out of the gate. Other times, they might have two or three questions vying for attention. And other times, they might not know what they want, maybe because they’re tired or overwhelmed.
Or maybe they don’t know how to answer that question because no one has ever asked them what they wanted. Ever.
All of those answers are OK. We spend some time refining or defining the goal to help us both understand it better. (Sometimes, depending on where you are on that day, setting the goal might be the goal of the session.) But whatever that goal is, two things remain important:
It’s always going to be your goal, not mine.
That goal might change and shift as we get to know it better.
Once we get something more concrete, we move to the second big question:
“How would achieving that goal change your life?”
This question helps you think about the results you truly want and how you’ll know when you reach them. From there, we'll know where you want to start and where you want to go. We’ll follow that line throughout our hour together.
At the end of this part of the session, I want you to feel like you’ve been seen and heard. I want you to feel safe and focused. And I want to help you begin to connect with yourself in ways that might surprise you.
The first one or two times, this starting ritual might seem difficult. But helps you practice the fundamental questions we need to be asking ourselves every day: What do you want? Why do I want it? How will I know when I get it?
In the first 15 minutes, we’ve already started to change your life and leadership.
Want to learn more? Book your free Discovery Session here.
