Beginnings: Setting the foundations for highly valuable client coaching sessions

There are a few key ways to start your client sessions off successfully, and the major factors are the relationship you have with your client, and the context work you are doing together.

My son, Spencer, learning how to prepare himself for a safe ascent

“The most important thing is to figure out what is the most important thing”

Shunryu Suzuki

[So, you’ve read Become an Authoritative Coach and you want to know what to do next? This article is a chapter in the “What now?” series. Read more chapters from this series.]

Hi Coach,

There are a few different ways to start off your coaching sessions with your clients, and as you’ll see as you work through this article, I start off with a loose approach where the client dictates how you will spend your time together, through to collaboration and then into a position where you as the coach have a tighter grip on what the coaching session will look like.

I then briefly discuss who dictates the value of your client sessions, the importance of preparation and the next steps.

By the end of this article, you’ll feel more confident about starting your client sessions off from a more authoritative position.

Let’s get into it.

Wide open exploration

You can start your client session wide open and explore with a question like - “What’s front of mind for you today?”

It’s a fine question, but the issue with it is that it’s not very specific and, depending on the relationship and the context, you could end up wasting a lot of time on topics that end up not being a good use of time.

The trick here would be to work on a starting question that’s a little more specific.

For example:

• “Over the past week, what has been occupying your thoughts?”

• “What does progress look like since the last time we met?

• “What do you feel would be a good use of our time today?

• “What’s frustrated you the most at work this week?”

Again, the relationship and the context matters. There are some clients that I know want to get as much value out of our time together as I do, and starting here typically works out. However, if you know your client can get off track quickly, then you might want to look further down this list for beginnings with tighter boundaries.