The Detached Observer: How to review your coaching sessions

The most effective way to improve as a coach is to record and review your coaching sessions. Here's an 18-point checklist so you can be the best coach you can be.

Bettyhill, Scotland

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your identity.”

James Clear

[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.]

“If you want to be a millionaire,” says Jim Rohn, “the first thing you need to do is become a millionaire.”

Those aren’t his exact words, but the lesson is clear - if you want to be a millionaire the best thing you can do is start acting and behaving like one. That way, when you do eventually get a million pounds, you are the kind of person that will keep it.

What does becoming a millionaire have to do with coaching?

Well, if you want to become an authoritative coach, the first two questions to ask yourself are:

1. What kind of coach do I want to BE?

2. What am I going to DO - what actions am I going to take - to BE the coach I want to be?

And so, if you want to change the way you approach your coaching, what you need to do is what the coach you want to be would do.

The first step is to become a Detached Observer so you can objectively review your coaching work.

The Detached Observer

Coaching is a lived experience and once you’ve completed your foundational coaching training, you will typically learn more ‘on the job’, - from the mistakes you make and the difficult scenarios that you are unprepared for - than any coaching book or course.

That’s why my advice to new coaches is to get their reps in and clock up as many hours of coaching as they can.

However, it isn’t enough to only have experienced it. Deep learning happens upon reflection and often times when you are coaching in the moment you won’t truly know how you acted, behaved and responded.

That’s why we must become detached observers of our work. We must become our own coach.

Thus, recording and reviewing your coaching sessions becomes one of the most important activities for your continued professional development. And as coaches, we’re always improving.

This will be easy for some, and difficult for others, but it’s no different than any sports team watching a recording of the game they just played and spotting where they could improve for the next game.

We simply have to do it if we want to become truly indispensable coaches.