Selecting Your Agenda - Maximizing the Time With Your Coach

Coaching has a pretty specific structure that is designed to help you, as the client, to level up in some way. It could be in any area of your life depending on where you want to focus whether that is career or business, relationships, health and wellness, spirituality, or your finances just to name a few. The idea is, you pick a topic, and you and your coach dive in.

Throughout the session you will explore that topic, gain new insights and perspectives, and come up with an action plan that will help you stay on track. So how can you maximize the time with your coach and ensure that you walk away in a better place than when you started?

Here are a few ways to set yourself up for a successful coaching session:

Be specific with your agenda or topic that you choose to discuss with your coach. 

Most coaches will ask you ahead of time to select an agenda, or what you want to focus on during the session. Some coaches will ask you to send them your agenda the day before the session. So really give this some thought. Explore what it is that might help you move the needle in your category of choice. 

Here is an example. Maybe you want to focus on your health. What is it specifically that is keeping you from reaching your health goals? Are you staying on track in terms of diet throughout the day but then can’t control your evening snacking? Are you struggling to get yourself into a regular exercise routine? What is it specifically within that category that you are looking to overcome or achieve? 

Once you have established an agenda, think about what your desired takeaway is.

The second question that your coach will ask, once you have set the agenda, is what your desired takeaway is for the session. This helps provide direction to your conversation. For example, you might be looking for specific coping methods on how to get a handle on your out of control evening snacking. Or if your agenda is about holding yourself accountable to complete tasks in your business, then your desired takeaway might be setting specific goals and deadlines in order to complete those tasks. You now have a topic and a direction.

Be open to the conversation taking an unexpected turn.

While coming into the session with a planned agenda and desired outcome will support you in reaching those goals, you must be open to exploring a different path if that is where your conversation naturally takes you. For example, your agenda is that you are looking for more structure as you dive into starting your new business. Your takeaway is that you want to have some specific goals set and a timeline to get you there. So your coach starts asking you questions about your business and the tasks that you have so far been putting off. Over the course of the conversation you reveal that you are struggling with some limiting beliefs that are paralyzing you and not allowing you to move the needle in your business. With that new information, your coach just might stop and ask you how you feel about exploring the path of overcoming your limiting beliefs. They might give you the option of staying on your original topic, or switching to take a deeper dive into what has been hindering you all of this time. The choice is yours, but it is important to be open to the process and follow the path that unfolds in front of you. While goal setting is important, if there is an underlying thought or emotion that is holding you back then that is something that needs attention. Otherwise you might find yourself stuck in the same cycle of setting goals and not following through.