How To Get The Most From Your Coaching

We want for you to benefit greatly from the time you spend with your coach and also during the time in between sessions. This brief guide is to help you maximise the value that you receive from working with your coach.

BE CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED AND WANT FROM COACHING: Think carefully about what you want to cover before the session begins. The coaching is more focused and purposeful when you know what you want to get from it, and when you know how you will know that you have got it! Make every minute count. Ask yourself the question, "If I could cover just one thing on the call today and have it be worth the entire month's coaching fee, what would it be?” Another powerful part of creating the coaching experience means taking a few extra minutes before the call to mentally prepare yourself, rather than 'jamming' the call into an already overly full day.

START WITH A FULL AGENDA: Working off the question above, make a list, not of one thing, but several things that would be important and valuable. Have more on your agenda than you think you can possibly go over, then go for getting them all addressed. Of course, some matters take longer than others, and you and your coach may only cover 1-2 items. Make sure they are important ones!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: Prioritise what you want to go over. Put the most important item at the top of your list. That way, even if that's the only item that gets handled, the session will have been well worthwhile.

MAKE CLEAR REQUESTS: Once you have your list and the priority, write down what requests for coaching you have in one or two short, clear statements. Take it one step further by asking yourself, "How do I want my coach to support me in this?" Do you want to brainstorm some new ideas, run some ideas you already have by him/her, get some resource information from your coach, etc?

FRONT LOAD THE DETAILS: Handle as much of the preliminary or background information as possible before the call. One of the greatest value-leveraging devices is the Coaching Session Preparation Form. Filling out the prep form prior to your coaching session and sending it to your coach beforehand will ensure that your coach has the necessary background information before your coaching session. In this way the start of your coaching session is already running rather than warming up. Filling out the prep form also helps you coach become more focused. It's a great structure for planning.

DEBRIEF YOURSELF: After each session, it is helpful to debrief your call. This helps you realise what you got out of the call, we well as helping you see what was not covered that can be addressed in the next session, or perhaps by a follow-up email or a brief telephone call.

BE 100% RESPONSIBLE: Take full responsibility for the coaching. Coaching is a partnership that empowers you to make a difference in your own life! A healthy approach to coaching is to consider yourself 100% responsible for how the relationship goes and what value you get out of each call. At the other end of the spectrum, your coach takes the same view, that he/she is 100% responsible for the relationship as well. In this way you and your coach have a 200% responsible partnership!

KNOW WHAT WORKS AND TELL YOUR COACH: Please do give your coach regular feedback so that he/she knows what works and what is of most value to you. Similarly, please also let him/her know what's not working or has less value so it can be eliminated. This might not be obvious at first but you will soon start to realise that some calls are very powerful whereas other calls were not quite so. Begin to look at what was different about the two calls.

EXPECT TO MEET RESISTANCE TO THE CHANGES YOU MAKE FROM SOME OF THOSE AROUND YOU: As you are coached, you may start to change how you see the world, what you consider to be important, what actions you take and how you relate to people. Those around you can find this unsettling and even threatening – and may as a result try to “pull you back into line”.

GET TO KNOW YOURSELF ANEW: Don’t be surprised if you discover new parts of yourself, see old parts in a new way, or find goals adjusting themselves to who you really are. This discovery process is natural, so you needn’t rush it; just realise that it is likely to happen.

TAKE WHAT YOU GAIN FROM THE SESSION INTO THE REST OF YOUR LIFE: The value of being coached comes from what you do between the sessions. Find ways to keep reminding yourself to take the insights, new behaviours, new ways of seeing and new ways of being into your daily life.

BE WILLING TO DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY: Be willing to experiment with fresh approaches and be open to redesign the parts of your life that you are able to right now. Be willing to:

• Change your behaviour	• Review and redesign how you spend your time
• Experiment and try new things	• Set goals that are much bigger/smaller/different
• Treat others differently	• Tell the truth, regardless
• Ask others for help	• Listen without “defending”
• Ask for what you need	• Stop tolerating things in your life
• Review assumptions/decisions you have made	• Scrutinise your beliefs, values, needs and wants
• Raise your personal standards	• Remove sources of stress

AND FINALLY, KEEP YOURSELF WELL BETWEEN SESSIONS