10 Ways to know you are doing a good job as a coach

  1. Taking time afterwards to think about how the coaching session went with the client. This demonstrates an urge to improve your practice and refine the craft of coaching. Look at the Seven Coaching Conversations (David Clutterbuck) to give you inspiration as to what happens inwardly and outwardly during coaching. Set yourself an action plan of what you want to know or practise before your next coaching session. Send us a question, which we will answer directly in an email to you and more widely write up the question and answer in a blog for others to learn from too.
  2. Taking time during a coaching conversation to check out relevance of a particular discussion if the coachee seems to be answering at a superficial level (minus passion). For example: how is this conversation helping you? How could we best use the rest of the time to work on X……?
  3. Noticing moments of understanding that a coachee has and do not rush them. They may well start to speak and then hesitate; you may hear them writing something down. These moments of understanding are key to bring about subtle shifts in direction and impact. Sometimes the ‘aha’ moments happen but more often it is greater understanding that we see emerge. These add up to be substantial and transformative.
  4. Not panicking if there is silence or a pause and stepping in eagerly to give your point of view. Take the opportunity to pause and let the question or its meaning land before you check back in.
  5. A developing relationship with your client. You can reflect on how the relationship has grown from the first formal contact. There is a greater ease to it and both sides look forward to a session.
  6. That you have made time to look up your notes from the last session and so feel prepped and ready for the conversation.
  7. The coachee gives you feedback which comes from the heart about something in particular you did and said during the conversation. This may be a particular question that you asked or how you noticed a change in tone or energy, or description. We learn from both what we do well and from our shortcomings.
  8. Let the flow of the conversation be influenced by the coachee’s answers rather than the questions you had prepared in advance. I like to think of a few questions in advance and to have those on my pad in front of me. Very often I don’t use them but writing them down and giving the process some attention ahead of the actual call means that they are there if needed.
  9. Enjoying listening to the coachee and being a witness to their story. Your role is to help them to notice that story from many angles.
  10. Feeling that what was created during the coaching session came from a new place and was the sum of the relationship you have with the coachee; the space created for the conversation and the energy that emerged because of these two.