Getting the most of your coaching sessions (aka getting your money’s worth).

Do you work with or are you seriously considering working with a career coach, life coach or business coach? If yes, then congratulations for putting yourself on a pathway for success! Working with a coach can absolutely be a life changing experience.

Many of the most successful people in all kinds of fields hire coaches because doing so allows them, not only to achieve their goals faster than they could on their own, but to achieve goals they may never have been able to achieve on their own.

However, coaching is an investment of your time and money, so how can you make sure you are getting what you need out of it? 

Here are four tips to help you: 

1. Know what you want to accomplish 

Having a clear set of goals that you want to accomplish can significantly impact the success of your coaching experience. Simply saying that you want to improve your situation and relying solely on your coach to take the lead, is not always sufficient. 

While it’s okay not to have clarity initially or before every session, (in fact this is often what the coach is there to help you with in the first place), having a clear objective at the start of each session can make a huge difference to the rest of the conversation and its impact. 

So, as much as possible, try to share your expectations with your coach and explain in as much detail as you can what you are hoping to gain and achieve, so that they will be in a better position to get you there. 

2. Be open and honest

Being transparent and honest with yourself and your coach can help you achieve a more successful and transformative outcome. One of the best tools to bring with you into a coaching session is your positive attitude and open mind.

A good coach will never directly impose specific ideas or beliefs on to you, and will keep anything you share with them confidential. So let your guard down and be open to discovering yourself by being prepared to share your story truthfully, and ask & answer questions honestly. 

Don’t withhold information that may impact your ability to reach your goals. And don’t inflate your abilities, or lie about your emotions, experiences and actions, as this may stop you and your coach from focusing on the right issues. Make sure everything is out in the open, that way the coach can help you find a way to meet any challenges you may encounter as best as possible. 

3. Give each session your full attention 

An effective coaching session requires your full attention as well as the right setting. So make sure you are in the right headspace at least 15 minutes before the session, show up on time to get the most out of each session, and set up your environment in a way that allows you to stay focused. For example, you may want to ensure you have a quiet space with no interruptions and good Internet connection for online sessions. 

4. Be fully committed to the process and ready to put in the effort.

To benefit fully from a coaching experience you need to think of yourself as a participant and not a recipient. Interact with your coach, share with them, allow yourself to be challenged by them, and do your homework. A good coach will set assignments to work on between sessions or give you strategies and tools to try out and experience. This is because coaching is an educational experience in which you are learning skills and gaining insights to help you reach your goals.

So be sure to get these assignments done and do the work required of you in between sessions to keep the process moving forward. (Or as Tony Robbins and his colleagues such as Dean Graziosi all say in their training and coaching programs, “bring a powerful presence and play full out”.) 

A coaching session may last between half an hour to two hours and are typically held 1-4 times a month. But the real power of coaching comes from what happens outside the session as well as within. This is why it is important to think of coaching as a process and not just a series of individual sessions.

More tips to follow…

In the meantime I’d love for you to: 

• Connect with me on LinkedIn, 
• DM me for a free 30 min consultation if you’d like to give coaching a try,
• Follow my business page and/or join my FB community for tips & resources on how to set and reach your most meaningful professional and personal goals.