Coaching Questionnaire Introduction
In our coaching, the most significant outcomes will come from our coaching partnership.
• It's important to note that power is granted to the relationship, not the coach.
• You play a critical role in determining how you want to be coached and help in ensuring you're getting full value from the coaching.
• This relationship is tailored to fit you, the client.
To design a powerful relationship, please take the time to answer these questions as accurately and as completely as possible. Your responses form the groundwork for our work together. We will continue to redesign our coaching relationship as it evolves. If a question does not make sense or doesn’t seem important to you, leave it for now. We can address it later.
Coaching Expectations
Expect to Focus
Most conversations kind of wander along. Coaching doesn’t. Coaching is more like a meeting with a clear purpose and an agenda. A successful coaching conversation focuses on a topic that’s important to you and moves through four focused phases:
Goal – we’ll focus on what you want in relation to your topic. How do you want things to be?
Reality – we’ll get clear about the gap between how things are and how you want them to be.
Options – we’ll focus on possible paths for closing the gap. We will brainstorm options and then pick the best option(s) for moving forward.
What – we’ll turn your options into action and get crystal clear on what you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it, and do you have the willpower to make it happen.
Expect to be Asked Discovery Questions
There are two kinds of questions: recall and discovery. A discovery question prompts you to think and to create. A recall question prompts you to sort through your mental file folders in search of a correct answer. My questions aren’t intended to have you explain things to me or get me up to speed. Instead, you should respond in ways that reveal new insights for you.
Expect to Work
Coaching makes you think, which is work. Your brain is an incredible calorie-burning machine. Thinking takes energy – lots of energy. If you mistakenly expect the coaching relationship to be a walk in the park, you’ll tend to resist climbing mountains. Adjust your expectations and embrace the fact that rewards come in proportion to effort. Your willingness to work hard will pay off.
Expect to be Uncomfortable
This one can be especially challenging for all of us. Learning means change; moving away from the status quo. I sincerely like my clients and deeply respect where they are in their personal and professional journeys, and from that deep respect, I will often need to challenge you and make you uncomfortable to best serve you. Please don’t misinterpret the discomfort as something coming from a place of malintent or judgment. Discomfort is the pathway to growth, and we’ll experience it together.
Expect to Change
Coaching is mostly talk, but please know this: words aren’t enough. We use words in order to create action and change. You can have what you choose to want. Just be clear about what you want, find out the cost, and pay the cost. The cost will always involve change.
Coaching Questionnaire
Please complete this form in advance of our first coaching session.