Setting Coaching Goals: Step One

If you’re a coach, you need to have a clearly defined focus for your coaching, likely in the form of a goal. 

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To do this, you need to build some knowledge and skill. For example, you need to: 

• Know what makes a good goal 
• Be able to invest your clients in goals generally, and in their goal specifically 
• Structure your coaching to support goal attainment and impact on students  

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I can teach you how to do each of those, but before you get started there’s an important step you need to take. Do you know what it is? 

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If you’ve been learning with me for a while it won’t surprise you. It’s what all Transformational Coaches do... 

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Start with yourself. Always. 

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For goal-setting consider: 

• How have you felt about setting goals? 
• Do you feel like you often meet the goals that you set? 
• How do you feel when you don’t meet goals? 
• On a scale of 1-5, how inclined do you feel like you are towards setting goals? [ 5 = you LOVE setting goals, you set them all the time and they keep you focused. 1 = you rarely set goals, don’t like doing so, and maybe have some negative associations with goal setting] 

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Getting to know your own attitudes towards goals, and reflecting on your experience with them will support you in guiding your clients in this process.

• It’s often easier to support and connect with clients who share “like me” tendencies 
• You are more likely to perceive clients as “resistant” who don’t share your tendencies 

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Once you’re clear on your own tendencies you can identify where you need to hone your practice. 

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If you need support in learning how to set coaching goals with clients, here are two resources: 

• Learning Library and Transformational Coaching PLC: Determining Your Focus/Coaching Goals skill session. This will walk you through everything you need to know. You’ll also be able to get your questions answered, and engage in practice conversations so you’ll be ready to confidently lead the process with your clients ‍
• Episode 215 of The Bright Morning Podcast: Determining the Your Coaching Goals With a Client (coaching demonstration). This will provide you with a model of what the first conversation sounds like