Making the most of your Coaching Session

Congratulations on investing in yourself by signing up for a coach or mentor!  This is an important step for your own personal growth, and you want to take full advantage of these services.  How you use those sessions and the time before and after them will ultimately lead to their successes.  Here are some helpful tips to make the most out of your sessions.

How to get the most out of your coaching sessions:

Before the session:

1.       Do a quick reflection:  What was my action in our last section and how have I made progress.  If I didn’t make progress, what got in my way?  What is going on for me now, what is going well, where am I stuck?  Where there any significant breakthroughs? Setbacks?

2.       If your coach sends you a prep form, fill it out and send it at least one day before your session.

3.       Visualize the session: What do you want to get out of it?  What do you want to share with the coach?

During the session:

1.       Be present.  Find a quiet place where you can do the session, silence your phone notifications, take at least 10 minutes ahead of the session to decompress.  Rushing into a session with back to back meetings could work against you.

2.       The first five minutes of the session are generally the clearing portion.  Allow yourself to share what is on your mind at this moment and work with the coach to clear them which opens up the session.

3.       Take your time.  While you have 30 minutes or an hour to work, this is you working on you.  Think through the questions, reflect, allow yourself to silently process.  Coaches are taught to allow silence and are comfortable with it.  Embrace it.

4.       Be flexible.  You may have it in your head what you want to do, but at some point that may change.  That’s ok.  Coaching is about finding out where you are stuck and what is getting in your way.  Sometimes surprising things come up.  That’s a good thing.  Let yourself go with the flow.

5.       Allow yourself to be vulnerable.  Sessions can get emotional.  That’s ok.  While there is a difference between coaching and therapy, you are growing and it can get deep.  Let it.

6.       Take notes.  Aha moments and discoveries will happen. You want to be sure to note them down so you can go back later and review/reflect.

7.       Give yourself grace and trust the process.  I had a client who at the outset didn’t really know what to take on during the session.  She didn’t get flustered and through the process found a key question she was grappling with and discovered a way forward.  She gave herself grace in not having something to discuss and trusted the process leading to an excellent session.

After the session:

Do your action!  But if you cannot, make a note.  Its ok, things come up, and this process will help you understand what is getting in your way.

Getting the most out of mentoring:

Mentoring is slightly different  As a mentee, you are working with a senior member of your team where you seek advice and guidance for your career growth.  As opposed to coaching, your mentor will give advice and guidance.

Before the session:

1.        Similar to coaching, reflect on what has happened since the last session. How did you build on what you discussed in the last session? What significant events happened since the last session?  Where did you grow? What were setbacks?

2.       Prepare for the session.   Your mentor is there to guide you and help you grow, but you need to drive the session.  What do you want to get out of this session?  What do you need from the mentor?  Plan it out so that it can be the best use of both of your time.

During the session:

1.       Be honest with what you have been going through.  Was there a difficult moment with your supervisor, co-worker, the project you are working on?  Your mentor has been through all of this in their career, so sharing your difficulties  can help put them in perspective while gaining advice on how to move forward.

2.       Ask a lot of questions.  You are there to learn from the mentor, come with questions for them.

3.       Listen.  You are there to learn, listen to what they have to say, ask clarifying questions. 

4.       Come up with homework and actions for the next session and set the time and date.

After the session:

1.       Do the homework!

Following these steps can help ensure the success of your investment and place you on the path to continued personal growth.