Throughout my career as a coach, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with hundreds of coaches, ranging from brilliant, wildly-successful veterans to brand new coaches without a single client… and everything in between.
There’s one thing they all have in common.
None of them — not one — wants to waste time in their coaching sessions. No matter how much they love their clients and are passionate about helping them solve their problems, no coach wants to spend hours in a coaching session that meanders from topic to topic without making any progress.
But, the reality is, tons of coaches do exactly that.
More specifically, I used to do that.
In an average coaching session, about five minutes were really enlightening and helpful for the client while the rest of the hour was spent talking about God-knows-what.
After a full day of this, I’d be completely drained and feel like I’d wasted my time.
Thankfully, that’s not the case anymore. Now I have a framework for my coaching sessions that make them nice and quick. I call it The 20™ because it allows me to run a full coaching session that covers everything a client needs to more forward in just 15 to 20 minutes.
Right now I want to give you the three keys to this framework so you can use it maximize your impact for your clients in the shortest amount of time possible.
1. Build On Momentum
There are two types of accountability: past-focused accountability and future-focused accountability.
Past-focused accountability looks like this:
“Did you do your homework?”
“No”
“Why not?”
“Because I… [insert feeble excuse here].”
“Will you do it next week?”
“Okay fine.”
That’s a buzzkill and it stops the momentum in its tracks.
Then there’s future-focused accountability that says, “I’m not interested in your past, other than to the degree that it helps us make progress. Let’s look ahead.”
This builds momentum and confidence.
The easiest way to do this is by spending the first few minutes of the session collecting ‘wins’.
You’ll say, “Since the last time we talked, what wins have you had? What progress have you made?”
Whether they’ve made a bunch of huge leaps or just a few small steps, it doesn’t matter because ‘nothing succeeds like success’. When you start the session by talking about the good things that have happened in their world, it gives both of you a strong feeling of confidence about facing the future.
2. Unpack The Issues
Next, you need to get a list of the big issues and dig deep into them.
Peel back the layers of the onion a bit and get really clear about the top one, two, or three opportunities or challenges your client is facing and wants to work on.
This is the part of the session where your goal is to find out what’s really going on in their world.
They may have a 20 or 30 things on their mind, but you need to dig deep and get to the core issues that need to be solved — either problems to fix or opportunities to capitalize on.
3. Get a Gameplan
So far you’ve established wins, built momentum, and unpacked their issues. Now you’ll tell them what to do about it.
This is your gameplan, and it’s made up of three pieces.
Recommendations
First, you need to pull from your insight, strategy, and experience and tell them what you think they should do.
“I believe you should look at this from a different perspective. You need to focus on X,Y, Z. Don’t do that thing, focus on this thing.”
Resources
If you’ve coached for any significant length of time, you probably already have a library of great resources you could give your clients. These could be videos, audio recordings, articles, or worksheets you can point them to.
Instead of spending your time teaching something you’ve taught before, send them a copy of a webinar or podcast you have that gives them the solution they’re after.
Actions
The last piece of the gameplan is really straightforward. You want to get your client to make a commitment to taking action.
“Between now and our next meeting, what are three actions you’d like to complete?”
They’ll think about it for a second and list out three actions. Then, you’ll say, “Great! Do you know what to do? Can you do it? When will you get started?”
Finally, take a photo of your notes and send it to them with a quick voice memo and any links you’ve pointed them to.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you grow your coaching business:
1. Grab a free copy of my book
It’s the roadmap to attracting prospects, signing clients, and scaling your coaching business. — Click Here
2. Join the Coach Dojo and connect with coaches who are scaling too
It’s our new Facebook community where smart coaches learn to get more income, impact, and independence. — Click Here
3. Join our Implementation Program and be a Case Study
I’m putting together a new coaching case study group at Black Belt this month… stay tuned for details. If you’d like to work with me on your client-getting and scale plans… just send me a message with the words “Case Study”. — Click Here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take you from 6 to 7 figures… just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! — Click Here
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