As a life coach, we know you are constantly on the hunt for tips and tricks to up your game and deliver the highest quality sessions to your clients. One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is a well-designed session template.
A session template is a structured plan that outlines the flow and content of your coaching sessions. It will help you stay focused, ensure you cover all the key points, and make the most of the time you have with your clients.
It is important to have a template for your sessions that you can use as a guide and as a reference to ensure that each session is successful and productive. Having a template in place can help to streamline the process, saving you time and energy while ensuring that each session is tailored to the individual needs of your client.
Elements of a Life Coaching Session Template
The foundation of a life coach session template is having the right structure. You should build out your template so that each session follows a similar, conversational flow and that each session can build on previous ones.
When creating a template for your life coaching session, there are several key components to consider.
1. Framing The Session and Agreeing Upon The Coaching Outcomes
It’s important to begin the session on the right foot. The first thing to do with your client is to define the purpose of the session and set expectations. This should include what topics will be discussed, how much time will be devoted to each topic, and how the session will be structured.
It is also important that your life coach session template includes a solid plan for the session with outlined steps or activities that will be taken during the session, and that you share this with the client.
There are some key questions you should ensure that you go over with your client during this phase of the session:
- What is your biggest goal for this session?
- What would make this coaching session a win?
- What would you like to work on during the next several sessions?
This part of the session should be friendly, conversational, and should focus on building rapport and understanding the client's needs.
2. Immediate, Medium, and Long-Term Goals For Your Client
After setting the frame of the session, it’s important to determine the goals of the session. This should include an immediate goal, a medium goal, and a long-term goal. This will help to keep the session focused and ensure that each topic is relevant to the needs of the client.
These goals will act as a roadmap, guiding the direction of your session and ensuring that you stay on track.
To define your goals, start by considering what your client wants to achieve during the session. Do they have specific challenges or issues they want to address? Are there areas of their life they want to improve or goals they want to achieve? Your goals should be directly aligned with your client's needs and objectives.
It's vitally important to set short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals for your sessions.
- Short-term goals: These include specific action steps or insights that you want your client to take away from the session and implement immediately.
- Medium-term goals: These are how your client can break down their longer-term goals into more manageable steps, usually achievable within 6 months- 1 year.
- Long-term goals: These are more overarching and focus on larger life changes or improvements, usually achievable within 3 years or more.
By clearly defining your client's goals for the session, you'll be able to stay focused and ensure that your template is designed to meet the specific needs of your clients.
3. Situational Presence
Situational presence and awareness is the next key element of any life coach session template.
It is important to ask questions to help the client identify their current state of affairs. This will help the client to understand their current situation, and to be able to make decisions that are in alignment with their goals.
Once the client is aware of their current state, they can begin to identify the steps they need to take to reach their desired outcomes. This should include exploring their values, beliefs, goals, and any obstacles that might be holding them back.
This will also help to provide the coach with a better understanding of the client’s needs and help to create a more effective coaching plan.
As always, being a great life coach is about asking great questions. Here are some key questions that you should be sure to ask during this section of the session:
- What happened and what went well (or what went wrong)?
- Would you have done something differently, if so what?
- How did this situation reinforce learning or move you closer toward your goals?
4. Provide Coaching Tools and Alternatives
Once the client has a better understanding of their current state and the goals they want to achieve, it’s time to provide coaching tools and alternatives.
This should include providing resources, such as books, articles, and other materials, that can help the client to reach their desired outcomes. It is also important to provide different perspectives and alternative solutions to help the client find the best way to move forward.
As a coach, it is your duty to relate to your client, so you should provide anecdotal situations wherever you can.
You also must get inside your client's mind and understand where they are coming from so that you can best serve them. Use your deep understanding of your client to create mental pathways for them to envision a different action they could take.
There are also a few key questions you should ask during this section of the session:
- What will you do differently going forward?
- What would you have liked to have done in this situation and how do you think the outcome would have differed?
5. Create Accountability
Creating accountability is an important aspect of life coaching, as it helps clients follow through on their action steps and commitments, leading to lasting change and progress.
It is important to provide regular check-ins to ensure that the client is on track and to provide additional support and guidance when needed.
There are a few key ways you can create accountability in this phase of your coaching sessions:
- Set specific and measurable goals
- Regular check-ins
- Offer support and encouragement
- Ensure your client follows through on goals
- Have your client document their progress
6. Map Progress
At the end of each session, it is important to assess the progress that the client has made toward their goals. By assessing the progress made, the client can be held accountable for the actions that they have taken, and the goals that they have achieved.
While designing your template, make sure you build a system to document your client's journey and assess their progress, to ensure they are actually making progress towards their goals.
Use a repeatable Bonsai coaching template to create milestones to help show your clients how they are continuing to meet their personal goals.
Wrap Up
Having a life coach session template can be extremely beneficial for both you and your client.
It can help to ensure that each session is productive and tailored to the individual needs of your client. It can also help to keep the session organized and efficient, saving you time and energy.
Make sure you utilize the tools available to you like Bonsai, which is a full-stack suite of business tools for coaches, and consultants.
They are even offering a free trial for a limited time! Try it out and take your life coaching business to the next level.
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