Setting frameworks at the beginning of a set of sessions with a client is of the utmost importance in facilitating a successful coaching session. If you’re a coach wondering what powerful frameworks you could set up for your clients, this article will give you some specific examples as options and tips. Feel free to adapt them to fit your personal style.

Here is what a coach might say regarding the following items:

Weather:

  • ‘These training sessions usually last 60 (or 90) minutes.’
  • ‘It is your responsibility to arrive on time. If you arrive late, the session will still end at the agreed time.’

Commitment:

  • ‘I hope he follows the agreed training actions between sessions.’
  • ‘If you have to change the time of your session, I need you to let me know at least 24 hours before the appointment.’

Payment:

  • ‘The training fee is due the day of the session and can be paid by cash, check or credit card.’
  • ‘Paid training package fees are non-refundable.’

During sessions – things to say at the beginning of a training program:

  • ‘I don’t need a lot of content or story and I could interrupt it, if I feel it discourages me from achieving the desired result. It’s OK with you?’

  • ‘I’ll ask you lots of questions to get clarity, ask about your motivation, test your decision, or explore your beliefs and values. It depends on what you are willing to give me in terms of information and details to get the most out of your session.’

  • ‘Sometimes I can challenge or provoke you if it is helping you achieve the desired result.’

  • ‘Each session, I will ask you a series of questions at the beginning to agree on an outcome that would be important to you. Before you start training, I want to make it clear what you will want to experience, know, have or be by the end of the session so that it is worth your time and money. So before you come, you may want to think specifically about what you want to work on that can be achieved in one session.’

At the beginning of each session:

  • ‘What is the most powerful result you would like to achieve today?’
  • ‘What could we work on today that would have a big impact on your life?’
  • ‘What would you like to accomplish today that would be so important to you that it would have been worth every minute of your training session with me?’

If the desired result is too great to achieve in one session, then ask:

  • ‘What about this [the big outcome] could we work on today that would have a big impact?’
  • ‘What is the first thing we have to look at to move towards [the big outcome]?’

Note taking / Other supporting material:

  • ‘I could take some notes so that I can better remember the key points you have mentioned. These notes are confidential.

  • ‘At some point I might refer to supporting material such as books, notes or brochures.’

  • ‘If it’s right for your desired outcome, I might offer you suggestions to read or give you task sheets to complete between sessions as coaching actions.’

As mentioned above, these are just generic suggestions that should be tailored to your personal needs as a coach. He might even consider writing some of those frameworks as part of a terms and conditions document that he might send to a new client before their first counseling session.