Susan advises coaches to address ICF Competency 3, establishing and maintaining agreements, in the first 10 to 15 minutes of a session. Clarify the session focus, the client's desired outcome, and the primary challenge early, then echo these points back to confirm mutual understanding.
Susan here, out on my morning walk, and I've been thinking about coaching conversations, listening to a number of them and helping people prepare for their ICF credentialing exams and the, the audio that they need to submit for that. And so the tip that I wanted to offer around that is that when you are working to set an agreement, ICF #3 establishes and maintains agreements, you want to make sure that that happens within the first 10 to 15 minutes of say a 45 or 50-minute conversation. Don't wait until 30 minutes into the conversation to really clearly feel like, oh, I've set ICF number 3 and hit all of the markers related to that. What's the focus? What is the outcome that the client wants to have as a result of the conversation? What's the challenge that's getting in the way? And then really echo back to the client that you're hearing that this is what they want to have as an outcome. Are you understanding that correctly? Correctly so that you've really paired together to understand one another about what, what the focus, the outcome, the challenge is for the conversation. So first 10 to 15 minutes.
Susan’s ICF Educator Award | The Heart Behind the Impact Katy Montgomery, PCC
