I start most coaching sessions asking my clients how they’d like to invest the time together that day. I get different kinds of answers:
“I want to resolve a conflict.”
“I want to be prepared for a presentation.”
“I want to improve my weaknesses.”
“I want to communicate better / focus better / manage my time or money better.”
This is their agenda for an individual coaching session. But progress on the agenda (with a small a) of an individual session is most productive in the context of their broader Agenda (with a big A) for their long-term coaching engagement.
So, one of my first questions is often, “when you’ve done that, what will it do for you?”
We’re far more ready to put in the work to reach a short-term goal when we see how it aligns with our long-term desires.
But sometimes, even those are hard to discover. That’s why the first few coaching sessions are sometimes centered around discovering a client’s long-term, “Big-A” Agenda – not just for the engagement, but sometimes for their whole life.
If you’d like to clarify your own Big-A Agenda to make your other targets more compelling, apply for alignment coaching at https://www.northwayinsights.com/#apply-target
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