The Coaching Partnership

In most relationships, someone is in charge but in a good coaching relationship, no one is. It is a partnership. Both parties have responsibilities to the other party.

The coaches role is to:

• Believe the coachee is naturally creative resourceful and whole
• Create an environment where the coachee is comfortable to open up
• Hold the coachee’s agenda
• Co-create details of each partnership with each client
• Use active listening to hear the coachee’s words and meanings
• Make connection the coachee may not see
• Call-out contradictions and support coachee in clarifying beliefs, needs, and wants
• Invite the coachee to fully explore, become self-aware and learn
• Invite the coachee to examine their strengths and skills that will allow for growth/change
• Support and encourage coachee to examine possibilities
• Support coachee to create powerful actions to move forward

The coachee’s role is to:

• Initiate coaching
• Set the agenda by coming prepared to sessions with topics/questions
• Co-create details of the partnership
• Take opportunities in sessions to explore, examine and create during sessions
• Take actions between coaching sessions
• Take responsibilities for actions or lack of actions between session

Coaching is driven by the coachee. Ultimately the coachee is accountable for the outcomes and results. Coaching is a process, not an event so the coachee must be willing to do the work required. The coachee is the primary beneficiary of the process. The coach’s only agenda is a support the goals and agenda of the coachee.

The process will have growth, learning, failure, support, encouragement, and rewards.