Jan Lonnen, The Coaching Academy's Qualifications Manager carries out the practical assessments as part of her role and has put together her top 5 tips on preparing for these assessments. Here are Jan's top tips to help you prepare for and carry out your observed coaching sessions successfully:-
After carrying out over 2000 observed coaching sessions I have noticed the odd thing or two that I thought I would share with you to help you with this part of your qualification journey. I am aware that some of you maybe a little nervous about being listened to, which I think is a good thing. It shows to me that your coaching skills are important to you and you want to hone these skills. The observed sessions are part of your journey to become a fabulous coach in whatever niche area you have chosen.
At The Coaching Academy we encourage you to stage these observed sessions throughout your studies so you can really benefit from the feedback that you receive and make the tweaks in your approach to make your sessions even more impactful for your clients.
Whether you intend to use the telephone or SKYPE, practice, practice, practice with setting up a 3 way call. You want to make sure that your focus is on the coaching session and not whether you can figure out how to get everyone connected.
Spend a few moments at the start of the session doing a bit of housekeeping. Making sure distractions are minimised and that everyone has the relevant note taking facilities to hand. This will settle both parties for the session and increase the flow of conversation.
30 minutes is plenty of time to run an effective coaching session. I strongly advise delivering a couple of 30 minute sessions prior to the assessment so nothing is totally new during this time. 30 minutes is longer than you may first think so don’t feel the need to jump to actions earlier than necessary. Trust the process, it will work for you.
Listen to your client – sounds obvious doesn’t it? There can be a temptation when being observed to over analyse your performance and become critical during the session with the impact being losing your attention towards your client and what they are telling you.
This is you doing what you are passionate about, enjoy it! You are supporting your client to develop, enhance and reach their potential. How amazing is that? I feel privileged to be part of your coaching journey and will very much look forward to listen to more great coaching from you.
"I wish I had done one or even two of these assessments much earlier on in my training as I have learned a lot from them. Many thanks for your feedback." - J. Watt
"I found the practical assessment both encouraging - in that I felt it went quite well... and insightful - in terms of the very valuable feedback I received." - G. James
"I found the feedback from the practical assessment most useful and it’s all been rewarding." - R. Fuglesten
"My favourite moment on the course was completing the assessed calls and getting live feedback." - V. Baldwin
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
We are accredited by the International Coach Federation and the Association for Coaching, and we're rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot.
