What do I do if my client consistently isn't bringing coaching requests?

first of all... chill. This is normal. 

You might ask: 

•  do we need to cancel your call. 
  • Check in on well-being. They are uncoachable, reschedule. 
•  Do you just need to be? If so that’s cool.

I create two types of partnerships:

1. Thought leadership partnerships - Bill Campbell type coaching
2. Project based partnership - Coach for…. _________ 

Forming a Coaching Request: What do I get coached on?  

@Coaches, feel free to send/screenshot this and send to your clients. This is also a solid format for anyone running consistent 1:1s with direct reports.

At the beginning of most sessions, coaches ask their client for their “coaching request”.

A “coaching request” is just an invitation for structure and direction. It’s a compass that says we’re going to head in this direction and see where it goes.  

Exhibit A: Jack Sparrow’s compass. It points in the direction of what you want most.

OFTEN (not always), requests are ways to move forward in the following camps:

1. Self / Relationship with Self
2. Relationships - personal, romantic, professional
3. Career or Professional - decision making
4. Creativity or Leadership
5. Spirituality, Universe, or Energy 

What are the gaps in your life?

What do we get to talk about when everything is settled?

• now we get talk about yearn

They usually take one of three measurable forms:

• Practices or actions to take
• Identifying or uncovering an awareness
• Open exploration
• Declaration
• Discovering the root cause or core context (vs. supporting context)

We can focus on two types of gaps

1. Those that we want to fix - the request comes from problems or the immediate. Narrowed and contraction. We’re always at a deficient.
2. Those that we want to close/generate - the request comes from possibility or exploration And expansive. There are the exponential conversations/the ones that generate leverage. Pay attention to the things that inspire you

To normalize this experience… I’ve been getting coached almost every week for 4 years and I still be showing up to my sessions 50% of the time like…. “Idk coach, help me out”

Part of the journey is in getting lost. It's when the real coaching starts

Coaching begins when we don’t have anything else to fix

Going from -1 to 0 rather than 0-1+

There often comes a point in every coaching relationship where the client stops bringing coaching request around the things that they're working on in life. We can look at this is one of two things.

1. Reinvention: Number one it may be an opportunity to reinvent the coaching relationship. The coach and the client may need to upper level the intentionality and focus of what they're bringing to the conversation so as to create new results from a new place.
2. Completion: Number two it may be in indicator that the coaching client need to complete and that the relationship may be running have run its course.
3. The real work: But likely it's number three. This is where where the real coaching begins.

Often we are trained to solve problems address breakdowns and get back to running to at mediocrity. This offers no real room for growth progress or inspiration in our lives.

There's a common phrase the absence of disease is not health. Since we are so used to running around with things being on fire most of the progress that we make ends up moving us from negative one or a deficiency to neutrality zero.

I believe true coaching begins when we are no longer addressing daily or weekly problems but instead we start to create the life that we truly want. This forces us to move from zero to one and go into creation mode from a positive place.