Capstone: Design Your Coaching Practice

Building Your Complete System

🔄 Recall from our previous lesson the techniques for navigating difficult conversations. Throughout this course, you’ve built individual skills: frameworks, listening, goal-setting, feedback, accountability, and handling tough moments.

Now it’s time to assemble these into a coherent coaching practice that you can use starting this week.

Course Review

Your Coaching Session Template

Every coaching session needs structure without rigidity. Here’s a template:

Pre-Session (5 minutes)

• Review notes from last session
• Check their commitments and progress
• Prepare 2-3 questions using AI

Opening (5 minutes)

• “What would you like to focus on today?”
• “What’s happened since we last met?”
• Reference previous commitments (accountability)

Exploration (15-20 minutes)

• Use GROW or CLEAR as your guide
• Practice Level 2+ listening
• Ask powerful, open-ended questions
• Resist the urge to solve

Action (5-10 minutes)

• “What will you do before our next session?”
• Make commitments specific and measurable
• Identify potential barriers
• Confirm the next check-in

Closing (2 minutes)

• “What was most useful from today?”
• Confirm next session date
• Express genuine encouragement

✅ Quick check: Could you run a coaching session using this template right now? If anything feels uncertain, revisit the relevant lesson.

Measuring Coaching Effectiveness

Track these metrics to ensure your coaching is creating value:

Quantitative Metrics:

• Goal achievement rate (% of commitments completed)
• Development plan milestone progress
• Performance improvement (if applicable)
• Time to proficiency on new skills

Qualitative Metrics:

• Coachee self-assessment (“How has this coaching helped you?”)
• Observed behavioral changes
• Quality of self-reflection over time
• Ability to solve problems independently

AI prompt for evaluation:

“I’ve been coaching someone for [duration] on [goals]. Here’s a summary of their progress: [progress notes]. Create an evaluation that assesses our coaching effectiveness across goal achievement, behavioral change, skill development, and independence. Suggest areas where our coaching approach should evolve.”

Building a Mentoring Program

If you want to create a coaching or mentoring program for your team or organization:

Program Design Elements

Recommended Program Structure

MENTORING PROGRAM: [Name]
========================

Purpose: [1-2 sentence objective]

Participants:
- Mentors: [criteria for selection]
- Mentees: [criteria for selection]
- Coordinator: [who manages the program]

Structure:
- Duration: 6 months
- Meeting frequency: Bi-weekly, 45 minutes
- Format: 1-on-1, in-person or video
- Check-ins: Monthly progress review with coordinator

Session Flow:
- Session 1: Get to know each other, set goals
- Sessions 2-4: Explore challenges, build development plan
- Sessions 5-8: Execute plan, practice skills
- Sessions 9-11: Refine approach, deepen development
- Session 12: Review progress, celebrate growth, plan next steps

Success Metrics:
- [Metric 1]
- [Metric 2]
- [Metric 3]

Your Coaching Toolkit

Compile these AI prompts as your ready-to-use toolkit:

Session Preparation:

“I’m coaching someone on [topic]. Their situation is [context]. Generate GROW-model questions for our session.”

Feedback Preparation:

“I need to give SBI feedback about [situation]. Help me frame it constructively.”

Development Planning:

“Create a development plan for someone who wants to [goal]. Current state: [description].”

Difficult Conversation Prep:

“Role-play a coaching conversation where the coachee is [defensive/emotional/stuck]. I’ll practice my approach.”

Progress Evaluation:

“Evaluate coaching progress based on: [goals and status]. Suggest adjustments.”

Your Capstone Exercise

Build your complete coaching practice:

Part A: Self-Assessment

1. Which coaching skill feels strongest for you?
2. Which skill needs the most development?
3. What type of coaching situations do you face most often?

Part B: Design Your Practice

1. Create your coaching session template (customize the one above)
2. Build a library of 20 powerful questions using AI
3. Design your accountability check-in format
4. Create a feedback preparation template

Part C: First Session Plan

1. Choose someone you’ll coach
2. Prepare for the first session using the template
3. Generate GROW questions for their likely topic
4. Set up your tracking system

Congratulations

You now have a complete coaching and mentoring toolkit. These skills don’t just apply to formal coaching sessions. Every conversation where you listen deeply, ask good questions, and help someone think through their challenges is a coaching moment.

The best coaches aren’t the ones with the most certifications. They’re the ones who genuinely care about other people’s growth and have the skills to help them get there.

Start coaching this week. Start small. Practice consistently. Your impact will compound.

Key Takeaways

• A complete coaching practice combines session structure, frameworks, listening, feedback, accountability, and emotional skill
• Every session needs a clear opening goal and closing commitments
• Measure effectiveness through both quantitative metrics and qualitative assessments
• Build a question library and prompt toolkit for consistent preparation
• Mentoring programs need clear purpose, structure, matching criteria, and success metrics
• The best time to start coaching is this week, with one conversation