Daily Insight Video

Today, I want to talk about the ideal split in a life coaching session between learning, being, and doing.

I just finished leading my Wednesday morning training course, and I am all fired up about coaching! The thing that came out of our training session this morning was a quantification of this very important split.

From my perspective, 50% of a life coaching session needs to be focused on learning. What is the client learning about her/him self or the situation? What does the client hope to learn? These types of questions are so powerful, and they naturally lead your client into a growth mindset.

The next most important area to focus on is your client’s being. In my opinion, 30% of your coaching session should revolve around the types of characteristics your client wants/needs to develop, who they want/need to be in a certain situation or to accomplish something important to them, and the types of skills they want/need in order to be successful. Questions focused on being are really, really powerful, and help move your client forward.

The final 20% of a life coaching session should focus on the doing. The best part about this part of a coaching session is that if you do the learning and being parts well, action will naturally follow. Outside of life coaching, people focus a lot on action. They often write down goals that are action orientated and focused on doing or getting something. This is fine, but it is not as useful in the long run.

From a life coaching standpoint, goals focused on action still exist. However, going through the learning and being adds another layer of meaning to the actions that your client is going to take.

As a coach, you do not need to keep track of the exact amount of time spent on learning, and once you hit the half way mark you do not need to tell your client that you are now moving into the being section of the session. Those things are often mixed together. However, being able to differentiate and understand the value of each of these parts is a valuable coaching skill, and being aware of how much time is spend on each of them throughout an entire coaching session is important.