Episode 162: The Art of Coaching: Establishing and Maintaining Agreements

Today I’m diving into what agreements are, how they differ from expectations, why they matter, and best practices for establishing and maintaining agreements with our clients.

162: The Art of Coaching: Establishing and Maintaining Agreements

Unclear expectations are often at the heart of misunderstandings, arguments, and conflict. What are our expectations for our work with clients? And what expectations do they have of us? How do our agreements serve us and our clients while aligning with your goals and values?

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Show Notes

Unclear expectations are often at the heart of misunderstandings, arguments, and conflict.

What are our expectations for our work with clients? And what expectations do they have of us? How do our agreements serve us and our clients while aligning with your goals and values?

In this episode of our Art of Coaching series, I’m talking about our commitments to our clients, businesses, and ourselves. In our coaching relationships, we must put practices in place that create space to voice the expectations and assumptions from both sides so we can manage them appropriately early on.

Today I’m breaking down why having clear agreements matters so much in a coaching relationship, different ways to create agreements with our clients, what to do if we experience challenges maintaining those agreements, and more. This is all part of being a powerful, masterful coach while building a successful and profitable coaching business. Enjoy the episode!

Topics covered

  • Defining “agreements” in the context of a coaching relationship
  • The role of open communication and next-level listening in establishing new agreements
  • Identifying all the stakeholders in the coaching relationship
  • The critical distinction between agreements and expectations
  • What you can do to reduce the chance of conflict caused by assumptions
  • How to handle unaligned expectations
  • Common agreements to include in your work with clients
  • Logistics and relational details to include in client agreements
  • Outlining the role and responsibilities of both the coach and client
  • Best practices for maintaining agreements
  • Common reasons for modifying existing agreements

Resources mentioned

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TRANSCRIPT

 

Well, hello, my friend. Welcome to the Coach with Clarity podcast. My name is Lee Chaix McDonough, I'm your host and whether this is the first time you have listened to the podcast or whether you are a faithful listener and have listened to all, what are we at now? 161/162 episodes? Something like that, I can hardly believe it. But if you have listened to some/most /all of those episodes, well, I especially want to thank you for being a longtime listener and supporting the Coach with Clarity podcast. I make this show with you in mind. My goal is to ensure that every episode provides you with additional information or inspiration as you build your coaching mastery and grow a successful and profitable coaching business. And in order to have a successful and profitable coaching business, it really comes down to ensuring you feel confident and competent in your abilities as a coach. And that's why we have spent the last few weeks exploring The Art of Coaching. And we're continuing our special miniseries in The Art of Coaching today by discussing a topic that is critically important for coaches and for coaching practices. And yet, I know may also be a difficult one to broach with our clients, because today we are talking about how to establish and maintain agreements. And really, when we're talking about agreements, we're talking about the commitment we make to our clients, yes, but also to our business and to ourselves. What are the expectations that we have for our work with our clients? What expectations might our clients have of us? And how do those inform the agreements we make in order to ensure that the coaching experience serves your client powerfully while also protecting your time, your energy, your resources, and this coaching business that you have built? So that is on the docket for today's episode, we are going to be diving into what agreements are, why they matter, and some best practices for establishing and maintaining those agreements with our clients.


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