What is the secret to coaching in thirty minutes?

When I first started coaching more than ten years ago, my sessions lasted ninety minutes on average. Some marathon sessions even went for two hours or more.

At the time, I thought I was giving my clients more value. I mistakenly thought that more time meant more value. However, the reality was that I wasn’t able to coach in less time – I was hard pressed to finish a session in an hour, let alone thirty minutes!

For me, learning to coach in thirty minutes boiled down to practice, familiarity and skill. Thanks to our regular ReciproCoach thirty minute session rounds, I got lots of practice coaching in thirty minutes. I also developed familiarity with the experience of being coached in thirty minutes through being coached by other coaches in the same rounds.

As for the skill part of the equation, that came with years of professional development, but I recently discovered a shortcut:

The Target Approach is a 68 minute audio-visual presentation with MCC, and ICF assessor Carly Anderson that highlights the essence of the eleven ICF core competencies. A framework for best practices in coaching skills, you will learn how to get all eleven core competencies into a thirty minute coaching session without feeling constrained.

And so, to support you in accelerating the sharpening of your skills to coach effectively in thirty minutes, in addition to our usual thirty minute recorded sessions round, this month we are running a TARGET APPROACH Recorded Sessions Round. In this round, you will get:

• a client to coach for 6 x 30 minute sessions
• a coach to coach you for 6 x 30 minute sessions
• permission to record your sessions as a coach (invaluable for mentoring and reflective learning)
• access to the Target Approach audio-visual, mp3, overview and slides
• two of Carly Anderson’s recorded coaching sessions, so that you can observe the Target Approach and an MCC in action (having a model is invaluable in any learning process)

To register for our first TARGET APPROACH Recorded Sessions Round follow this link:

Registration closes on Sunday April 24.

Written by Kerryn Griffiths, PhD, PCC and Global ReciproCoach Coordinator