How I Create A Powerful End to A Coaching Agreement
A number of people have asked me recently how I handle the ending of a coaching contract with a client.
I usually treat a final coaching session like an initial powerful conversation. I begin with a review of our time together.
Sometimes I’ll send these questions in writing. Sometimes we’ll simply discuss them in our final session:
1. What were your biggest INSIGHTS from our time together?
2. What were your most impactful RESULTS?
3. What HABITS are you going to take away with you?
4. What’s your biggest DREAM for the NEXT 12 months?
5. What’s the very first, TINIEST STEP you are going to take?
6. If you were to call me in 3 years to say, “Rich, the past 3 years have been AMAZING!”, what would you tell me about your professional and personal life? [I have them answer this question as if it is the future, right now, and they are looking back over the past 3 years].
Then I PAUSE…
I wait to see if THEY ask me about WHAT’S NEXT.
If they don’t and IF—I stress the word ‘if’—I am excited and enthused about what they are up to next, I might say to them something like this:
“Would you like to consider what we could create together next, to help you turn all of these amazing dreams into a reality?“
But remember, sometimes clients NEED a break after a powerful coaching experience.
‘Needy is Creepy’ counts for current clients too.
If the very best way to serve them is to support them to leave their coaching with you behind, then DO IT!
They are much more likely to come back to you from that place. And even if they never return as a client, they will never forget the experience you created for them.
Finally, I usually offer my clients a “Gift Card”!
“I’d like to offer you a Deep Coaching Gift Card. If, at any time in the next 6 months you’d like a powerful coaching conversation, reach out and we’ll put one on the calendar.”
Because of the way I choose to coach, I add something like this: “Remember, coaching is powerful when you have a problem or challenge to handle. But coaching doesn’t have to be remedial. The most powerful coaching conversations I have ever had with a client have been when they come to me with a big dream or they show up and say, ‘I have no idea what to talk about today!’ From that place we can really create magic!”
What are the best things you’ve ever done or experienced at the end of a coaching relationship?
Love. Rich
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