Cutting Deals Up Front

Last month’s post was about ‘cutting deals’ or contracting with our coachees multiple times in the moment, during our coaching conversations. But what about contracting up front, right at the beginning of the coaching journey?

Here is a ‘checklist’ that I’ve assembled through the years:

Confidentiality

• Agreement that the content of all discussions is strictly confidential – between the coach and coachee
• Agreement that the fact that coach and coachee are working together will not even be mentioned to anyone else
• If anyone asks the coach: “How is your coaching going with person X?”, coach’s answer will be “Why don’t you ask X?”

Logistics

• Agreement on F2F versus virtual meetings, session frequency and length
• Agreement on how to schedule: (1) via assistants or directly, (2) schedule one appointment at a time or several up front, (3) schedule next appointment(s) at end of session or outside of session time, (4) who reaches out to schedule next appointment – coach or coachee (recommended that coachee initiates)

Ethics

• Agreement that if coach acquires information in the session that is deemed to threaten the life or safety of coachee or others, or about an illegal act, then coach will take appropriate action in sharing information with others in order to protect those impacted

What other items would you like to add to this list?