Consulting to Elevate Coaching Excellence & Transform Lives

Coaches and Coach Leaders know goals. We set them. We track them. We dream in acronyms (I’m looking at you, S.M.A.R.T.).

But when you work, live, and dream in Goal World, it’s easy for goals to start feeling, well, sort of meh.

So how do you keep it fresh for your coaching team and their clients?

👉 In Performance Management:
Guide your direct reports to set goals that are energizing, not just efficient. Instead of jumping straight into metrics, invite curiosity:

“What would make this goal worth the effort?”
“What outcome would make you actually excited to tackle this?”
“If this goal were a playlist, what vibe would it have?”

Then, dust off S.M.A.R.T. and give it a glow-up with SMARTER goals:
☑️ Specific
☑️ Measurable
☑️ Actionable
☑️ Realistic
☑️ Time-bound
☄️ ENERGIZING
☄️ REVISABLE

Because goals aren’t just performance checkboxes. They’re catalysts.

👉 In Clinical (Coach Skill) Development:
Help your coaches fall in love with goal setting all over again (they already get goal frameworks, am I right?).

Reignite the spark by helping them bring SMARTER goal setting to client sessions:

* Host a “goal makeover” session. Pick a few stale goals (selected by the coach) and rework them as a team. Go for wildly out of the box.
* Brainstorm how to bring it back into the box (but pushing at the edges).
* Give the client space to see themselves achieving it:
“If this goal came with a theme song, what would it be?”
“What’s the evening news headline next Tuesday night when you achieve this goal?”

Encourage your team to get playful while staying curious. Because a flexible goal that sparks joy is a goal that sticks.

Today we're tackling the Power of the Pause.

👉 In Performance Management: As a leader, one of the most effective coaching skills you can use in 1:1s is embracing silence. I learned this the hard and rewarding way.

I had a coach who showed up to our 1:1s without much to say. Every week, when I’d ask, “What do you want to focus on today?” I'd get a shrug. One day, I simply said: “You know how we say, ‘Don’t work harder than your client’? Well, I’m not going to work harder than you today. You let me know when you’re ready.”

And then I sat back and stopped talking (those of you who know me know that's a pretty big deal 😅).

After a stretch of what felt like a painfully long silence (probably 30 seconds), they opened up about a coaching skill they had been proud of recently. That moment led us into transcripts to take a look. I was able to see deeper-dive coaching as a result and I truly learned more about their skills and abilities. And they were able to describe the steps they had taken to improve their coaching. As time progressed, we had far more intentional conversations in our 1:1s and that helped them hone coaching skills.

Let’s say you’re delivering constructive feedback and ask, “What do you think contributed to that outcome?” Don’t rush to fill the silence. Give them a full pause to process, even if it feels awkward. That moment of reflection might be the space they need to take ownership or discover something they hadn’t noticed before.

Don’t fill the silence. Let your team do the thinking. That’s where insight lives.

👉 In Clinical Supervision (coach skill development): Teach your coaches how to pause with intention. Try this activity:

Practice the Power of the Pause
Objective: Help coaches experience both the discomfort and the power of strategic silence in coaching conversations.

Agenda
1. Intro
Begin by briefly reviewing why silence matters:
- Silence allows clients to reflect, process emotions, and arrive at their own insights.
- But it can be uncomfortable.
- We're going to practice getting comfortable with the pause.

2. Theory to Practice (15 minutes total – 7 minutes each)
- Break into pairs. One person plays the coach, the other the client.
- The coach asks a powerful open-ended question (or uses one from a prompt sheet).
- The client responds. But the coach must wait 5 full seconds after each response before speaking again.
-Switch roles after 7 minutes.

3. Large Group Discussion
Come back together and reflect:
- How did it feel to wait before responding?
- What did you notice in your partner’s response after the pause?
- What did you learn about your own tendency to “fill the space”?

4. Takeaway Challenge
Invite each coach to try one intentional pause in their next coaching session and jot down what happened on a shared document.

When leading or coaching (or both), silence often precedes breakthroughs. Embrace the pause.

Performance leadership isn’t about staying calm at all costs. It’s about recognizing your emotional response, regulating your reaction, and responding with intention.

That’s the foundation of emotional agility and self-regulation, a pairing that helps you lead with steadiness and helps our team coach with clarity.

👉 In Performance Management: Model what you want your team to master.

In a former coaching leadership role, emotional agility wasn’t optional. It was essential. We went through multiple rounds of layoffs. As a leader, I had to manage my own fear of being let go, then process the complex mix of relief and guilt when I wasn’t. My team was in the exact same emotional swirl: anxiety, grief, gratitude, and uncertainty ... all while continuing to show up and perform.

What helped? Self-regulation and emotional agility.

· Before I addressed metrics, I checked in with emotions. Mine and theirs. I made space to talk about the uncertainty. I led with transparency, steadiness, and presence.
· It didn’t fix the instability, but it created a sense of safety. That’s what kept us grounded.

In action:
Instead of leading with, “Here’s what we need to do,” consider beginning with, “How are you doing with everything that’s been shifting lately?”

Let the humanity come first. Performance will follow.

👉 In Clinical Supervision (coach skill development): Guide coaches to support client regulation in real time.

Clients often arrive in session carrying stress, frustration, overwhelm (or even shame). And when emotions run high, it’s easy for coaches to get swept up in the urgency to solve or soothe. Instead, we want coaches to stay grounded and present, creating space for the client to regulate before they redirect.

Coach leaders can guide this by asking during supervision:
"What emotion did your client bring into the session?"
"How did you support them in naming and navigating that state?"

Encourage your coaches to start with presence, not problem-solving: “This is really weighing on you today. What do you think about pausing and taking a breath before we explore next steps?”

When a coach can model calm and co-regulate with the client, the session can become a safe space for clarity and forward movement. That’s where behavior change begins.

✅ In performance management, emotional agility and self-regulation help leaders model steadiness through uncertainty and foster trust during high-stress periods.
✅ In coach skill development, these same tools empower coaches to stay grounded and help clients regulate before moving into action.

Accountability isn't about control. It's about commitment. And it’s one of the most powerful coaching skills a leader can model.

👉 In Performance Management: When leading a team of coaches, start with co-created goals. Ask your coach: “What does success look like for you in this role?”Then clarify expectations together and document clear, time-bound outcomes.

But here’s the key: check in with curiosity, not pressure:

1. Instead of “Did you hit the number?”, try: “What supported your progress and what got in the way?”
2. Once they share, follow up with: “Thanks for naming that. What kind of support or adjustment would help you stay aligned with your goals moving forward?”

This keeps the door open for shared problem-solving and reinforces psychological safety. Accountability is a partnership, after all.

👉 In Clinical Supervision: Helping coaches support client accountability is a skill that can be practiced and refined. Here’s a team activity to build that muscle:

➰ The Follow-Up Loop ➰

• In pairs, coaches take turns role-playing a session follow-up.
• One plays a client who did not follow through on an action step.
• The coach practices a response that:
  • Names the missed step without judgment
  • Asks what happened
  • Explores how to re-commit or revise the plan
• Debrief as a group. What language felt supportive? What might a client need in that moment? Grace? Structure? Or...?

Accountability is more than metrics. It’s how we show someone they’re seen, their goals are valid, and we’re here to support their next step forward.

Great leaders don’t need to have all the answers. They need to ask better questions.

👉 In Performance Management: Try shifting from directive to curious.

Instead of saying, “You need to improve your time management,” ask,

“What’s getting in the way of your focus right now?”

This one move turns a correction into a conversation.

This works beyond performance conversations. When I had particularly large coaching teams I streamlined this process by considering the current team or organizational climate and created the same powerful question to use at the top of each 1:1 sync as a pulse-check:

• “What’s been energizing or draining you at work lately?”
• “What’s one thing that’s making your job harder than it needs to be right now?”
• “How supported do you feel in your role this week, and what would make a difference?”

👉 In Clinical Supervision: Model the kind of inquiry that deepens awareness.

Create a team activity in which coaches can role play asking powerful questions of their clients:

• “What would success look like for you in this situation?”
• “How does this goal align with your values?”
• “What do you want to be different three months from now?”

Powerful questions don’t just check a box. They create clarity, unlock insight, and spark change. They are an opportunity to lead with (and model) curiosity.

Active listening is a core coaching skill, and it’s also a powerful leadership tool.

Here's how coach leaders can use active listening in two ways:

👉 In Performance Management:
When managing coach performance, active listening creates a culture of trust. Instead of jumping to solutions or evaluations, coach leaders who pause, reflect, and clarify are more likely to uncover what’s really going on. Whether it’s about a missed KPI or a challenging client case, the goal is to hear the coach’s perspective before offering feedback or direction.

Try this:

"Before we explore solutions, help me understand how you experienced that session."

This opens the door to honest dialogue and co-created performance growth.

👉 In Clinical Supervision
When leading coaches, you’re modeling what good coaching sounds like. Teaching active listening means going beyond “hearing” and into the realm of being fully present—listening for emotion, values, and what's not being said.

Support your coaches in developing this skill by sharing examples from their coach sessions transcripts/videos, reflecting on tone and language, and asking:

"What do you think your client was truly needing in that moment?"

By using active listening as both a manager and mentor, you’re not just leading. You’re growing future coaching excellence.

👉 As a performance manager: Leading Through Positive Priming

Great leaders don’t just evaluate performance; they elevate it. Positive priming is a leadership approach that sets the tone before a coaching conversation even begins.

That might look like:
•Opening with recognition of recent wins
•Recalling past growth moments
•Expressing confidence in the coachee’s potential

Why it matters:
By activating a positive emotional state, you’re helping the brain shift into a solution-focused, receptive, and creative mode. This can lead to better outcomes, deeper trust, and more engaged performance discussions.

👉 As a clinical leader: Empowering Coaches to Use Positive Priming with Clients

Once you’ve experienced the power of positive priming in action, the next step is to guide your coaching team to do the same.

Encourage your coaches to:

• Begin sessions with affirming reflections
• Highlight strengths before addressing challenges
• Use future-focused language that inspires

When coaches lead with positivity - not fluff, but grounded optimism - clients open up, take ownership, and grow faster.

The ripple effect: Positive priming at the leadership level creates a culture of empowerment that cascades from coach leaders to coaches, and from coaches to clients.

👉 As a performance manager:
As a coach leader, one of the most powerful ways to grow and lead by example is to actively solicit feedback. Not just from peers or team members, but from your coaches.

Yes. Ask your coaches for feedback on your leadership style.

Why? Because it opens the door to three powerful outcomes:
1. You model vulnerability and curiosity: two foundational leadership traits.
2. You create a learning loop: turning your leadership into a live case study.
3. You teach your coaches how to do the same with their own clients.

💡 Try this:
During your next 1:1 meetings with coaches, ask:

• What’s something in my leadership you’ve noticed that’s working?
• What’s one area I might not see that could be a blind spot?

After reflecting on their input, debrief the process with them. Share how it felt to receive that feedback, how you’ll apply it—and ask them how they might try the same approach with their clients.

Here's how I recently executed the process with my team of 16 coaches.

• I created an anonymous Google form to survey them for feedback on my leadership efficacy.
• I created a spreadsheet of their answers, synthesized them into broad themes, and added a column on actions I would take.
• I SHARED the spreadsheet with the entire team in our standing weekly meeting to show them I listened, I created a plan, and I'm accountable to them.
• I gave them examples of actions I had already taken so they could see I meant business.

Feedback isn’t just data; it’s development. When you invite it in with intention, you model the exact kind of growth mindset we want every coach to embrace.

👉 As a clinical leader:
Connect the feedback process to their role as coaches.

After soliciting feedback on your leadership, consider crafting a team activity along the lines of:
“You’ve just experienced a feedback loop firsthand. Now let’s talk about how you can create that same experience with your clients to demonstrate to them that you are both their coach and a learning partner.”

► Give them a framework by equipping them with simple language:
• “What’s something I’m doing that’s working well for you?”
• “Where could I adjust my approach to better support your growth?”
► Practice, practice, practice:
Invite the coaches to role-play coaching conversations to experiment with feedback prompts.
► Emphasize the "Why." Remind them:
• Feedback builds trust.
• It invites collaboration.
• It sharpens coaching impact.
• It models the exact growth mindset we ask clients to embrace.

When you teach your coaches to invite feedback, you’re not just growing their self-awareness. You’re elevating their professional practice, and that can result in increased customer satisfaction and the achievement of your organization's KPIs.

Limiting Beliefs: Something our team members navigate with our clients .... and often something you observe in your coaches struggling to achieve department and organizational expectations. Limiting beliefs are the silent saboteurs of progress, and we must understand how to navigate these mental roadblocks with our clients and our coaching team members.

👉 As a clinical leader:
Create a skill development activity for your coaching team.

1. Look for coaching transcripts or videos for moments that clients express doubt, such as, "I'll never be able to stick to this," or "I'm just not built for exercise." Compile a range of limiting beliefs examples.
2. Present a mini-refresher on the "Cognitive Reframing" technique.
3. Have the coaches work in small teams to brainstorm probing questions as an alternative to contradicting or glossing over the limiting beliefs; listen for examples like:
   • "What evidence supports that belief?"
   • "What might be another way to look at this situation?"
   • "Imagine you could achieve this. What would that look like?"
   • "What small steps can we take to test that belief?"
4. Explain the expected client outcome of Cognitive Reframing:
   • Clients challenge their assumptions and explore alternative perspectives.
   • Through guidance to identify the root of their belief and reframe it, the coach has empowered them to create a more positive and empowering narrative.

👉 As a performance manager:
Recognizing limiting beliefs in your team is just as important. If you notice a coach consistently underperforming or expressing self-doubt, this is your chance!

1. Guide: Foster a culture of psychological safety.
2. Create space for open dialogue and vulnerability.
3. Offer constructive feedback focused on growth, not just performance.
4. Provide opportunities for skill development and mentorship.
5. Share success stories and celebrate small wins to build confidence.
6. Encourage peer support and collaborative problem-solving.
7. Help them realize that failure is a learning experience, not a final destination.

The coach leader role straddles two worlds: ensuring the best outcome for clients and providing the space for grace and growth among your coaching team. And you are up for this challenge!