Contracting for the session

I have seen several coaches plunge into questions after the first sharing of the issue by the client. For instance, if a client says, “I find that I do not have anybody whom I consider a successor in my team and I am under pressure to create a succession plan,” a coach might say, “Why do you say you have no successors?” or “Who could be a good successor?” or any other question. In supervision, if we ask them what the contract was, they would say “He wanted to find a successor.” Did he? That is not clear from the problem statement. The vital question that is often missed by coaches is “In sharing this what are you looking to achieve?” or “What would be a useful outcome for you from this conversation?” This is one question that I have seen makes clients go silent and introspective. It is powerful because it forces them to phrase their problems in the form of a learning goal. It moves them from victim / persecutor positions to adult. That alone sometimes is sufficient in bringing about a change – framing correctly what they want to achieve. Often they are unable to do it, which can be indicative of their readiness to change. A clear can keep the conversations results oriented and prevent game playing. To summarise, the key contracting question, “What outcomes would you like to walk away with at the end of this conversation?”