The Power of a One -Page Plan

Supporting our clients with goal setting is a critical part of any coaching conversation, whether we are working with individuals, teams or groups. Support for goal setting at both the macro- or Meta levels (the big picture of our life and work) as well as at the micro- or more immediate level, can serve as the frame for our conversations

Over the years whether I have been coaching professionals and leaders individually or in groups, I've become quite fond of getting my clients to develop a one-page plan. I should preface this with the fact that many of my clients operate in data and file overload and that anything we add on should serve to simplify, rather than expand. This makes the popularity of a one-page plan quite consistent whether I am working with emerging leaders, new business owners or authors.

Prior to the start of our first coahing  onversation (whether it's a first group coaching call, or an individual intake session) I ask clients what are their top 3-5 goals for our work toether. This usually gets people thinking. I get them to elaborate on this fruther in our first conversation, and usually ask them to complete the first draft of their One Page plan (see photo above) between session 1 and 2.

Part of our focus in a second group coaching call is usually a sharing of these one page plans amongst group members. I ask group members to bring this with them to each of our group coaching conversations and will often ask them to make reference to how they are proceeding with their plans specifically at the start of each session. Having group members share their plans (in the confidential forum) can be very empowering and it can add onto the peer accountability mechanism as well.

Questions to consider:
What do you do to support individual goal setting and tracking in your coaching work?
What frameworks do your clients enjoy?
How do your clients track their progress?
What tools would you recommend to others?

As always, please feel free to comment below and let us know your thoughts.

Have a great week, What's your most important goal this week?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPCC, CPT
GroupCoachingEssentials.com | Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-8326
Goal setting is something we explore in the Mentor Coaching Group for ACC Renewals and ACC/ PCC portfolio - next group starts Monday April 20th at 10:30 am ET. 3 spots still open.