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Phasing a coaching programme: the five phases in practice

Phasing a coaching programme: the five phases in practice

The coach records the coaching question during a session

A coaching programme usually unfolds in five phases: getting acquainted and intake, contracting, the coaching sessions, the follow-up between sessions, and closure with evaluation. Each phase has its own aim and delivers something you record as a coach: a coaching question, agreements, insights, actions or a final report. Below you'll find what happens in each phase, how long it takes, what you discuss and what you note down. That way you build a programme that is clear and repeatable for both you and your coachee.

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In short

  • An average programme lasts four to six months and comprises seven to eight sessions, according to the professional association NOBCO.
  • The intake and contracting determine whether the programme works: this is where you record the coaching question, the goals and the ground rules.
  • The real work often happens between sessions. Assignments and check-ins connect the coaching to your coachee's daily life.
  • Schedule an evaluation halfway through. Goals can shift, and that is normal.
  • Close deliberately: look back, celebrate what went well and agree on how your coachee will continue independently.

Table of contents

The five phases at a glance

Coaches and trainers use different names, but the structure is almost always the same. Blankestijn & Partners, for example, divides the programme around a contracting phase with first contact, intake and possibly a three-way conversation, followed by sessions, practice assignments and an evaluation. The table below summarises the phases.

Phase Aim What you record Typical scope
1. Getting acquainted and intake Check whether there's a connection and explore the question Reason, desired outcome, first goals One conversation, sometimes with an intake form
2. Contracting Agree on goals, approach and roles Coaching question, goals, planning, confidentiality During or right after the intake, sometimes a three-way conversation
3. Coaching sessions Gain insight and translate it into behaviour Observations, insights, breakthroughs, action points Usually six to eight sessions
4. Between sessions Practise in real life and see progress Assignments, check-ins, completed actions Ongoing, plus an interim evaluation
5. Closure and evaluation Measure results and secure independence Final evaluation, lessons learned, follow-up agreements The final session, sometimes a closing conversation with the commissioning party

Phase 1: getting acquainted and intake

The intake has three aims. According to NOBCO, you check whether there's a connection, discuss the coaching question and the desired outcome, and set the first coaching goals. That connection is not a minor matter. Without trust, the whole programme has a lower chance of success, writes the HRD Academy.

What do you discuss concretely? A good intake covers:

  • the reason: why now, and what has happened?
  • the desired outcome: what is different once the programme is over?
  • earlier attempts: what has your coachee already tried, and what didn't work?
  • practical matters: rate, number of sessions, location or online, and who pays.

A handy rule of thumb: start with what is visible. Think of behaviour, situations and results. Only afterwards delve into feelings, beliefs and patterns. That way you prevent the goals from slipping out of view, advice that Blankestijn & Partners gives under the heading of surface current and undercurrent.

Your coachee also asks questions in this phase. It helps if you anticipate them yourself. A list of questions clients ask a coach shows what people pay attention to: experience, approach, confidentiality and how you measure progress. If you have a clear answer on those points, the intake runs more smoothly.

If you work with an intake form, you'll already have the basics in before the first conversation. Your coachee thinks about the question in advance, and you can prepare better. Read how to approach this on our page about coaching intake forms.

Phase 2: contracting and agreements

After the intake, you make the agreements concrete. This is called contracting. It's about more than a signed agreement. You also agree on how you'll work together.

The co-active coaching checklist from Thema names several starting agreements you can adopt:

  1. Confidentiality and safety: what stays between the two of you, and what doesn't?
  2. How your coachee wants to be coached: direct and confronting, or calm and exploratory?
  3. The action list: how do you keep track of what happens between sessions?
  4. The next three appointments: are they already in the calendar?
  5. Ground rules for holidays, arriving late and missed sessions.

When there is a commissioning party

If an employer pays for the programme, there are three parties. In that case, also discuss who safeguards the quality, whether there will be a progress report and whether there is a closing conversation with the commissioning party. Many coaches schedule a three-way conversation for that with the manager or HR. According to Blankestijn & Partners, that strengthens engagement and embedding within the organisation.

In that conversation, make very clear what the commissioning party will and won't be told. Your coachee must know that the content of the sessions remains confidential. Report on agreements and progress rather than on what was said. NOBCO coaches work according to the International Code of Ethics, in which contracting and confidentiality are standard topics. If you're in doubt about what you may share with an employer, put that question to your professional association.

Finalising the coaching question

Many coaches only finalise the coaching question in the first real session. That's how Van Houten Coaching works, for example: wishes and goals during the intake, the definitive question in session one. That gives your coachee time to think. Write the question down literally, in your coachee's own words. You'll return to it at every evaluation.

Phase 3: the coaching sessions, from insight to action

In the core phase, you work on the goals using models, real-life examples and exercises. Your task as a coach is to translate insights into concrete steps or new behaviour. A session that only yields insight feels good but changes little.

A fixed structure per session helps you and your coachee:

  1. Looking back: what has happened since last time, and how did the actions go?
  2. Focus: what does your coachee want to work on today, and how does that fit the goals?
  3. Deepening: questions, exercises, a model or an assessment.
  4. Translation: which insight does your coachee take away, and what will they do differently?
  5. Agreements: one or two actions, with a date.

Assessments provide something to hold on to in this phase. A Wheel of Life shows how satisfied someone is about different areas of life. A DISC profile gives language for behavioural preferences. Use them as a starting point for a conversation, not as a final verdict.

What you note down after each session

Your notes are the memory of the programme. Write them shortly after the session, and keep types of information separate:

  • observations: what you saw and heard;
  • insights: what your coachee discovered themselves;
  • breakthroughs: moments when something really shifted;
  • action points: what happens before the next session.

That breakdown makes it easy later to look things up and prepare an interim evaluation. More tips can be found in our guide on writing session notes.

Phase 4: between sessions, progress and accountability

Sessions usually take place every two or three weeks, according to NOBCO. That means your coachee works without you for most of the programme. That's where change arises, or doesn't.

Practice assignments connect the coaching to daily work. Think of having a conversation your coachee has been putting off, keeping track for a week of when their energy drops, or trying out a new way of running meetings.

Accountability here means: your coachee keeps to their own agreements and shows what did and didn't work out. That works best with short, fixed moments:

  • a check-in midway between two sessions, with two or three questions;
  • a list of actions your coachee ticks off themselves;
  • a short reflection before the next session: what went well, where did you get stuck?

That way, as a coach, you see where progress arises and where extra attention is needed. You then don't start the next session from zero. In our guide on improving accountability you'll find examples of check-in questions.

Halfway: evaluating and adjusting

Schedule an interim evaluation around the middle of the programme. Compare the goals with where your coachee stands now. Celebrate what went well, discuss what remains difficult and adjust the plan if needed. Coaching isn't a straight line. Goals can shift as someone grows, as the HRD Academy also notes.

Four components of an interim evaluation

If the goal really changes, make new agreements and write them down. If there is a commissioning party, also discuss the change with them. That way you avoid an argument at the end about what actually needed to be achieved.

Phase 5: closure and evaluation

A good closure is more than a final session. You look back together, summarise what has been achieved and discuss what your coachee still wants to learn. You celebrate the successes and make the step towards independence concrete.

Questions you can ask in the final session:

  • What have you learned, and how do you notice it?
  • What is going well now that didn't work at the start?
  • What do you want to keep working on yourself?
  • What do you do if you fall back into the old pattern?
  • How do you look back on working with me?

Many coaches use an evaluation form for this. Your coachee can then reflect calmly on the experience, and you get a more honest picture of how the coaching was received, as Blankestijn & Partners describes. After that, write a short final report. For a programme via an employer, that is often the basis for the closing conversation.

When a follow-up is appropriate

A follow-up makes sense if there is a new question, or if your coachee takes a new step, such as a new role. A follow-up merely to keep discussing the old question for longer is less fitting. In that case it's better to schedule one or two separate follow-up sessions a few months later, to see whether the change holds.

How long does each phase take?

The figures from NOBCO provide a good starting point. An average programme lasts four to six months, comprises seven to eight sessions and a session lasts 80 minutes on average, according to the NOBCO Benchmark 2020/2021. Shorter or longer is of course possible, depending on the question.

Here's what a programme of eight sessions over five months might look like:

Week Moment Phase
0 Getting acquainted and intake 1 and 2
1 to 2 Agreements on paper, possibly a three-way conversation 2
2 Session 1: coaching question finalised 3
4 to 10 Sessions 2 to 4, with check-ins in between 3 and 4
10 Interim evaluation, adjusting goals 4
12 to 18 Sessions 5 to 7 3 and 4
20 Session 8: closure and evaluation 5
20 to 22 Final report, possibly closing conversation with commissioning party 5

This planning shows why the time between sessions is so important. At 80 minutes per session, over twenty weeks you spend roughly eleven hours together, including the intake. The rest of the time revolves around assignments and follow-up.

Our view on phasing

We see the same pattern with many coaches. The phasing is clear in their heads, but the information is scattered. The intake is in an email, the notes in a document, the actions in a chat app and the check-ins in a spreadsheet. Then phase 4 becomes the weak point, while that's where the change arises.

That's why we believe a programme needs a fixed place, where every phase is tied to the right coachee and the right programme. At the interim evaluation, you want to see in a few minutes which goals there were, which actions have been ticked off and which insights came up in session three. And your coachee wants to see for themselves where they stand, without having to email you for it.

A second point is confidentiality. Coaching notes concern sensitive subjects. A fixed place for your programme is also an opportunity to store that data carefully. Software helps with this, but doesn't make your practice GDPR-proof by itself. The GDPR is the European privacy law. You remain responsible yourself for what you record and how long you keep it.

Martijn

Recording your phasing in Exantur

Exantur is built around the coaching relationship and the entire coaching process. You set up a programme with the phases that suit your approach. Intake forms, assessments such as DISC and Wheel of Life, documents and assignments are tied to the right coachee and the right programme. You record session notes as observations, insights, breakthroughs and action points, and you can search within them.

Between sessions, you track goals, progress and check-ins. Your coachee has their own portal to view goals, complete check-ins and prepare for sessions. Online booking with reminders, integration with Google Calendar, Outlook and Zoom, and invoicing via your own Stripe account without commission are all there too. Your data is stored in the EU, in Frankfurt, you log in with an extra code (MFA) and there is a data processing agreement.

Subscriptions start at €19 per month or €190 per year for Mini. View all subscriptions and prices and start with a free trial. If you'd first like to see what a programme looks like, read our guide on managing coaching programmes.

Recording your phasing in Exantur — overview diagram

Frequently asked questions

How many sessions does a coaching programme need?

On average seven to eight sessions, spread over four to six months. That is an average, not a rule. A short, clear question may take fewer sessions, while a complex leadership question sometimes needs more. Agree on a number during contracting and evaluate halfway whether it still fits.

Can you combine the intake and the contracting?

Yes, with many solo coaches this happens in a single conversation. Just make sure you then put the agreements on paper and have them confirmed. For a programme with an employer as the commissioning party, a separate three-way conversation is often wiser.

What do you do if the goal changes halfway through?

Discuss the change openly and make new agreements. Write down the new coaching question and adjust the goals. If there is a commissioning party, let them know that the direction has been adjusted, without sharing content from the sessions.

How do you stay in touch between sessions without it becoming too much?

Choose a fixed rhythm, for example a short check-in midway between two sessions. Keep it to two or three questions and agree on how quickly you respond. That way your coachee stays engaged and your time stays manageable.

Sources

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