Mentor coaching is the most efficient process for helping you become a better coach. The following lays out the logistics for you to get the most out of your mentor coaching, both in your coach-client overviews and mentor coaching groups.

How to Prepare for a Mentor Coaching Session

To begin, you will need to record a full coaching session with a client. The recording should be between 30 and 50 minutes. If you are meeting with your client in person, you can easily record the session using your phone or another recording device. If you are meeting with a client over the phone, put your phone on speakerphone, and record the session with your computer or another recording device. Finally, if you are meeting via Skype, Facetime, etc., you can use your phone or another recording device to record the call.

It is recommended that you record a few different sessions with clients and then choose one where you feel most confident in receiving positive feedback. However, DO NOT record all of your coaching calls in a row and use them in consecutive mentor coaching sessions. The idea is for you to incorporate the feedback you receive from your mentor coaching sessions into your subsequent coaching calls. Back-to-back recordings will not be accepted for individual mentor coaching sessions. Your recorded sessions will need to have incorporated feedback in order to count for mentor coaching sessions.

You do not need to send a recording to your mentor coach ahead of time. It is easiest for you to simply play the recording from your end and listen to the recording with your mentor coach, or mentor coaching group, via speakerphone or webinar.

Before your meeting with your mentor coach or mentor coaching group, be sure to listen to your recording and mark the time when you demonstrate each of these elements in the coaching call:

The point in time when you establish a session agenda with your client. The agenda that you and your client agree to focus on during your time together on the call is one of the most important classic elements of a life coaching session. It’s also the element that, if missing, causes the rest of the coaching session to suffer.
One of your favorite simple, curious questions that you asked and explored in the coaching call. It is helpful for you to mark a point during the call when you asked a really crisp and clear simple, curious question. It is even better if this question was followed up by a pause that allowed your client time to think and ponder the question.
The moment in your coaching call when you feel like you did the worst, or you feel like you did not do a very good job as a coach. Explore the things that you are not doing so well in your coaching calls to identify the areas where you want to improve.
The moment you design the action step that your client will take and the accountability for that action. Usually, action and accountabilities come at the end of a coaching session. It is useful to have the minute mark written down so that you and your mentor coach, or mentor coaching group, can quickly listen to how you wrap up the session and design accountability with your client.

What to Expect in Feedback

Feedback is what the mentor coaching process is all about. Your mentor coach, and those in your mentor coaching group, will provide you with constructive feedback on various areas of your coaching. Mentor coaching is a learning process, and the ultimate goal is for you to feel that you are growing and improving your skills as a coach.

Your coach will give you written feedback on your coaching, and this feedback will look at the following seven elements of your coaching:

1. Setting the Agenda

Did the agenda come mainly from the client, or is the coach pushing or not identifying the client’s agenda?
Was the session agenda measurable?

2. Trust and Intimacy with Client

How willing was the coach to be the client’s student?
Did the coach ask permission to explore topics or use certain exercises?

3. Coaching Presence

Was the coach bold in asking insightful or risky powerful questions?
Did the coach work with the energy present in the call?

4. Active Listening and Powerful questions

Did the coach ask short open-ended questions?
Were the questions primarily present or future tense oriented?

5. Direct Communication

Was the coach clear with sharing ideas and providing feedback?

6. Creating Awareness

Did the coach ask questions about the client’s learning and self-discovery?

7. Designing Actions

Does the coach invite an equal or greater degree of participation from the client versus the coach in designing action?
How well does the designed action relate to the client’s agenda?

8. Managing Progress and Accountability