Program
One to one coaching
A three or six month engagement built around one objective. Fortnightly sixty minute sessions, written commitments between them, and a written review at the midpoint and at the end.
Who it is for
People senior enough that nobody checks on them any more
Most people who take this are somewhere between eight and twenty five years into a working life. They are competent, they are busy, and they are carrying one thing that has not moved in a year or more. A promotion they have not asked for. A business they have described to friends four times and never registered. A field they want to move into. A piece of work that is ninety per cent finished and has been ninety per cent finished since spring.
The common thread is not confusion about the goal. It is that no structure exists around it. Nobody at work is asking, because it is not a work objective, and nobody at home is asking, because they have heard about it enough times to stop.
This is not therapy and it does not pretend to be. If what is in the way is grief, depression, or anything else that belongs with a clinician, you will be told that in the first call and pointed elsewhere.
How it runs
Fourteen days at a time
The engagement opens with a ninety minute session that produces one written goal and the measure that will tell you whether you reached it. Everything after that is the ordinary rhythm described in the approach.
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Session
Sixty minutes, every fortnight
Opens with the commitments from last time. Done or not done, and what that tells us. Closes with two or three new ones, written down.
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Between
One written note on day seven
Two or three lines from you. A week that is slipping gets named while there is still a week to recover it.
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Review
Written, at the midpoint and the end
What moved, what did not, and what the measure says. Yours to keep, whether or not you continue.
The detail
Length, cadence and cost
Sessions run remotely. Times are agreed for the whole engagement on day one, so the calendar is settled before the work starts.
- CadenceEvery fortnight, sixty minutes, at a fixed time. The opening session is ninety minutes.
- Three month engagementSix sessions, one midpoint review, one closing review.
- Six month engagementTwelve sessions, reviews at month three and month six. Most people who are changing field or building something take this one.
- Between sessionsOne short written note from you on day seven. Replies come within a working day.
- PriceFrom $250 per session. Three months from $1,500, six months from $3,000, billed monthly rather than upfront.
- If it is not workingSay so at the midpoint review and the engagement ends there, with no further billing. This has happened and it is not a difficult conversation.
Six months, twelve sessions, and the only clever thing about it was that they kept happening. I had tried to do this alone twice.
Related
Worth reading first
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14 March 2023
Write the goal so a stranger could check it
The opening session does this to your objective. Doing it beforehand saves half an hour.
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18 June 2024
Leaving well: the six months before a career change
If the objective is a change of field, this is roughly the shape of the six month engagement.
See whether the fit is right
The first call is thirty minutes and costs nothing. Bring the objective that has not moved. You will leave knowing whether a three month engagement, a six month one, or something else entirely is the sensible next step.
