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Maximizing Your Coaching Sessions: Proven Strategies from ICF Research to Get Results Faster

  

You've invested in coaching. You're showing up to sessions. But are you getting everything you could from the experience?

Here's a reality check: The difference between clients who see transformational results and those who see modest improvements often has nothing to do with the coach. It comes down to how you approach the sessions.

Research consistently shows that clients who prepare for sessions, take action between meetings, and maintain honest communication with their coach achieve their goals significantly faster than those who don't. Let's break down exactly what the most successful coaching clients do differently—and how you can apply these strategies starting with your very next session.

The Preparation Hack: Invest 15 Minutes

Many successful coaching clients spend 15 minutes before each session quieting their minds from the frantic pace of daily work and focusing their intention for the session. This simple practice dramatically increases session effectiveness.

Before your next session, ask yourself:

  • What have I accomplished since our last meeting? Review your notes and action items. What worked? What didn't? What surprised you?
  • What challenges am I facing right now? What's the most important leadership or personal issue demanding your attention?
  • What do I want from this session? What specific outcome would make this session valuable?
  • What have I been avoiding? Sometimes the thing you least want to discuss is exactly what you need to address.

Clients who come prepared with a clear agenda make dramatically better use of their time. You're not spending the first 20 minutes figuring out what to talk about—you're diving straight into meaningful work.

The Honest Communication Imperative

In any effective coaching relationship, you must be open and honest with your coach. This builds trust and connection, where the coach can ask challenging, thought-provoking, and powerful questions that enable you to identify the root of your problems and what measures you can use next to see meaningful results.

When you hold back or present an edited version of yourself, you limit what coaching can accomplish. Your coach can't help you with challenges they don't know about. They can't address blind spots you're hiding.

Be honest about:

  • Goals that no longer feel relevant (it's okay to change course)
  • Actions you committed to but didn't complete (this is valuable data, not failure)
  • Doubts about whether coaching is working
  • Discomfort with approaches your coach suggests
  • Progress you're making (celebrate wins, even small ones)
  • Setbacks and struggles

Remember: Your coach isn't there to judge you. They're there to help you grow. That only works if you're willing to be authentic about where you actually are, not where you think you "should" be.

The Action Imperative: Where Transformation Actually Happens

Leave every coaching session with at least one specific action that will advance your current skill sets. Commit to completing this action before the next meeting. This single practice separates clients who see modest improvement from those who experience genuine transformation.

Between-session work might include:

  • Experimenting with a new communication technique in your next team meeting
  • Having a difficult conversation you've been avoiding
  • Implementing a new time management strategy for one week
  • Reading a specific book or article your coach recommends
  • Creating a vision or plan for a project or goal
  • Practicing a skill in low-stakes situations before applying it to high-stakes scenarios

The clients who see the fastest results are those who put new behaviors into practice consistently, even when they feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar. Coaching isn't theoretical—it's deeply practical. The transformation happens when you apply insights in real-world situations.

If you find yourself consistently not completing actions between sessions, that's important information to discuss with your coach. What's getting in the way? Are the actions too ambitious? Not aligned with what you actually care about? Is something else blocking you?

The Environment Factor: Setting Yourself Up for Success

Logistics matter more than most people realize. Find a quiet and private space for your coaching session where you can focus without distraction. It's important to have a distraction-free environment where you can be fully present and have a productive conversation with your coach.

For virtual sessions:

  • Choose a location away from your desk if possible—this creates mental separation from daily work
  • Test your technology beforehand (internet connection, audio, video)
  • Put your phone on silent and close unnecessary tabs
  • Let others know you're not to be disturbed
  • Have your notes and journal ready

For in-person sessions:

  • Arrive a few minutes early to transition into a coaching mindset
  • Choose comfortable seating that allows for open body language
  • Minimize distractions in your environment

The environment you create signals to yourself how seriously you're taking the session. A chaotic, distracted environment produces chaotic, distracted results.

The Timing Strategy: Making Coaching a Priority

Unless it's a true emergency, don't cancel or reschedule your coaching sessions. You will probably reach your goals faster if you make your coaching sessions a priority. This means showing up rested, present, and ready to work.

Schedule your sessions at times when:

  • You have mental energy (not at the end of an exhausting day)
  • You won't be rushed immediately afterward
  • You can give coaching your full attention

Many clients find that morning sessions work best—before the day's urgencies pile up. Others prefer mid-day sessions as a reset. Experiment to find what works for your energy and schedule, then protect that time fiercely.

The Note-Taking Practice: Capturing Insights That Matter

Take notes during your coaching sessions so you can review them later and remind yourself of key points and action steps discussed. Many clients keep a coaching journal where they document:

During sessions:


  • Key insights or "aha" moments
  • Questions your coach asks that land particularly hard
  • Action items you commit to
  • Resources recommended (books, articles, tools)

Between sessions:

  • Progress on action items
  • Challenges encountered
  • Unexpected insights or observations
  • Questions for your next session

Reviewing your notes before each session helps you recognize patterns, track progress, and stay accountable to your commitments. It also provides concrete evidence of how much you've grown, which builds momentum and motivation.

The Feedback Loop: Keeping Coaching Relevant

You can seek your coach's feedback at the end of coaching sessions. Let your coach know what's working and what isn't. Coaching should evolve as you evolve.

Provide feedback on:

Good coaches welcome this feedback because it helps them serve you better. If something isn't working, don't wait weeks to mention it. Address it in the moment or at the start of your next session.

The Openness Requirement: Trying What Feels Uncomfortable

Your coach will inevitably suggest approaches that are counter to your usual process or outside your comfort zone. Before you dismiss those ideas and build a case for why they won't work in your situation, try them.

Many goals are realized by taking a fundamentally different path. If you only do what feels comfortable, you'll get the same results you've always gotten. Coaches develop their suggestions based on what works, not what feels easy.

This doesn't mean blindly following every suggestion. You can ask questions to understand the reasoning. You can modify approaches to better fit your context. But dismissing ideas simply because they feel unfamiliar limits your growth.

The Reflection Practice: Deepening Your Learning

Between sessions, take time to reflect on your progress. This helps you identify areas of success and areas where you may need to focus more in your next coaching sessions.

Reflection questions:

  • What worked well this week? Why?
  • What didn't work? What can I learn from that?
  • What patterns am I noticing in my behavior or thinking?
  • How am I different than I was a month ago? Three months ago?
  • What resistance am I feeling? What might that be telling me?

This reflection deepens your self-awareness and accelerates your growth. Unlike a number of other development methods, coaching can create sustainable learning and lasting behavior change—but only when you actively engage in the learning process.

The Long-Term Perspective: Trusting the Process

Leadership coaching is not always an easy, comfortable experience. And it can also be a wonderful adventure with amazing insights and great personal victories. There are always sessions where coaches and clients laugh a lot—at life, at how you've grown, at how things happen.

Some weeks you'll have breakthrough sessions where everything clicks. Other weeks will feel slower, more challenging, or even frustrating. This is normal. Growth isn't linear.

Trust the process, even when you can't see immediate results. Research shows that 96% of people with a coach say they would repeat the process again, and 99% of individuals who received coaching services were satisfied or highly satisfied. These satisfaction rates don't come from easy, comfortable experiences—they come from meaningful transformation that takes time to unfold.

The Ownership Mindset: Your Coach's Job vs. Your Job

Remember: Coaching is a partnership, not a service where you passively receive advice. Don't relinquish power to your coach. You are responsible for your own actions.

Your coach's role:

Your role:

  • Show up prepared
  • Be honest and open
  • Take action on what you discuss
  • Reflect on your experiences
  • Own your results

The most successful coaching clients take full responsibility for their growth. They don't wait for the coach to initiate or direct everything. They come with agendas, report on progress, and actively shape how their time is used.

The Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Even well-intentioned clients sometimes sabotage their own progress. Watch out for these patterns:

Canceling or rescheduling frequently: This signals that coaching isn't actually a priority, and your results will reflect that.

Showing up unprepared: You waste valuable time figuring out what to talk about instead of actually coaching.

Not completing action items: Without action, there's no change. If this becomes a pattern, your coaching engagement becomes expensive venting sessions rather than transformational work.

Hiding struggles or setbacks: Your coach can only help with what they know about. Presenting a polished version of yourself prevents real breakthroughs.

Resisting discomfort: If you only do what feels easy, you're not really being coached—you're being validated.

The Bottom Line

You've already made the investment in coaching. Now maximize that investment by showing up fully, taking action consistently, and being honest about what's working and what isn't.

The difference between coaching that transforms your leadership and coaching that produces modest improvements comes down to your approach. Prepare for sessions, implement what you learn, reflect on your progress, and maintain open communication with your coach.

Research shows that organizations investing in coaching report an average ROI of 5.7 times the initial investment. But that ROI doesn't happen automatically—it happens when you do the work.

You have everything you need to get exceptional results from coaching. The question is: Are you ready to do what it takes?

Ready to silence your inner critic and accelerate your leadership growth? Book a free 30-min discovery call → scheduling@inspiredconfidencecoaching.com 

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