When you have a follow up coaching session with somebody you've worked with previously, it can be hard to pick up the flow. I like to use the Achievements, Issues, Plans model to help with this.

Begin by discussing achievements, i.e. what has been accomplished since you last spoke. Remember that even if every goal was not achieved in full, any kind of momentum needs to be encouraged and recognized. This can be a great way of raising confidence and of course, confident people tend to make high performers. Confidence is a product of being successful and knowing that we were responsible for those successes. Let your coachee be the one to define what an achievement is.

Then you can move on to issues. An issue is anything that has cropped up since you last spoke that has prevented agreed actions being carried. There might be external factors such as time pressure or conflicting priorities. There might equally be a number of internal factors such as confusion, doubt or fear. I find it best to try to remain neutral when discussing such issues. You don’t want to come across as a teacher quizzing why homework has not been completed. This will be met with excuses rather than reasons and you will not uncover what’s really going on. I would also suggest that you both look ahead to what looms on the horizon that might create more difficulties.

Finally move on to plans. A good coaching session will have two sets of plans. There will be a plan for the session itself which you can establish by asking "What would you like to gain from this session?" or "What would have to happen today for you to consider this time well spent?" There will also need to be agreed actions and plans confirmed for making progress on whatever issue or situation is being discussed. You should find yourself asking "What are you going to do?", "When are you going to do it?" etc.

This model works particularly well when you meet regularly with your coaches. It creates a useful cycle in that any plans agreed ought to become the achievements for discussion at the next session. There will no doubt be issues that occur, but you can agree plans to deal with these and one again, these should become achievements for next time.

Over time this approach can develop a real action orientation in any coaching relationship. Make a plan, carry it out, identify issues, create a plan to solve them, carry it out, recognize achievements and so on and so on.