Establishes and Maintains Agreements
What you must know
Agreements exist at three levels. First, the contract with whoever pays: purpose, scope, roles, logistics, confidentiality, and how success will be evaluated. Second, the coaching relationship agreement with the client: what coaching is and is not (not therapy, consulting, or mentoring), what is in and out of scope, confidentiality terms, fees, scheduling, and how either party can end the relationship. Third, the session agreement: at each meeting the coach confirms or renegotiates what the client wants to focus on and what would make this session valuable.
Maintaining agreements means returning to them when the territory shifts. If a client moves from a work topic to a disclosure of trauma, the coach names the change and asks whether the focus is still in scope and whether the client wants to work there.
Traps
- Treating the stated topic as the goal. 'I want to talk about my boss' is a topic; the goal is what the client wants from the conversation.
- Skipping the session agreement to save time; the exam treats this as a real lapse.
- Renegotiating silently. When the client says 'can we talk about something else?', the strong answer confirms the change explicitly.
- Confusing agreement-making with signing a contract.
Worked example
A client says, 'I want to be less anxious.' The coach acknowledges this, distinguishes coaching on anxiety from therapy where relevant, and asks what the client wants to be able to do differently and what a useful outcome for today would look like. Agreement is built, not assumed.
Rule of thumb
If you cannot state in one sentence what the client wants from this conversation, you have not yet made a session agreement.