The Mentor's Mentee
You supervise newly certified coaches. One of them, Priya, has six one-on-one clients. After three weeks, four of the six have stopped logging food and two have missed sessions. She sends you her check-in scripts: they run about 12 minutes, open with a review of every macro, and end with a list of 25–30 action items. She tells you, 'My clients just aren't motivated. Can you give me a better template?' You have permission to review her recorded sessions with her. Her clients are mostly busy parents, and one is a shift worker. Priya is knowledgeable and genuinely cares. In the recordings, she answers questions before clients finish asking them and rarely asks what the client thinks will work. She has asked for a template three times in the last month and seems anxious about being judged.
1. Diagnose the likely problem, separating client factors from coach behaviour.
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Client factors are plausible: busy parents and a shift worker have genuine time and energy constraints, and dropout is not automatically the coach's fault. But four of six stopping logging within three weeks, plus two missed sessions, points to a common factor in the delivery rather than six separate client failures.
The coach behaviour is observable in the recordings: a 12-minute macro review opens the session, 25–30 action items close it, questions are answered before they are finished, and the client's own view is rarely elicited. That pattern is over-prescription with low collaboration. It produces two predictable effects: the client cannot identify what matters most because everything matters, and the client does not feel heard, so commitment drops. Thirty action items is not a plan; it is a list that guarantees failure.
The template request is a red herring. She is asking for a better document when the issue is the interaction. Her anxiety about being judged probably drives the lecturing: talking feels safer than asking. Name the behaviour, not her character, and check the hypothesis with her before concluding - ask what she thinks happens in the sessions where clients disengage.
2. What would you coach first, and what would you deliberately not do?
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Coach one behaviour first: ending each session with one client-chosen action, arrived at by asking rather than telling. Pair it with a simple talk-ratio target - for example, the client speaks for at least half the session and Priya asks at least three open questions before offering a solution.
Why this first: It is observable, changeable within a week, and directly linked to the dropout pattern. It also gives her something concrete to practise instead of a vague instruction to 'be more collaborative.' One action item also fixes the overload problem without requiring her to abandon her knowledge.
What not to do: Do not hand her a new template; that rewards the wrong diagnosis and adds a document she will overfill. Do not deliver a broad critique of her assessment, macro review, or personality. Do not take over her clients or run the session for her. Do not tell her she is 'not motivational' - that is an identity judgement, not feedback.
Sequence: Observe, name one pattern with evidence, practise it, review it. Keep the feedback specific: 'In the first four minutes you asked one question and made 14 statements. What would you like to try instead?' Normalise the anxiety; a new coach who talks too much is usually trying hard, not neglecting the client.
3. Outline your next 45-minute supervision session, including a role-play.
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0–5 min - Check-in and contract. Ask what she wants from the session. Agree the focus: one skill, not a full overhaul.
5–15 min - Her hypothesis first. Ask what she thinks is happening with the four clients who stopped logging. This keeps the session collaborative and surfaces her anxiety. Then share the observation from the recordings: the talk ratio and the number of action items.
15–25 min - Evidence review. Play a five-minute clip. Give her a simple observation task: count questions versus statements, and count action items. Let her notice the pattern herself before you interpret it.
25–35 min - Role-play. She plays the coach, you play a busy parent who has missed two logs. The rule: ask at least three open questions before offering anything, and end with one action the client chooses. Swap briefly so she experiences the client side.
35–42 min - Feedback. Use specific evidence, ask her to self-assess first, then add one strength and one adjustment.
42–45 min - Commitment. She practises the same structure in her next three sessions and sends you one recording. Agree the review measure: action items per session and whether logging resumes, not whether clients 'seem motivated.'