Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on setting goals during a coaching session.
You’ve probably heard that an important part of coaching is listening and showing empathy. A good coach tries hard to understand the person he or she is trying to coach. That helps build trust, which creates a constructive relationship. But what is that relationship for? What kind of work does that trust allow?
Once you build a good relationship as a coach, then you can start talking about improvements. After all, coaches don’t exist just to hear about people’s problems. Their whole purpose is to help people get better. And a big part of getting better is setting goals, which is something a good coach can help with.
So how do we work with someone on their goals? Well, that might start with asking about their motivation. After all, goals have to be directed at something. If someone’s motivated by the idea of getting a promotion, then the goals have to relate to that. And that underlines the fact that they are the other person’s goals. We don’t set goals for them. We ask them about their goals. Then we can help them break their goals into smaller objectives.
Of course, another important role of a coach is to give encouragement. So when we help someone set goals, we are in a good position to show confidence in their ability to meet them. And finally, we might ask them about their next steps. That is, what are the concrete activities that the person will take as she tries to accomplish her goals?
In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin two lawyers: Marion and Rachel. Marion has been coaching Rachel as she learns how to be a better lawyer. In the previous lesson, we heard Marion trying to figure out Rachel’s challenges. Now we’ll hear her help Rachel set some goals.
Listening Questions
1. What does Marion ask Rachel about at the start of the conversation?
2. What short-term objective does Rachel identify for herself?
3. What does Marion say she is “sure about” and has “no doubt about?”
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