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A complete coaching process moves through seven stages: initial agreement, assessment, goal setting, working sessions, follow-up between sessions, closing and evaluation. The first three set things up, the middle two are where most of the work happens, and the last two check whether the change happened and whether it will last.
Every stage comes with a worked example: Marta, a newly promoted team lead, across eight sessions. Marta is not real; the case and its numbers are made up, though anyone who coaches first-time managers will recognise her.
What are the stages of the coaching process?
Here is the full map. The last column sums up what happened in Marta's case, which you will find in detail further down.
| Stage | What it is for | In Marta's example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Initial agreement | Agree what the process includes, how long it lasts, what it costs and how it ends | 8 sessions, every two weeks; the company pays |
| 2. Assessment | Set the starting point | Delegation 3/10, 12 hours of overtime a week |
| 3. Goal setting | Turn what the client wants into goals you can check | Delegate 3 tasks, get down to 4 hours of overtime |
| 4. Working sessions | Explore, build awareness and decide on actions | The belief "if I do it myself, it comes out better" |
| 5. Follow-up | Keep the actions going from one session to the next | A relapse before session 5 |
| 6. Closing | Review the journey and prepare the client to go on alone | Session 8 and a check-in three months later |
| 7. Evaluation | Measure the change and the client's experience | Delegation 7/10, 5 hours of overtime |
Is there an official model of coaching stages?
There is no single list of stages that the whole profession agrees on. The closest reference is the International Coaching Federation (ICF) Core Competencies, which describe what the coach does without putting it into phases. Two of them, though, mark the start and the end of the process.
Competency 3, "Establishes and Maintains Agreements", asks the coach to agree an overall coaching plan and goals with the client and relevant stakeholders, to define measures of success, and to settle up front the logistics, fees, scheduling, duration, termination and confidentiality. Competency 8, "Facilitates Client Growth", includes celebrating the client's progress and partnering with them to close the session.
The seven stages in this article spread those competencies across time. Merge or split them as you like, but I would never skip the agreement at the start or the evaluation at the end: without them you will not know whether the process worked.
Stage 1: What goes into the initial agreement?
The initial agreement makes clear what the process involves before it starts, in a short call beforehand or at the top of session one. At a minimum, it covers:
- What coaching is and how it differs from therapy or consulting.
- Number of sessions, how often you meet and how long each session runs.
- Fees, payment terms and what happens when a session is cancelled.
- Confidentiality: what gets shared if a company is paying.
- How the process ends, including if either side wants to stop early.
For a minute-by-minute structure of that first meeting, see the guide to the first coaching session. If you want the welcome to go further than a signed document, read how to handle client onboarding in coaching.
Example: Marta's agreement
Marta is 41 and has been leading a team of six at a logistics company for three months. The company offers her coaching because she looks overwhelmed.
What they agree: eight 60-minute sessions every two weeks, by video call. The company pays. The HR director joins a three-way meeting at the start to explain what she expects, and after that she only receives attendance and a final summary that Marta reviews before it is sent. What is said in sessions stays confidential.
Stage 2: How do you run the assessment?
The assessment sets the starting point. Skip it and, at the end, all you will have to compare are impressions. Pair what the client tells you with a scaled assessment you can repeat at the close.
Which tool to use depends on the topic. The guide to diagnostic assessment in coaching helps you choose.
Example: Marta's starting point
In session one, Marta fills in a baseline assessment with 1-10 scales. Her lowest scores: delegation (3), confidence in her role as a manager (4) and work-life balance (3). She also mentions about 12 hours of overtime a week and that she checks everything her team produces before it goes out.
The coach does not interpret anything yet. The question is: "Of all this, what would you like to be different four months from now?"
Stage 3: How do you set the goals?
The job now is to turn "I want to feel less overwhelmed" into something you can check. The SMART goals format helps: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. For eight sessions, two or three goals are enough.
Agree a measure for each goal too. The ICF calls this defining measures of success, and you will need it in stage 7.
Example: Marta's goals
1. Hand off three recurring tasks she currently does herself, before session 6. Measure: delegated tasks she does not redo.
2. Cut overtime from 12 to 4 hours a week by the end of the process. Measure: her own time log.
3. Hold a one-to-one every month with each person on the team. Measure: one-to-ones held.
The HR director knows these three goals. She does not know the conversations that led to them.
Stage 4: What happens in the working sessions?
This is the longest stage. Each session has its own small agreement: what the client wants to leave with today and how they will know they got it. The GROW model gives each meeting a simple shape: goal for the session, reality, options and will.
Every session ends with one or two actions, and the guide on how to create an action plan with your client explains how to turn them into a plan that gets done.
Example: Marta's sessions
Sessions 2 and 3. Working through GROW, Marta finds the reason she does not delegate: "If I do it myself, it comes out better and faster." The coach asks what that idea costs her each week. She does the maths: about five hours checking other people's work.
Session 4. She picks the first task to hand off, the weekly incident report, and rehearses in the session the conversation with the person who will take it on.
Sessions 5 to 7. She delegates the second and third tasks and starts the monthly one-to-ones with her team.
Stage 5: How do you follow up between sessions?
Change happens between sessions. Following up means keeping each session's agreed actions visible, checking at the start of the next one what got done and what did not, and treating what did not as information. A kanban board of client agreements, with to do, in progress and done columns, shows you at a glance where your client gets stuck.
Expect relapses: if you name them in the initial agreement, you can talk about them later without blame.
Example: Marta's relapse
Before session 5 a big new customer comes in and Marta is back to staying late. The delegated report has sat in "in progress" for two weeks.
The coach asks what happened at the moment she picked the report up again. Marta sees it: under pressure, she goes back to the idea from session 2. They agree a rule for crunch weeks: she can review, but not redo.
Stage 6: How do you close a coaching engagement?
You prepare the close from day one, which is why it belongs in the initial agreement. Flag it two sessions ahead so the client arrives at the last one ready for it. A closing session can have four parts:
- Review the journey: where it started and what changed.
- Name what the client learned about themselves, in their own words.
- Build a maintenance plan for when the hard weeks come back.
- Celebrate the progress, as ICF competency 8 asks, and say goodbye.
A check-in session a few months later tells you whether the change holds. Set the date during the closing session itself.
Example: Marta's session 8
Marta rereads her notes from session one and laughs at something she said: "I don't have time to teach anyone." Her maintenance plan fits in three lines: the review-don't-redo rule, a monthly one-to-one with each person on the team, and a Friday calendar reminder to check her overtime. They book a check-in for three months later.
Stage 7: How do you evaluate the outcome?
Evaluation has two parts. One measures the change: you repeat the baseline assessment and check each goal's measure. The other measures the experience: what helped the client and what they would change. The first is for your client; the second is for you.
Example: Marta's evaluation
| Measure | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| Delegation (1-10) | 3 | 7 |
| Confidence as a manager (1-10) | 4 | 7 |
| Work-life balance (1-10) | 3 | 6 |
| Overtime hours per week | 12 | 5 |
| Recurring tasks delegated | 0 | 3 |
| One-to-ones per month | 0 | 6 |
Two goals met and one partly met: overtime came down to 5 hours, not 4. The summary for HR, which Marta read first, covers attendance and goals, with nothing from the sessions themselves.
What are the 4 or 5 stages of coaching?
If you have seen a four- or five-stage version, none of them is official. They group the same phases into bigger blocks. With the seven stages in this article, a four-stage version looks like this:
- Start: initial agreement.
- Exploration: assessment and goal setting.
- Action: working sessions and follow-up.
- Close: closing and evaluation.
For five stages, split evaluation off from closing. What matters is that your client knows where they are on the road.
How do the stages change in corporate coaching?
When a company pays, a third party joins in. The stages stay the same, but three of them shift:
- Initial agreement. Coach, client and company all sign it, and it has to say what information the company receives. The ICF talks about agreeing the process with "relevant stakeholders".
- Goals. They blend what the person wants with what the organisation needs. Ask the client to confirm they own them.
- Evaluation. The company will want a report. Agree from the start what goes in it and that the client reads it before it is sent.
What is said in session stays confidential even when someone else pays. Put that in writing at the three-way meeting.
How can you run every stage in CoachPro Tools?
In CoachPro Tools each stage has a home. You sign the agreement with the editable contract templates or the Professional Coaching Agreement and Informed Consent. For the assessment there are intake forms and the Start and Closing Assessment, which compares both snapshots on a radar chart at the end. Each session is logged in the client's record with its agreements, follow-up runs on the agreements kanban, and at the close you can send the Process Satisfaction Assessment.
The whole engagement, from signature to close, in one account
Contracts, forms, session records, an agreements kanban and start and end assessments: 30 USD/month, 157 USD/year or a one-time 297 USD.
See plans and pricing →Frequently asked questions
What are the stages of the coaching process?
Seven: initial agreement, assessment, goal setting, working sessions, follow-up between sessions, closing and evaluation. They can also be grouped into four blocks: start, exploration, action and close.
How many sessions does a coaching process have?
There is no fixed number: it is agreed at the start, based on the goal. The example in this article uses eight sessions every two weeks, about four months.
What is an example of a coaching process?
A newly promoted manager who does not delegate agrees eight sessions, measures her starting point (delegation 3 out of 10, 12 hours of overtime a week), sets three goals, gets through a relapse and closes with delegation at 7 out of 10 and 5 hours of overtime. It is a fictional case.
What does the ICF say about the stages of coaching?
The ICF does not define stages; it defines competencies. Competency 3 asks the coach to agree an overall plan, goals, measures of success and terms such as duration and termination. Competency 8 includes celebrating the client's progress and closing the session together.
How do you close a coaching process?
Flag it two sessions ahead and use the last one to review the journey, name what was learned, build a maintenance plan and celebrate the progress. Then repeat the baseline assessment and offer a check-in session a few months later.
Related resources: First coaching session · GROW model step by step · Free start and end assessment