How to Create Your Own Coaching Model: A 6-Step Guide

To create your own coaching model, start from how you already work in your best sessions, define who it is for and what change it delivers, organise it into 3 to 6 phases with one key question each, give it a name that sticks and test it with real clients before calling it finished. You aren't replacing GROW or CLEAR. You're putting your own way of coaching in order, so you can repeat it and your client can follow it.

This guide goes step by step, with a complete example model laid out in a table, what you can borrow from the classic models without copying them and the mistakes that come up most when coaches design their own.

Your own model starts on the wall: phases, questions and the links between them.

What is a coaching model, and what is it not?

A coaching model is the map of a process or a session: which phases the client goes through, in what order and which question drives each one. It is not the same as a methodology, the underlying lens you work from (ontological, systemic, values-based), nor a tool, a specific resource you use inside a phase, such as a wheel of life or a SWOT. Our guide to coaching models covers the best-known ones one by one.

The distinction matters when you design your own. Plenty of coaches think they need a model when what they lack is a tool, or the other way round. If what you want to organise is the sequence of a conversation or a process lasting several weeks, you need a model. If you want to measure something specific, such as stress levels or balance across life areas, you need a tool.

Why create your own coaching model?

• Consistency. If every session depends on how inspired you feel that day, so do the results. A model gives you a thread to return to when the conversation wanders.
• Differentiation. "I use GROW" sets nobody apart. "I work with a four-phase process designed for first-time managers taking on a team" does.
• Clarity for the client. When clients know which phase they are in and what comes next, they commit more to the process.
• A basis for a product. Your own model is the natural backbone of a programme, a workshop or a course. If you are thinking of packaging your work, the guide to online coaching programs is a good next step.

How do you create your own coaching model in 6 steps?

1. Look back before you invent

Your model already exists, even if it has no name. Go through your notes from recent sessions that went well and look for the pattern: where do you almost always start? Which question gets the client moving? At what point do you bring in a tool? How do you close? Write it down as it is, unpolished. That rough draft is worth more than any acronym you come up with in an afternoon.

2. Define who it is for and what it delivers

A model that works for everything helps with nothing in particular. Answer two questions in one sentence each: what kind of client comes to you, and what change do they leave with? The more precise you are, the easier it is to see which phases you do not need.

3. Design 3 to 6 phases

Fewer than three phases is a list of tips; more than six, and nobody remembers them mid-session. For each phase define four things: its purpose, the key question that opens it, the tool you reach for if the conversation stalls and the signal that tells you it is time to move on. You'll lean on the exit signal more than anything else mid-session, because it tells you when to move on.

4. Give it a name people remember

It can be an acronym, a metaphor (a bridge, a map, a compass) or simply numbered phases. What matters is that the client remembers it and you can explain it in thirty seconds. Do not force an acronym if the words do not fit: a word picked to fill a letter confuses more than it helps. If acronyms tempt you, first check which coaching acronyms are real and which are not.

5. Test it with real clients

Use the model across several sessions and note afterwards which phase was hard going, which was redundant and where you had to improvise. Ask the client too: "which part of the session helped you most?". Phases nobody mentions are candidates for merging or dropping.

6. Check it against a professional standard

Your own model still has to meet the profession's competencies. The International Coaching Federation groups its core competencies into four domains: foundation, co-creating the relationship, communicating effectively and cultivating learning and growth. Make sure your model leaves room to agree the session, listen properly and close with learning and action.

Source: ICF Core Competencies, International Coaching Federation.

What does a finished model look like? An example

Picture a coach who works with professionals in career transition. After reviewing her sessions, she sees she always follows the same path and calls it PATH:

Notice that no single phase is original on its own. What makes it hers is the selection, the order, the questions and above all the signals to move on, which come from that coach's experience with that kind of client.

What can you take from GROW, CLEAR and STEPPA without copying them?

You can learn a lot from the classic models. Don't rename them. Work out what problem each one solves and decide whether your model needs that piece:

• From GROW: the discipline of separating the goal from the reality before looking for options.
• From Peter Hawkins' CLEAR model: opening with an explicit contract for the session and closing by reviewing how it went for the client.
• From Angus McLeod's STEPPA model: checking the emotional energy behind the goal before planning.

If your model has none of these three pieces, ask yourself whether that is a deliberate choice or a gap.

Which mistakes should you avoid when building your model?

• Starting with the acronym. Phases first, name second. The other way round, you end up with a phase that only exists because a vowel was missing.
• Copying a known model under a new name. Besides being unethical, it does not set you apart. If your process is GROW, say you work with GROW and stand out through how you apply it.
• Phases without questions. A phase with no key question is just a heading.
• Rigidity. The model serves the client. If a session calls for going back a phase, go back.
• Never writing it down. A model that lives only in your head cannot be taught, improved or turned into a programme. Having your powerful questions organised by phase is a good first document.

How do you turn your model into tools with CoachPro Tools?

Once your model is written down, try to give each phase its own tool. CoachPro Tools has two ways to do that. With the Tool builder you create your own: scaled questions, dimensions, results shown as bars and radar, and interpretation levels; it can be private or shared, and you assign it to your clients. With Upload my tool you send your material (a PDF, a spreadsheet or a template) and the team builds it as an interactive tool, with a limit of 10 submissions a month on every plan. We cover both in detail in the guide to building your own coaching tool. For the phases that need nothing new, there are +309 interactive tools, and Live Notes lets you record each session phase by phase.

Frequently asked questions about creating your own coaching model

Sources

• ICF Core Competencies. International Coaching Federation. The four domains of the core competencies.