A coaching plan is a short written agreement between a leader, their coach, and usually a sponsor that names what the leader will develop, how progress will be seen, and what each person commits to between sessions. A good plan fits on one page and turns “get better at leadership” into a few specific, observable changes.
Without a plan, coaching tends to become a series of interesting conversations. With one, every session connects to a goal that the leader, their manager, and the coach have agreed on in advance.
What a coaching plan should include
Most effective plans share the same core parts, whatever coaching model the coach uses.
- Purpose: why this coaching, why now, and what is at stake for the business.
- Two or three development goals: written as behaviors other people could notice, not as traits.
- Baseline: where the leader is today, from a 360, an assessment such as the PACT™ Leadership Assessment, or stakeholder interviews.
- Actions and practice: what the leader will try between sessions, in real work.
- Measures: how the leader, the sponsor, and the coach will know the change is happening.
- Agreements and roles: who meets when, what stays confidential, and what gets reported.
- Review points: a midpoint and final review, with permission to change the goals.
Coaching plan template
Use this as a one-page starting point. Fill it in together in the first or second session, then share the agreed version with the sponsor.
| Section | Question it answers | Example entry |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Why coaching now? | New VP leading a merged team of 40; retention and delivery dates at risk |
| Goal 1 | What will people see the leader do differently? | Runs weekly priorities meeting where each commitment has an owner and a date |
| Goal 2 | What is the second visible change? | Renegotiates commitments early instead of missing them quietly |
| Baseline | Where are we starting? | 360 average on “follows through” and two stakeholder interviews |
| Practice | What happens between sessions? | One difficult conversation per week, prepared with the coach |
| Measures | How will we know? | Pulse check with direct reports at month 3 and month 6; on-time delivery rate |
| Agreements | Who does what? | Biweekly sessions; sponsor check-ins at start, midpoint, end; content confidential, progress shared |
| Review | When do we adjust? | Midpoint review in month 3; final review in month 6 |
How to build the plan, step by step
- Start with the sponsor conversation. Ask the leader’s manager what success would look like in six months. Write down their words.
- Gather a baseline. Use a 360, an assessment, or short interviews. Research on multisource feedback by Smither, London, and Reilly (2005) found that improvement was larger when feedback was repeated within 12 months, which is a good argument for measuring at the start and again at the end.
- Choose no more than three goals. More than three spreads attention too thin.
- Translate each goal into behaviors. “Be more strategic” becomes “spend the first hour of each Monday on next quarter’s priorities and share them with the team.”
- Design practice in real work. The Center for Creative Leadership’s 70-20-10 model holds that most leadership development comes from on-the-job experience, with coaching and mentoring a smaller share and formal training smaller still. The plan should point the leader’s actual work at the goals.
- Agree the measures and review dates. Put them in the calendar now.
The part most plans skip: the agreements
Plans usually fail for a simple reason: the commitments in them were never specific enough to keep. “I will delegate more” is a wish. “I will hand the budget review to Priya by March 1 and meet with her weekly until it is done” is an agreement. DorWay works from the view that organizations are Networks of Agreements™, and a coaching plan is a small one: commitments between the leader, the coach, and the sponsor. Write each one with an owner, a date, and a way to check. When something changes, renegotiate it openly instead of letting it slide. That habit is what we mean by accountability, and it is often the biggest change the coaching produces. Our guide to team agreements covers the same practice at team level.
Personalizing the plan
A personalized plan reflects the leader’s role, context, and life, not a generic competency list. Useful inputs include the leader’s own priorities outside work (the LIFE Journey Evaluation™ is one way to surface them), the specific stakeholders they need to influence, and the business results their role owns. This is much of what makes one-on-one coaching different from a group program. It also affects price, which we break down in our guide to coaching packages and pricing.
Common mistakes
- Goals written as traits (“more confident”) instead of behaviors.
- No baseline, so nobody can say what changed.
- The sponsor sees the plan once and never again.
- The plan never changes, even when the leader’s role does.
FAQ
What is a coaching plan?
A short written agreement that sets the goals, actions, measures, and roles for a coaching engagement, so that sessions build toward specific, observable change.
How many goals should a coaching plan have?
Two or three. Fewer goals with clear behaviors and measures produce more visible change than a long list.
Who should see the coaching plan?
The leader and coach own it. The sponsor, usually the leader’s manager or HR partner, should agree the goals and see progress, while session content stays confidential.
How often should a coaching plan be reviewed?
At least at the midpoint and the end of the engagement, and any time the leader’s role or priorities change.