Boon Coaching Script -- Session #1

NOTE: The script below is simply meant as a guide to be used during the client's 1st Boon coaching session. It is not meant to be taken literally. While information-sharing and logistics are important, the most important part of the 1st session is to help your client feel comfortable and heard. Read your client! Informational details you don't get to int the 1st session can always be shared in the 2nd session, or via a follow up email. We are here to establish a foundation for a long-lasting relationship. Thank you! 

INTRODUCTIONS, BUILDING RAPPORT & EXPECTATIONS-SETTING (~10 mins)

These are the salient points to cover in the first 10-15 minutes of your client’s first session. They are addressed more thoroughly below.

• Greeting 
• Confidentiality
• Coach Intro
• First session Purpose and Agenda
• Difference between coaching and therapy (should be made clear upfront, instead of waiting  for a client to ask - just a few short sentences, given most clients seem to have zero experience with either)
• Boon Mission/Story
• Overview of Session Logistics/Structure
• Questions on Above?

Greeting: “Hi, [Client Name]. I’m [Coach Name] from Boon –- happy to be talking with you today and thank you for choosing me as your coach!”

“<How is everything going today? Where are you calling in from?>”

Confidentiality (Please read to your client verbatim; also know this clause is subject to change).

Before we dig in, I want to take a moment to talk about confidentiality because it’s an important aspect in coaching. In fact, I’m going to read Boon’s confidentiality clause to you:

“Everything we discuss during coaching will stay completely confidential between you and me - and my supervisor on occasion. Our primary goal is to provide you with a safe space where you feel comfortable discussing your personal or professional life. The only times confidentiality may be broken are if there is suspicion of harm or abuse to yourself or others, or under court order.
Also, your employer does not have access to what we discuss- we know how important that is for your privacy. At times, general information may be shared in the aggregate* at the company level, but we will never share specific information that could identify individual employees.

One additional thing I want to name for transparency. If at some point you transition to a different Boon coach, your coaching notes may carry over to support continuity and avoid having you repeat yourself and are used solely to support your experience. No one outside of Boon has access to them.

 

*[Note for coaches: "In the aggregate" refers to something that is formed by adding several things together, to see general trends rather than each specific part.]

“<Any questions about that?>”

Coach Intro:

"A little bit about me -- I know you saw my background in the coach profile. My background is in [insert background and how it is relevant to the employee’s goals / challenges]”

• e.g., "I've been coaching for 20 years and I see that you've been struggling to stay motivated while working from home and that you’re dealing with general stress and anxiety. I've helped several clients work through similar challenges and I'm looking forward to helping you, too!" 
• PUT YOUR OWN SPIN ON THIS and try to tie it into relevant information taken from the client Welcome Survey!

“<Any questions so far?>”

First Session Purpose & Overview:

• “The purpose of this first coaching session is to get to know each other a bit and to set up a foundation for coaching. We’re going to spend some time today covering logistical information, and also aligning on what goals / challenges you have and how we can work together to achieve those goals or overcome those challenges through our coaching relationship.

"<How does that sound?>"

 NOTE: It's possible you will be meeting with a client who was previously working with another coach. IF this is the case, you will know that prior to the session. See below for Structure for Clients who have Transferred from another Coach: 

Coaching vs. Therapy

• "To start, thank you for filling out the Welcome Survey. I saw on there that:
  • A) "You haven't worked with a coach or a therapist before, so I want to take a minute to clarify what those approaches are."
  • B)  "You’ve previously worked with a coach or a therapist, so I want to just underscore the key differences between the two."
  • "While there are some commonalities between therapy and coaching, one of the key differences that I like to highlight is that people generally seek therapy to cope or come to terms with something that happened in the past. Coaching, on the other hand, is very forward-looking, goal-oriented, and action-oriented.  Coaching is a collaborative model designed to help you meet your goals and achieve fulfillment."
  • "As a coach, my role is to inspire you, support you, and to help keep you accountable to your goals that we create. [optional: Rather than someone who’s going to give you advice, I’m here as a thought-partner, someone who’s going to ask you questions, and help guide you to what’s right for you." 

• “<Does all of that make sense?>” ***If you feel it would be beneficial for the client to know about Boon's story and session structure, have this next part in your back pocket, otherwise continue building rapport and establish a connection with your client. 

Boon’s Mission/Story

• Just a little about Boon: Boon’s mission is built around making mental well-being more attainable in the workplace and we do that through our coaching services."
• “Our approach is personalized and goal-oriented -- we focus on YOU and tailor the coaching to fit what you’re looking for”
• "Our goal is to provide you with a platform to self-reflect and develop skills that will enable you to be more resilient, overcome life's challenges, and reach your goals.”

Overview of Session Logistics/Structure

NOTE: Before meeting with your client, you’ll receive a Welcome Survey via email. That survey will tell you how many sessions the client has available to them. 

• Most Boon clients have NO MAXIMUM on the number of sessions their company is paying for. For these clients with unlimited coaching sessions, we book recurring, bi-weekly coaching in 12-session segments (12 sessions, then another 12, then another 12and so on). 
• Some clients, on the other hand, receive a finite amount of sessions, sponsored by their employer. That info will be stated in the Welcome Survey and can also be found here. For these clients, we book recurring bi-weekly coaching, for as many times as the client has available to them. After that, clients may continue to work with their coach on an out-of-pocket basis using our self-pay model. 
• You will also learn in the Welcome Survey if your client is a TRANSFER from another coach (they were working with another coach and now they are working with you).

IMPORTANT: If you do not receive the Welcome Survey prior to your client’s first session, please email [e-mail] to retrieve it. A list of Session Amounts is also listed here.

For clients with Unlimited Coaching sessions:

1. "Regarding the structure of coaching, our sessions are 30-Minute Zoom Calls"
2. “We’ll meet every other week, so 2 times per month -  for 12 sessions at a time... about 6 months to start."
3. "I also stay in touch between sessions. During our off week, I’ll check in by email and you can feel free to reply there or wait until we meet again."
4. “At the end of today's session, we can get those first 12 sessions on the calendar so you don’t need to worry about that going forward.
5. “During the 12th session, we’ll check in to re-evaluate progress and talk through what goals or challenges we'd like to work on from there.”
6. NOTE: END OF 12TH SESSION IS NOT MEANT TO BE THE END OF THE CLIENT RELATIONSHIP -- MERELY A CHECK-IN POINT! See this article on continuing the relationship. See this short video on scheduling recurring sessions for your client. 

 For clients with Session Caps:

1. "Regarding the structure of coaching, our sessions are 30-Minute Zoom Calls"
2. "We meet with our clients every other week, so 2 times (or 3 times on rare occasions) per month"
3. "I see XX company is sponsoring XX sessions, which is great! We’ll get those on the calendar today at the end of this call. If you’d like to keep working together beyond XX sessions, we do have an option for that where you can pay out of pocket - but we can save that for a later conversation."
4. "As part of this coaching experience, I also stay in touch between sessions. During our off week, I’ll check in by email and you can feel free to reply there or wait until we meet again.

Coach: After you schedule the sessions in the Coach Portal, make a note for yourself to check back in with your client about Self-Pay during the 5th or 6th session.

 

<"Does all of that make sense and is there anything I can answer for you before we turn this over to you?">

CLIENT CONCERNS & GOAL-SETTING (~10 mins)

In this section of the call, explore client goals/challenges and what successful coaching means to them. Have an open discussion about  attainable goals according to challenges and desires. The idea is to come up with a couple of meaningful goals that the client can work towards during your coaching relationship (which is 6 sessions, or 3 months to start). If there’s time to start making a plan, do so, or simply use this time to develop overarching goals.

Some suggested transitions/prompts:

• "Alright, enough about Boon and me! I’d love to turn this to you. I see from your Welcome Survey that you’ve been at XX company for XX time, and you indicated that some of your focus areas for coaching are around XX. I’d love to learn more about that. Can you share a bit about what brought you to coaching today?"

• What’s a change you’d like to make, either personally or professionally?
• What would you like to focus on first?
• What’s been really challenging for you lately?
• What are you currently tolerating, either personally or professionally?
• What intentions do you have for your life presently?/How do you want to feel?
• Let’s come up with a couple of goals that you can work towards. What do you have in mind?
• What are you hoping to accomplish by working with a coach? Why is this important to you now?
• If you were to walk away from these sessions saying you got what you wanted and more, what would that be?
• <Celebrate client for sharing/coming up with these goals>

WRAP UP (~5-10 mins)

Use this final time of the session to discuss takeaways, communication between sessions, and schedule future sessions.

Wrap up PART 1

• Review main takeaways from session.
• Establish goals for next session.
• Identify opportunities to practice skills in between your next session.

Wrap up PART 2

• “Just a quick note on our communication between sessions:”
  1. “You’ll receive a follow-up email 24 hours after your Boon session which includes a quick client feedback survey – your feedback helps us know what’s working and what needs tweaking; so please fill that out! We really appreciate it!”
  2. “Also, I’m going to be following up about 1 week after every coaching session to check in."
  3. [If you're going to follow up with client today]:  “Also, I’m going to be following up after this session to summarize what we discussed and that way you have my email."

"I have your work email, would you prefer I email there or do you prefer we connect with a personal email?"

NOTE: See this article on emailing clients between sessions.

Booking future client sessions (suggested language included)

• "Now that we're at the end of the call, why don't we take a minute to schedule our next 12 sessions."
• “Is this time generally good for you, Wednesdays at 10am EST?” 
• "I'm just pulling up my calendar, do you have a preference of what day/time you'd like to meet?"
• "Great, I want to let you know that Boon has a 12 hour cancellation policy, so if you need to reschedule, just be sure to do that with at least 12 hours notice, otherwise that'll result in a lost session."
• Let the client know that they will receive an email from Boon about the upcoming appointments, and the appointments will be automatically added to their calendar. You will need to "accept" the first session to their calendar for the rest of them to populate. 

To close, thank the client! “Thanks so much for your time, [Client Name]. It was a pleasure talking with you and I look forward to continuing working with you!”

Final Notes:

1) In Salesforce, schedule recurring bi-weekly sessions through the 12th session. Repeat this process for an additional 12-session increments. If the client has a session cap, simply book all the sessions that the company sponsors (and then the client can switch to self-pay if they'd like to.)

2)  In the event that your client is firm about scheduling one or two sessions at a time, follow your client’s lead. Please explain that in your Coach Notes and in a quick email to [e-mail] and [e-mail].

3) If you need assistance on how to book bi-weekly recurring sessions, click here.

4) Take a look at the Boon Session Checklist for steps to take after the session.

For Clients who have Transferred from another Coach:

• Structure these sessions a bit differently.
• Introduce self; discuss Confidentiality
• Acknowledge that you've seen they've worked with another Boon coach in the past, so they're familiar with coaching and the logistics, so you won't spend too much time on technical details today
• Instead, share that you're more curious about getting to know the client and for them to bring you up to speed.
• Some potential questions/areas to explore:
  • "Tell me a little about yourself."
  • "I know you were working with another Boon coach previously. What was working well? What could have been better for you?"
  • What's going on for you now? What goals can we co-create? We'll put 12 sessions on the calendar today which, will be 3 months of coaching. What would you like to accomplish in 3 months from now? Where would you like to be focusing?"
• Schedule next 5 sessions and thank the client.

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Questions: If you have any other questions or want to learn more about Boon's 1st coaching session script, please contact coach support ([e-mail]) or Jamie Fuentes ([e-mail]).

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