Life Coaching Etiquette - Minding Your Manners

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions Is it okay to leave a coaching session for a few minutes and call the coach back? Jumping off a coaching call is okay for an emergency, and it’s probably fine for something quick and urgent. For something optional, it’s disrespectful to the coach to interrupt the call to do something else, with one major exception.

It’s a fantastic use of your coaching time to jump off the call to take action on the project you’re working on with your coach, especially if you’ve been afraid to do it on your own or have been procrastinating for some other reason- that you now have the confidence to, say, make a phone call that you’ve been dreading and putting off, by all means, jump off the call to do it. You can even call up your coach afterward, if there’s still time in your session, and celebrate (or cry) with her, depending on how it went.

FAQ Is it acceptable to call or e-mail a coach in between sessions? We are comfortable with a brief e-mail or two from a client between sessions. If you want more contact than that between sessions, you may want to check with your coach about the issue.

FAQ What if you have to miss a session? If you can’t make a session, the smart move is to let your coach know as soon as possible and definitely before the session. If you skip a session without telling your coach, she will sit and wait for you at your appointed session time, which is no fun for her.

Even if you call in advance to cancel, your coach is likely to charge you for a session you miss, unless you cancel several days in advance, with plenty of time for the coach to rearrange her schedule.

FAQ Who calls whom? Suzanne M Howard, MHC will always call you!

Don't panic, if there's a five-ten minute difference between the appointment time and the actual call. Sometimes during intense sessions, it takes a coach extra minutes to shift the session and end a session. If you ever wonder if you are forgotten, you are always welcome to text, (860) 222-9884. Texting can easily be responded to vs a phone and gets a much more expedited answer and response, Is it okay to do other things during a coaching call like cooking and cleaning?

FAQ Is it okay to be driving, running errands, or doing other things during a coaching call, like washing dishes or making dinner?

These tasks you’re doing distract you and take your full focus away from the coaching conversation, even if you think you’re giving your full attention to your coach.

These activities also make distracting background noise and can decrease attention. And when you do other activities while on a coaching call, you’re subtly giving your coach the message that you don’t respect her or your coaching sessions all that much, and it can alter your coach's motivation to help you. Also, with your hands busy, you’re not in a position to take notes, which is necessary.

FAQ What if you’re ready to end the call before your time is up?

If you’ve gotten what you wanted from the life coach session before the time for the session is over, it’s perfectly acceptable to end the call early. You can explain to your coach what’s going on and thank her. Everything should be good!