Establishes and Maintains Agreements
Key Takeaways
- The coaching agreement exists at multiple levels, from the administrative sponsor contract down to the specific session contract established at the start of every meeting.
- A robust session agreement requires partnering with the client on five elements: topic, desired outcome, measures of success, personal importance, and key elements to address.
- Re-contracting is required whenever the client shifts focus, and the coach must collaboratively partner to determine the direction rather than directing the client back or following blindly.
- In exam scenarios, avoid jumping into coaching exploration, brainstorming, or action planning before a clear agreement and measures of success have been explicitly defined.
Establishes and Maintains Agreements (Competency 3)
ICF Core Competency 3: Establishes and Maintains Agreements is defined as partnering with the client and relevant stakeholders to create clear agreements about the coaching relationship, process, plans, and goals. It requires establishing agreements for the overall coaching engagement as well as for each individual coaching session.
On the ACC Exam, this competency is heavily tested through knowledge-based scenario questions. Understanding the hierarchy of agreements and the exact mechanics of session-level contracting is critical to identifying the single correct coaching response.
1. The Hierarchy of Coaching Agreements
Coaching agreements occur at three distinct levels, each building upon the previous. As a coach, you must navigate these layers to ensure alignment, trust, and clarity.
A. Administrative and Organizational Agreements
This level involves the logistics and guidelines of the coaching engagement. When coaching occurs within an organization, a triangular agreement is established between the coach, the client (coachee), and the sponsor (the organization paying for the coaching or representing the client's employer).
- Key Focus: Fees, scheduling, cancellation policies, reporting structures, and confidentiality limits.
- Sponsorship Dynamics: If there is a sponsor, the coach must partner with both the sponsor and the client to define the overall goals of the coaching. However, the client's confidentiality must remain protected. The coach must clarify how progress will be communicated to the sponsor without violating confidentiality. A critical ethical standard is that the sponsor does not dictate the session-by-session goals; they establish the overarching business objectives, while the client retains autonomy over individual sessions.
B. The Overall Relationship Agreement
Before coaching begins, the coach and client must align on their understanding of what coaching is and is not, establishing the boundaries of the relationship.
- Key Focus: Setting overarching goals for the engagement, defining the roles and responsibilities of both coach and client, and discussing the coaching methodology.
- Scope of Practice: It is during this phase that the coach clarifies that coaching is not therapy, consulting, or mentoring, and establishes what is appropriate within the coaching container. The coach must obtain the client's consent for the methods and structure of the partnership.
C. The Session-Level Agreement (The "Session Contract")
This is the most frequently tested aspect of Competency 3 on the exam. For every single session, the coach must partner with the client to establish a clear contract for that specific conversation. Diving straight into coaching without a clear session agreement is a major competency failure.
2. The Five Pillars of a Session Agreement
A complete session-level agreement is not just a quick question about "what do you want to talk about?" It is a deep, collaborative dialogue that establishes a clear roadmap for the session. According to the ICF PCC Markers (which inform the standard for ACC and PCC levels), a robust session agreement must address the following five elements:
| Element | Description | Sample Partnering Questions |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The Focus (Topic) | What the client wants to talk about or work on in today's session. | "What is on your mind that you would like to bring to our coaching space today?" |
| 2. The Desired Outcome | What the client wants to accomplish, resolve, or walk away with by the end of the session. | "What would you like to have in hand or have resolved by the time we finish today's conversation?" |
| 3. The Measures of Success | The specific, observable criteria the client will use to know they achieved their outcome. | "How will you know at the end of our session that you have achieved that outcome? What does success look like?" |
| 4. Deeper Importance (The "Why") | The significance, value, or meaning of this topic to the client. Why is it important to address now? | "Why is resolving this issue particularly important to you today? What becomes possible once this is addressed?" |
| 5. What Needs to be Addressed (Scope) | The specific areas, obstacles, or elements the client feels they need to explore to achieve the outcome. | "To help you reach this goal, what specific areas do we need to look into or resolve today?" |
Why "Measures of Success" Matter
On the exam, you will encounter scenarios where the client sets a vague goal, such as "I want to feel more confident." A coach-led approach would be to start brainstorming confidence strategies. The ICF-aligned approach is to partner with the client to define their measures of success: "How will you measure your confidence at the end of this session? What will be different for you?" This ensures the client, not the coach, defines the target. Without a clear measure of success, neither the coach nor the client can evaluate whether the coaching session was effective.
3. The Art of Mid-Session Re-Contracting
Coaching conversations are dynamic, and clients often shift topics or encounter deeper, underlying issues as they speak. Re-contracting is the practice of checking in and adjusting the session agreement when a shift occurs.
Indicators that Re-Contracting is Needed
- Topic Drift: The client brings up a completely different issue mid-session (e.g., starting with time management but shifting to a conflict with their spouse).
- Energy Shifts: The client's tone, pacing, or emotional state changes dramatically, suggesting a deeper topic has emerged.
- Stalling: The conversation feels stuck or circular, indicating the current direction is no longer productive.
How to Re-Contract Collaboratively
When re-contracting, the coach must make an observation and partner with the client to decide how to proceed. Never make the decision for the client.
- Reflect and Observe: "I notice we started today wanting to create a communication plan for your team, but we've spent the last ten minutes discussing your feelings of imposter syndrome."
- Offer the Choice: "Where would you like to focus our attention for the rest of our time today?"
- Establish the New Agreement: If the client chooses the new topic, the coach must quickly contract for the new outcome and success measures.
4. Mid-Engagement Reviews and Long-Term Alignment
In addition to session agreements, coaches must regularly check in on the overall agreement during a long-term coaching engagement. This involves partnering with the client to review progress against the overarching goals established at the beginning of the relationship.
- Sponsor Reporting: When reporting to sponsors, the coach should facilitate the client reporting their own progress or conduct three-way review meetings. The coach should not report qualitative session details to the sponsor.
- Evaluating Effectiveness: The coach must partner with the client to assess whether the current coaching approach, frequency, and goals are still serving the client’s development. If the client’s circumstances or goals have fundamentally changed, the coach and client must co-create a revised overall agreement.
5. Exam-Specific Pitfalls & Common Distractors
When answering ACC Exam knowledge questions regarding Competency 3, keep these guidelines in mind:
- The "Premature Action" Trap: Avoid answers where the coach immediately jumps into offering advice, asking exploratory questions, or brainstorming actions before the session agreement is fully established. You must contract first, then explore.
- The "Coach-Led Agenda": Eliminate options where the coach decides what the client needs to focus on, even if the coach believes it is in the client's best interest. The client is the owner of the agenda.
- Ignoring a Shift: If a question describes a client shifting focus or showing intense emotion on a new topic, the correct action is to pause, share the observation, and partner with the client to decide whether to re-contract. Do not ignore the shift and force the client back to the original topic, and do not follow the shift blindly without checking in.
- Vague Goals: If the client presents a vague goal, the best action is to partner with them to refine the goal and identify clear, observable measures of success.
A client says, "I want to work on my leadership skills today." The coach asks, "What specific area of leadership do you want to focus on?" The client replies, "I'm not sure, maybe delegation or communication." What is the BEST response?
A client is twenty minutes into a session that was contracted to focus on preparing for an upcoming board presentation. The client suddenly says, "Actually, I'm just so exhausted. My manager gave me some critical feedback yesterday and I can't stop thinking about it." What is the BEST action for the coach?
During a three-way meeting with a corporate client and their sponsoring manager, the manager states that the client needs to focus on improving their delegation skills to prepare for a promotion. The client, however, expresses a desire to focus on work-life balance and stress management. What is the BEST way for the coach to handle this discrepancy?