The other day we got the following question in an email to support:

…where would you recommend recording the main coaching goals and success measures for clients?  …  My current thoughts – top of session notes so they are always there as a reminder or maybe add them to a whiteboard? What do you think?

This is a common-ish question, the general wondering “Where do I store and track my client’s goals?”  Given how central goals are to a results-oriented coaching relationship, ostensibly it’s weird for CA to not just have a “Goals” area somewhere within the app.

The issue reminds of when my Philosophy of Science professor gave the following example in lecture one day when describing what a “category error” means:

Say you’re showing someone around campus to give them a tour.  You take them to the building where the chemistry department resides, you take them to the mathematics building, you show them the student union, the administrative buildings, and so on.  And they get impatient and say “Yes  yes, these are all well and good, but when can I see the university?”  That’s a category error.

So it goes with CA and goals for clients: one might expect a Goals area for recording such an important and central thing.  But that would basically be a glorified notepad for merely capturing words.

CA offers a twist on this: goals themselves can be recorded, yes, but they can also be set up as interactive things to work at.

Here’s how:

Actions

For goals that amount to things to get done and accomplish, those can be entered as Actions, each with their own due date and associated reminders to keep them top of mind of what there is to do.

Action Projects

For bigger goals with multiple steps to be taken, those Actions can be grouped together as an Action Project, complete with a spiffy progress bar that shows your clients getting closer and closer.

The goal here is clear: mark these items all done to fill up that progress meter!

Metrics

For goals and success measures that have a measurable, quantitative bend to them, setting up one or more Metrics for whichever measurable KPIs is the winning move. For a nice grounding on using Metrics effectively, read Why Metrics are Awesome.  To go deeper, check out the Coaching with Metrics Webinar.

You can measure all sorts of meaningful KPIs! The target trend line defines the goal.

Whiteboards

For capturing the long term, big picture stuffs of main coaching goals, Whiteboards are the perfect place.  Unlike Session Notes, Worksheets and Journal Entries, they’re not dated nor are ever marked “Complete”, so they’re evergreen and easy to access by you and your clients.  They admit ongoing edits by either party as things evolve.  They also keep the history of drafts, which can be nice to see the evolution of thinking and priorities over time.

Key Insights

And finally, yes, at the top of Session Notes in the form of Key Insights can be a good place too, as the sort of “Here are the things to focus on THIS week.”  You are able to sort these chronologically with the newest ones first, or star select ones as desired and having those float to the top.  Either is a great way to keep the more immediate goals top of mind.

Key Insights are often worth putting into regular practice, the doing of which is a worthy goal indeed!

So there you have it!  Where to put the goals?  The measures of success?  Like buildings that make up the university, the varied client functionality collectively house your clients’ goals AND success measures.  Beyond mere documentation, they pull for active participation: actual measurement and doing the work.

Over time these goals (as recorded/worked on) become a proud record of accomplishment, ready to share as a lovely souvenir of working with you.