Show Notes

How do you actually know if your coaching is working?

In this episode of The Coaching Clinic, Angie and John unpack one of the most uncomfortable—and most important—questions for coaches: are you effective, or are you just being liked?

They challenge the common reliance on client satisfaction, renewals, and “good sessions,” and explore why those signals can be misleading. Early-stage coaches often ride the highs and lows of recent sessions, but without clear metrics, improvement becomes guesswork.

The conversation moves beyond theory into practical application—how to introduce simple, usable feedback systems without damaging trust or turning sessions into surveys. They explore the role of structured feedback (like a 0–10 rating), better questioning, and the importance of creating space for honest input.

The core message is clear: if you’re not measuring your coaching, you’re relying on assumptions—and that has consequences for your growth and your clients’ results.

This episode is a direct, honest look at how to move from “I think I’m doing a good job” to actually knowing.

Key Topics

• Why client satisfaction isn’t the same as coaching effectiveness
• The danger of recency bias in evaluating your coaching
• Why renewals and retention are incomplete metrics
• How to introduce simple feedback systems into your coaching
• Using a 0–10 rating scale effectively
• Asking better questions to get honest client feedback
• The balance between trust, challenge, and evaluation
• Why avoiding feedback limits your growth

Key Takeaway

If you’re not actively measuring your coaching, you’re guessing—and guessing limits both your development and your clients’ outcomes.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Introduction and Topic Overview

00:41 - Measuring Coaching Effectiveness

03:18 - Personal Experiences and Insights

06:34 - The Role of Metrics in Coaching

12:11 - Feedback and Continuous Improvement

21:19 - Final thoughts on coaching and metrics.

FAQs

How do you know if your coaching is effective?

You know your coaching is effective when you move beyond gut feel and start measuring client outcomes and experience. This includes structured feedback (like session ratings), evidence of progress, and whether the client is achieving meaningful results—not just enjoying the conversation.

What are the best metrics for measuring coaching effectiveness?

There isn’t a single perfect metric, but useful ones include:

• Session ratings (e.g. 0–10 scale)
• Client progress toward goals
• Quality of client insights and actions
• Retention or re-engagement (with context)
• The key is combining quantitative feedback with qualitative insight.

Is client satisfaction a reliable way to measure coaching success?

Not on its own. Clients can enjoy sessions and still not make progress. Satisfaction reflects experience, not necessarily effectiveness. Strong coaching should challenge clients, which doesn’t always feel comfortable in the moment.

Should coaches ask for feedback after every session?

It depends on your style and structure. Some coaches use quick ratings after each session, while others gather feedback periodically. The important thing is consistency and making it easy for clients to respond honestly.

What is a simple way to measure coaching sessions?

A practical method is using a 0–10 rating at the end of a session, followed by one or two focused questions like:

• What made it that score?
• What would have made it higher?
• This keeps feedback simple but actionable.

Why do coaches avoid asking for honest feedback?

Because it’s uncomfortable. Honest feedback can challenge your confidence and expose blind spots. But avoiding it limits growth and can lead to losing clients without understanding why.

How can you ask for feedback without damaging the coaching relationship?

Frame feedback as part of the process, not a critique. Make it clear that:

• It helps you serve them better
• There are no negative consequences
• You’re looking for improvement, not validation
• Psychological safety is key.

Are client renewals a good measure of coaching success?

They’re useful but incomplete. A client staying on doesn’t always mean they’re getting results—it may reflect comfort, habit, or relationship. Renewals should be considered alongside progress and impact.

What is the biggest mistake coaches make when evaluating their performance?

Relying on intuition or recent sessions (recency bias). Many coaches judge their ability based on how the last session felt, rather than consistent patterns or structured feedback.

Can coaching be measured if it’s subjective?

Yes—but not perfectly. Coaching is subjective, but that doesn’t mean it’s unmeasurable. The goal isn’t precision, it’s clarity. Even simple metrics create better awareness than guesswork.

Why is measuring coaching important for business growth?

Without measurement, you can’t improve or identify issues early. This leads to:

• Stagnation in your coaching skills
• Lost clients without clear reasons
• Reduced referrals and growth
• Measurement turns coaching into a developable skill, not just a perceived one.

What’s the risk of not measuring your coaching?

You rely on assumptions instead of evidence. Over time, this can lead to declining results, client drop-off, and limited professional growth—often without realising why.

Want to contact the show? You can leave us a voicemail. It's free to do, and we might feature you on our next episode. All you need to do is go to https://speakpipe.com/thecoachingclinicpodcast and leave us a message. You can also find our clips and full episodes on the exclusive Coaching Clinic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@coachingclinicpodcast

You can send us a video or voice message on LinkedIn:

John's LinkedIn Profile or go to PresentInfluence.com for coaching enquiries with John

Angie's LinkedIn Profile or visit AngieSpeaks.com

2023 Present Influence Productions Coaching Clinic: scale your business, acquire high ticket clients & master coaching skills 93

John.

And G.

And today is going to be an interesting day. have a question for you. How do you know, no it is, it's a really, you know, we've been talking about so many things and this popped up for me. How do you actually know that you are effectively coaching somebody?

⁓ good.

Hmm, it's good question. You have to look at a few different things. guess it's mostly we go by the feedback that they give us, right?

Sure, which doesn't always mean like we're actually doing it, right? We've talked in the past about, you know, that expensive cup of coffee and I'd love to have coffee with you, but right, we have a job to do and we need to, you know, we need to make sure that we are actually delivering.

Yeah, I think most coaches do really want to know how to measure the effectiveness of their sessions and the client satisfaction. So let's talk metrics. Let's open the clinic.

Absolutely. Yeah. So again, we've talked about this and I never even I'm being really honest and transparent. Back in the day, to me, the unspoken because I don't even think it was an intentional thought. But the unspoken metric was, they they they chose me. They stayed throughout the whatever the engagement time was. And or they came back. Question mark.

You know, it really, yeah, no, like honestly, I didn't even really think about it, because I think back then I was just happy to have a client, right? I wasn't worried about, you know, I don't think I was focused on like effectiveness, to be honest with you. That sounds awful, but not in the way we do today. Though let's be clear, I'm not saying I just did it. That sounds awful. Go ahead, what were you gonna say?

They were nude.

I, I've probably said this a few times on episodes before, but in early days of coaching, for me, at least, and I think for many coaches, maybe you tell me if this, if this rings for you as well, your coaching is really only as good as your last session when you're in your early days, because, because you're still trying to establish your baseline, maybe even still trying to figure out if you're any good as a coach. And, and you tend to, we tend to base it on this. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Sure.

The most recent we have the recency bias of the most recent session tends to be the one that's going to lead your thinking like so if the session went great and the client was thrilled and enthusiastic and ready for action, you're like, wow, I guess I am a good coach that session went really well. And then the next day, you maybe have a session with someone else and the report's not there, they're pushing back on everything. And they're even maybe losing, losing the tempo with you a bit. And then you think maybe coaching

wasn't right for me, maybe I should be thinking about doing something else because that was terrible. That sucks. That was terrible. And it goes up and down, up and down, up and down. And until you start to eventually, hopefully, if you stick with it, figure out that you either are a good coach or you're not. And that that's more the internal sort of locus of decision of am I a good coach, but actually having measurables metrics that can

Sure. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

help to display that or back up that information, wouldn't that be so much more helpful?

Yeah, and I again, again, evolution, right? Business evolution, mindset evolution. And honestly, I'm going to be I'm going to be so transparent here. I did not come up with the concept on my own. wasn't I didn't say, I need a metric. I didn't do it. And I then worked for a company, right? A coaching company that was so valuable. I learned so so much. I didn't just learn concept and context. I just

I learned some really great business practices by just simply being involved. And one of them was the metrics. And when you think about coaching, right, here's, I think, the challenge. When you actually come to this realization that metrics are, they matter, you you think of every company out there, they've got KPIs and, you know, there's always some measurement of how we're doing. So I definitely think it applies. I think there's value. But how do do it?

How do do it in a field that is so subjective? I I guess you could say, well, I maybe will base that on how many re-enrollments I get, right? Like maybe that's your metric. Maybe that's what your focus is and that's it. But it's so subjective. Like what works for one client, sorry, new tongue today, but really what works for one client or is valuable

Is going to very it's not black and white and I think like therein lies the challenge is that well, then how do you actually do that? So before I go into like my next thought tell me your thought on that

Right.

I'll tell you what's coming up for me. And this is full transparency as well. Because we've both worked for coaching companies. And I would say I have I have actively campaigned to have metrics brought in to be able to evaluate, we actually doing a good job? Because how are you supposed to develop? How are you supposed to develop and progress as a coach? If you don't know, if you're not getting the feedback that that's really telling you that and I think renewals is is

Yeah.

Sure.

Okay, it's a very useful and very strong metric, but it's not the only one. And it only gives you a very limited amount of information. So, you know, I'm always very, I'm very big on that I want to keep developing want to keep growing and improving at what I do. And I think we all we also because we work on our own most of the time, we all have those doubts as to our people much better coaches than me I just don't know it. I've had

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I like one of the companies that I have worked for and still do some work for, although not so much, not one on one anymore. But there are people who I worked with there who left that several years ago, who still have some of the clients from that. And like, I don't, I don't have anyone from that, even though I had clients with me there for years, who were with me when I was there, no one's still with me now. And yet several, several of my colleagues from that, they still have clients from that time. And I think, all right, they

Mmm.

better coaches than me? Like, I don't think so. But they coach differently to me. It's different style of coaching. And I guess the fit for the clients that they have is great. But I don't know the true nature of the coaching relationships. I have no real metric there other than that client is still with them. Are they growing? Are they transforming? Are they getting full value from the sessions? I don't know that. All I know is they're still the client. But

Yeah, yeah.

Hmm.

That voice in the back of my head says, yeah, but they still got their clients. Where did all yours go? You know, it's, ⁓ yeah. Okay.

Yeah, and no, and listen, yeah,

that comparison, that can definitely weigh on you because you do get into your head and say, well, what's different there? What is it? But you have to come back to home camp, right, with yourself and say, OK, if I'm a coach, and so my point is that there are, if you look, there are apps out there that try to tell you, this is what you should use when you want to get a metric for your.

I don't like any of them. I'm not gonna name the names. I've done some research and I'm like, no, this to me, these things murky up the waters so badly, like they're just turning the, no, I'm not interested. And I'm sorry if you are one of those companies and you're listening, do better, show me more, do something different. That's all I could say. so what I really, the realization that I came to is number one,

It is very subjective, obviously, and it's reliant on the person. It really is. I mean, you can challenge yourself to do and be better, but in order for you to do that, you have to challenge. I think it's part of the coaching process in my mind. I need to challenge people beyond they like me. Angie's, you know, was, we poke fun at me on this show a lot that I'm direct and I'm the tough coach, but.

Most of like 90s. I don't even know. I don't think I've met a client that doesn't love me. I'm joking. But they don't not like me. Let me say it that way. I can't decide to what degree they, you know, feel anything for me, but they don't run away with their hair on fire. So that's a measurement for me. Ha ha. But so the point I'm making is that there isn't, I don't believe

There's a universal way to do it. And I think that you as a coach, we as coaches, we need to challenge the obvious. So what do I mean by that? So one of the metrics that I learned from one of the companies that I worked for was that at the end of every session, they, the client was given a rating is zero to 10 rating to have the session. And there was a company standard of

seven or better, which sounds low, but I'm going to say that over time, like a seven or better to me is a great number. Although I strive for the nines, right? ⁓ You can ask probing questions like, and I think I, you know, I talked about this when I did one of our solo, one of our solo episodes where it was, are you probing? Are you probing the same way to get to that?

show.

information as you do when you're in the session. Hey, so if somebody really likes you and they just love having that conversation with you, one of the probing questions you might ask is, if we were to actually, if I were to make this even more challenging for you, what would have to change? Right? To even get them to shift the lens a little bit? And that's just one example. And at the end of the day, you can ask the

I think the questions we try to stay away from. So if you listen to how I just, you know, how I posed that question, if I could make this even more challenging for you, I'm being a bit assumptive that I'm already telling them that I'm challenging them. So maybe I asked the hard questions, the ones that, you know, look at your face, like, do you know what I mean? Like, I don't know, more direct, like,

What would you like to see improve in our coaching? We don't do that. I don't think many coaches go into that. I just don't. Some do and maybe at times if they see a problem or the person isn't becoming vulnerable, but we generally don't run into the fire.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think there may be several reasons for that. But I agree with what you're saying. And I do think it's much easier to give feedback when the coach is a part of a larger organization than it is when it's just you working directly with the person because that is a purely one on one relationship at that point, right. So if it's through an organization, your feedback, you know, isn't, it's not just going to that person, it's going to like,

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

more people are going to see it, more people are going to be evaluating. has perhaps perhaps that it's always has more weight because it's affecting your, your future as well. But they probably also feel a little bit more obliged to answer, especially if you are in situation like for you working with a company, people are people are asking you ratings on that, they probably feel more obliged to do it because they feel like it's part of the process.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yes.

people who are maybe privately paying for their coaching, perhaps less so. But I think even then, still, still, if it's through a larger organization, they want to feed people generally want to feed stuff back and say, Hey, this is going great. The one thing I love about American clients, particularly is they're very effusive and will often be very keen to give positive feedback. Whereas I find like Brits and a lot of other countries, no, no offense to anybody, but

Yeah.

Britain and other other countries are very keen to find fault rather than to find all the positives And so you get those you get those different sometimes different focuses with the feedback But I think it's all about the framing. It's all about the framing I think you can get the answers you want if you frame it in a way that is non-confrontational That shows that it's beneficial to you and to them and isn't asking them to say anything

Haha!

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

that would be potentially misconstrued or offensive or taken the wrong way. You definitely need to keep that safe for them as well and know that they don't risk damaging the coaching relationship by giving you honest feedback.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, I don't want to put ammunition in anybody's hand. And I don't want to put a target on my chest. And I do believe that when I have approached a client and said, hey, I really would love to hear

like maybe after everything is over, you know, and I create, I do, have surveys that I do halfway, I do them at the end. And I do include what would, you know, what, what would have made this an even, and I forget, actually I haven't looked at it in so long, what would have made this an even more impactful experience or something like that? Because, and I tell them before the, at the end, the last session, I say, you know, I'm practicing, I'm going to send the survey over. And I wanted to be really honest because,

I too, like yourself, I'm always in growth. I'm always moving forward. And I'm not asking you to character assassinate me, but I am asking you to be objective, to give me feedback that is relevant to what we did together. And there are, so in terms of an actual metric, I did adopt one of the previously, with the other company, what they use, and it was a zero to 10. And the reason why,

is because it at least creates a bridge of understanding between my visual of their intentionality and what they're trying to say and my reception of that. So it's a great bridge, but also giving them the opportunity to further explain. If somebody says, I gave you a seven, Great. know, great. Thank you for the feedback.

you know, what came to mind when you decided to, you know, choose that rating, whatever that is. And it gives them a couple of prompts, just ideas like, you know, was it the, and I think it's only two I do actually, like, you know, was it that you felt that you were, was there respectful probing, things like that, that people appreciate? What really is it? Put some type of definition to the number.

so that it's not just a number, but it gives them, because they sometimes wouldn't even know what to say. They get into this long drawn out, well, in the beginning, and like, my gosh, right? We don't want the story. We want the end result. So the metric, the actual number, I think works. Of all the things that I've seen and I've observed, that's a great way. That percentage is like numbers.

Yeah. Yeah, I really like that.

Yeah, I like that. think that would be a great automation to have at the end of every session, because it's quick. It's super quick. Hello, session's finishing. I would want that agreement made right up front and said like the end of every session, you're going to get very quick feedback. This is just to help me track how things are going and to keep continually making sure that you're getting what you need out of the coaching. And that's a great way to do it. And as I would again, with the right framing, you're

Mm-hmm.

it's something useful that you can utilize. I did a whole article recently about feedback, probably a podcast episode on Mother Show as well, all about feedback and how some people actively try and avoid negative feedback, which is probably the feedback that they most need to get. Because it stings, it hurts. They know it as well. I had a friend in when I was doing more of

I know it. Yeah. Yeah.

live events. I had a friend who was a trainer and at the end of a training session, which would often be three to five days of training event, there would be ⁓ questionnaire forms. And at the end, I remember helping out at the end of one of the sessions, the last session, detecting all the forms and he wanted, actually asked me, he asked one of the assistants to pull out any negative feedback.

Mmm

my gosh.

and file it in the circular filing cabinet. He didn't want to see it. Because his take was like, if you you haven't got positive stuff to say, this was after a five day training. If you haven't got positive stuff to say after that, then I don't want to hear it. But what was he missing out on in that case, you know?

Well, and yeah, I mean, that's so again, I don't mean to sound judgy because again, you're right. It stings. You think of any relationship you have when you're asking somebody for constructive feedback. You know, I think obviously I'm trying to I'm working very hard at getting away from that whole like I'm giving you constructive criticism now. I don't like it. It's like, you know, putting rolling poop in sugar and saying, look at my new chocolate. No.

So, but constructive feedback, we have to frame it that way. We're not looking to open the doors for like this flood of, well in this particular session, you should be asking along the way. And I do, I don't really, maybe I will, I don't know. But right now I don't, I don't want to encumber my clients to kind of, you know, give me anything after each session. I don't do that. But I do, hey, I know we have one minute left. Tell me what you valued today or,

didn't or or I might say tell me what was most challenging for you in our session today. What was your greatest challenge today? I'll shift it up so they're not always like and by the way Angie I valued like I just change it up so I am keeping their minds agile and nimble in terms of their responses.

Yeah.

I don't know, maybe, I don't know if it's just a my clients thing, but the reason I don't do that generally with my clients is because it usually opens up a whole nother conversation that is going to make us overrun. So I don't want to do that right at the end of my call. I would much rather...

Mm.

I'd much rather have them evaluate it in some other simple way, or really, no, just, just to follow up email in between saying like, do you feel about the last session? I think there's a bunch of different ways you can do it. Probably in that situation, I wouldn't do it after every session, but I do think it would be helpful. would be great to have that because if you think you've done a great session and your client doesn't, it's good to know that. And if you've done a

Yeah!

Yeah?

Mm-hmm.

or you think it was a terrible session and your client thinks it was amazing, it's also good to know that. Probably helps to balance the scales a bit more. It might just make things, you you have a more realistic view of what's going on than you would have otherwise.

Yes. Yeah.

Agreed,

agreed, yeah. That's the key to it. yeah, and listen, I believe me, I've learned just to talk to your point for a minute about, you know, at the end, it depends because when I asked for it, I say, listen, I know we had a great session today, or I observed this today and I'm very crisp and concise. What did you observe today? What stood out for you today?

you know, brief, I want to honor everybody's time and I always preface that because I don't want it to then turn into 10 more minutes because it did, right? Obviously to your point, the only reason we know to not do that or do it or be very specific about how we do it is because we know it can very easily cascade into more time and that's not what we're looking to do either. But yeah, I just think that figuring out some type of system is

beyond thinking like, I think it's been great. And I don't know, have you ever, and I think prior to thinking of metrics or the process, but you ever like get to the end of a round of coaching with somebody and you think it went really well, like, you know, however you're gauging it, ⁓ you know, I think it went well, what the heck does that mean? But anyway, but, and then they go, you know, I was really kind of expecting a little more or,

This wasn't really what I thought it was gonna be. That shouldn't, we should, we should not allow, we should disallow that to the best of our ability because at the end, it's just too late.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I think I think one of the things you probably don't want too much, especially in the maybe the first month or so of a coaching contract for for sure, I would say, is to be too much on the case about this, though, you need to establish the relationship, have the report there. And then you're probably in like, by month two, month three, you're probably in a better position to be able to get that sort of feedback from them. But I do think it's essential to do that. Because how often do people just not

Mmm. Mmm. ⁓

Yeah.

tell you what's really going on or what they're really thinking, you know, and clients end up just drifting away, they just stop booking, stop booking in their sessions, or, or they show up and they're kind of, you they're deflecting, and they're not really going going anywhere with it. And they don't really feel like seem like they have anything to talk about. And that's not that it's not that they don't. It's just something has gone amiss. And if you haven't caught that,

Yeah.

you end up having to become the firefighter and try and fix it in the moment, which is not ideal. If you can get that upfront, you're going to be at the productivity, the treatment, the prevention is better than the cure, right? And that's really what we want to have if we can. I that's well worth setting up. And I say this as well. Not knowing, not knowing what's going on. Ignorance is not bliss. It really isn't. Ignorance is

Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Sure. Absolutely. I agree. Yeah. No, I love it.

no!

Ignorance is losing clients. Ignorance is not improving in your coaching. Ignorance is not really growing and developing in the ways that you want. Professional suicide.

It's professional suicide is what it is. You're not gonna

have a business left. I know,

yeah, career business suicide. Absolutely. So yeah, it's it's think about how you might want to implement some kind of metric gathering system into your business, maybe try a few things that might be hit and miss at first, but it's important to get these kinds of metrics and not just leave it as to leave it to guesswork or hope for the best.

snored.

Yeah!

I agree. Bing bong. That's a wrap.

All

right, let's wrap things up there. I think we can close the clinic for this week, but we'll be back again very soon.