Whenever I start my coaching plans, I start with this key question: “What’s the transformation this client wants, and what will it actually take to get them there?”
By mapping out factors like the level of support, timeframe, and more, I’m able to provide coaching packages that are clear, aligned, and results-focused. That way, my offers are built for both client success and business and sustainability.
Having simple and actionable coaching plan templates on hand helps me achieve this clarity more quickly.
Whether you’re just developing a coaching plan for the first time or refining your existing package, the right template helps you deliver value.
Check out 11 coaching plan templates you can swipe to bring in more structure for your business. Explore different formats and components to find which works best for your practice.
11 Coaching Plan Templates (Comparison Overview)
This table compares the best coaching plan templates by format and best use case, so you can use a coaching plan template that actually matches your workflow.
| Template | Format | Best for |
| EHQ GROW Model Coaching Questions | Google Doc | Coaches who follow a classic coaching model |
| Individual Coaching Plan (UCI) | New coaches use building their first coaching program | |
| Life Coaching Template (Pabau) | Life coaches onboarding new clients | |
| Client Action Sheet Coaching Template | Word | Coaches focused on goal-setting and accountability |
| Thinkfic Coaching Session Template | Image | Coaches reinforcing accountability in sessions |
| Performance Coaching Planning Worksheet | PPT | Business coaches and managers who help employees improve |
| Executive Objectives Action Plan | PPT | Executive and leadership coaches |
| Five-month Leadership Coaching Plan | PPT | Long-term employee coaching program |
| Know Your Five Teacher Coaching Plan | Instructional coaches and educators | |
| AIHR Coaching Plan Template | Word | Internal HR and career coaches |
| University of Glasgow Coaching Plan | Word | Career and leadership coaches |
What Is a Coaching Plan?
A coaching plan is a structured document that maps out how you and your client will work together. It’s what turns your coaching conversations into real action.
Here’s why you need one:
- Clarity: A coaching plan helps you build a clear plan for the coaching journey.
- Focus: Good coaching relies on a solid coaching framework that produces action steps.
- Results: An effective coaching plan keeps each coaching session aligned with real goals and objectives.
- Growth: Successful coaching happens when you track progress and adjust as needed.
- Connection: A good coaching plan strengthens the coaching relationship straight out of the gate.
6 Key elements of a coaching plan
Every coaching plan should include certain non-negotiables. These key elements help you build a professional coaching program.
- Objective: Set one clear objective per phase so the client knows where the finish line is.
- Assessment: Gather details about their coaching history, situation, and previous session notes.
- Goals: Define coaching goals and frame them as SMART goals together.
- Actions: List action steps that help the client move forward.
- Agreement: Sign a simple coaching agreement that outlines the expectations in the coaching relationship.
- Review: Schedule sessions to track the progress and celebrate wins.
11 Coaching Plan Templates
A coaching plan is a structured map that saves time for both you and the client. The right coaching plan provides a structure and a safety net when sessions get intense.
These templates can help you cut your prep time in half. Here’s the full breakdown of each coaching plan template.
1. EHQ GROW Model Coaching Questions
Best for: Coaches who prefer a proven coaching model.
This EHQ template guides you through GROW model questions, a proven coaching framework for goal-setting and reflection. Use this to add structure to your coaching sessions and guide clients into deeper reflections.
Key components: Goal, Reality, Options, Will or Way Forward.
Customization tip: Add your own prompts to fit different coaching niches like health or mindset coaching.
2. Individual Coaching Plan (UCI)
Best for: New coaches who’re building their first coaching program.
This free coaching plan template from Universal Coach Institute is a practical coaching plan perfect for your first coaching sessions. It covers all the important client and program information.
Key components: General information, session details, and action plan.
Customization tip: Adjust the information for session details based on your setup (e.g., online, one-on-one, and group).
3. Life coaching plan templates (Pabau)
Best for: Life coaches focused on personal growth.
This coaching plan template helps you collect intake data and coaching goals during the first coaching session. This life coaching plan includes proven frameworks like SMART goals, Wheel of Life, obstacles analysis, and resilience training.
Key components: Client background, desired changes, action steps, reflection, and session summary.
Customization tip: Customize this coaching plan template by adding coaching questions unique to your practice.
4. Client Action Sheet coaching plan template free
Best for: Beginner coaches looking for goal-setting and accountability tools.
This coaching template keeps a record of all the SMART goals your client sets. It helps them see their next steps and the support they need to actually achieve their plans.
Key components: SMART actions, rating scale, and support needed
Customization tip: Customize this coaching plan by giving examples of SMART goals specific to your niche, so clients can mirror them.
5. Thinkfic Coaching Session Template
Best for: Coaches empowering clients to be more committed and accountable.
This template provides a clear layout for prepping and running a good coaching session. It brings your client into focus and encourages them to actually achieve their goals.
Key components: Warm up, core coaching conversations, reflection, goal-setting, and commitments.
Customization tip: Come up with different core coaching conversation topics per session, depending on your client’s progress.
6. Performance Coaching Planning Worksheet (Business coaching plan templates)
Best for: Business coaches and managers working to improve employee performance.
This worksheet is a performance coaching plan template designed to raise performance at work. It covers the before-and-after of personal and professional goals.
Key components: Performance gap analysis, SMART goals, and 30-day action plan.
Customization tip: If you want to build a full performance coaching plan, add KPIs to this sheet.
7. Executive Objectives Action Plan (Executive coaching plan templates)
Best for: Executive coaches focusing on holistic professional growth
This visual map looks at all the different elements that help executives achieve productive changes. It also serves as a business coaching plan showing how everything aligns when training leaders.
Key components: Objectives, 360 report feedback, strengths, communication style, action plan, and review.
Customization tip: Let your clients outline the specifics of each area.
8. Five-month Leadership Coaching Plan
Best for: Organizational coaches running a long-term employee coaching program.
This visual plan covers a five-month leadership timeline for leadership training. It’s a plan tailored for high-level coaching clients who need a quick visual snapshot of their training schedule.
Key components: Training plan details and development plan milestones.
Customization tip: Shorten or lengthen the timeline based on your coaching program length.
9. Know Your Five Teacher instructional coaching plan templates
Best for: Educators and instructional coaches working with schools.
This coaching plan template uses the Know Your Five method to create a plan for institutional growth. The plan gives educators a practical way to set goals and objectives for their schools.
Key components: School culture, instructional practices, student engagement, and community advocacy.
Customization tip: Adapt the language for corporate training or general coaching contexts.
10. AIHR coaching plan template
Best for: Employee coaches and HR professionals.
This coaching plan is based on standard HR practices and is a solid employee coaching plan template. It’s made to help employees achieve their key objectives and support their career growth.
Key components: Key objectives, action steps, timeline, responsibilities, success metrics, and feedback.
Customization tip: Soften the corporate tone if you use the template for external coaching clients.
11. University of Glasgow coaching plan template in Word
Best for: Career coaches focused on leadership development.
This coaching plan uses the GROW framework to spark specific coaching conversations with leaders.
Key components: Goal, Reality, Options, and Will.
Customization tip: Personalize the coaching questions further depending on the type of leaders you serve (e.g., new managers, small business owners).
Complete Coaching Plan Sample
Seeing a real coaching plan example helps you understand how everything fits together. Below is a complete sample you can reference.
Client: Sarah, marketing manager
Focus: Career growth and confidence
Objective: Improve leadership skills within three months
- Coaching goals: Lead meetings confidently and delegate tasks
- Coaching model: GROW model
- Session structure: Weekly one-on-one coaching plan
Action steps:
- Practice leading weekly team meetings
- Journal after each meeting
- Request feedback from the team
Tracking: Weekly review to track progress
Outcome: Increased confidence and promotion readiness
Coaching plan example
Here’s a blank coaching plan template you can copy and fill in for your next client.
Client name:
Start date:
Type of coaching:
Total sessions:
I. Coaching goals
- Goal 1:
- Goal 2:
II. SMART goals
- Specific target:
- Metric:
- Deadline:
III. Coaching history
- Background:
- Past efforts:
IV. Coaching agreement
- Boundaries:
- Cancellation policy:
V. Development plan
- Month 1 focus:
- Month 2 focus:
VI. Action steps
- Step 1:
- Step 2:
VII. Progress tracking
- How will we track progress?
- Review dates:
How to Write a Coaching Plan
Before you launch your coaching offers, you need a roadmap. Here’s a simple way to write a coaching plan that works for any niche.
- Choose format: Decide if you want a Word doc, PDF, or a digital coaching session template.
- Set the goal: Define what the client wants and how you plan to help them reach their goal.
- Map sessions: List the steps of coaching you’ll follow throughout the coaching process.
- Build coaching strategy: Define your overall coaching strategy before session one.
- Add tools: List coaching tools and coaching resources you’ll use.
- Build accountability: Define how you’ll track the progress together.
- Review often: Check in throughout the coaching engagement to adjust the flow.
If you’re exploring how to become a mindset coach or a performance coach, these same rules apply.
6 Tips for creating your own coaching plan
A coaching plan must be practical, or your client will ignore it. Here are quick tips to follow:
- Start simple: A free coaching plan template helps you get started quickly beyond a blank page.
- Listen to your client: Let the coachee suggest coaching goals so the plan stays focused on their need.
- Stay flexible: Your coaching approach can shift as you learn more about the client.
- Niche down: Be as specific as you can so you’re sure you’re attracting the right client.
- Study pros: Look at the habits of the best life coaches to see how they structure sessions.
- Include useful information: If clients ask for the pricing of your coaching packages or the total number of sessions, add them in the details.
To help clients understand your coaching plan, you can add a coaching plan FAQs section to your onboarding portal.
5 Common mistakes to avoid when making a coaching plan
Even well-meaning coaches can still trip over these errors. Avoid them, and your coaching plans will stand out.
- Copy-paste: Using the same sheet for different coaching niches won’t work.
- No review: Failing to track progress makes the plan useless throughout the coaching process.
- Overwhelm: No one wants to read a ten-page plan with unnecessary fluff that doesn’t make sessions productive.
- Skipping basics: Missing the section for coaching history and demographics makes it hard to personalize your work.
- No agreement: Without a coaching agreement, boundaries get blurry in the coaching relationship.
Plan Ahead
These coaching plan templates help you show up as a pro from day one. It shows clients how to get to the transformation you promised.
Structure is important for any coaching business. If you want that strong foundation, grab my 3-Step Blueprint to Become a Highly-Paid Coach.
This proven system is for you if you:
- Need guidance to price and position your offers
- Need to attract more of the right clients
- Need to validate your offers and sell confidently and naturally
Carl used this to grow his email list from 1K to 100K. Sara earned more than $20K on her first try.
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