SMART is a mnemonic devise that many professional life and business coaches use in order to help clients clarify their goals, obstacles, options and the way forward. One of key elements of successful coaching is knowing how to ask the right types of questions that will lead clients think about their aspirations and strategies in an organized way. By ensuring that both you and your clients have a crystal clear picture of their objectives in the following five areas, you can clear up muddled thinking at every stage of the coaching process.

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The SMART Approach to Coaching

• Specific – Before you move on from any important objective during a coaching session, it is essential that you and your client have a specific goal in mind. For example, a client who wants to expand his business needs to lay out a specific target, such as building a robust referral engine.

• Measurable – The next step of the SMART approach to setting objectives is for a client to identify what success will look like when he reaches it. In the case of our example of a client who wants to grow his business through generating referrals, a measurable objective might be to increase his number of targeted referrals by a particular number per month.

• Attainable – The SMART approach can also be helpful in making sure that your clients aren’t biting off more than they can chew when they are setting their objectives. For example, a client that wants to start generating a large number of referrals might need to set a more realistic goal if he is just beginning to build his business.

• Relevant – When you are helping a client create a clear set of objectives, you will often have to use your role as coach to help him keep the big picture in mind. Before your client gets carried away working on an objective that seems unrelated to his primary aspirations, it can be helpful to ask about how that particular project fits in with his main goals in life or business.

• Time-bound – Finally, the SMART approach requires clients to hold themselves accountable to reaching their objectives within a reasonable amount of time. Many clients seek business or life coaching for assistance in attaining goals that they have struggled to attain due to other priorities or their own inertia. By including a reasonable time frame for making progress to a particular objective, clients will have a clear perspective of the way forward and the confidence to put their plans into action.