As professional life or business coach, you have a responsibility toward your clients to ensure that the personal and professional information that they choose to share with you during their coaching sessions is handle appropriately.
Confidentiality and Professionalism
When clients meet with coaches to discuss their goals and the real or perceived obstacles that have held them back in the past, there is an unspoken assumption that the sensitive information that may be discussed during a coaching session will not be shared with others. As a result, coaches are professionally obligated to treat private matters that come up in a session respectfully, and a good coach will refrain from discussing the details of sessions with colleagues or associates.
Confidentiality and Record Keeping
During the course of helping clients develop strategies that will enable them to make their personal and professional aspirations a reality, you will find inevitably find yourself collecting information through your notes and coaching forms that your clients expect to be handled responsibly. Whether a client is discussing obstacles at work or a problem at home, it is assumed that all of the written data that a coach collects during a client’s sessions will be stored safely and disposed of properly.
At a minimum, a coach needs to put the following safeguards in place to ensure proper record maintaining the following:
- Private work are for reviewing notes and coaching materials
- Locked filing cabinet
- Organized system for transporting records
- Paper shredder for disposing of private materials as necessary