Coach Someone for Free for One Year

Proof required

Submit: (1) the coaching agreement (email thread, shared document, or written note — showing the goal, frequency, and free nature of the relationship), and (2) session logs for months 1–3, with each session log covering: date, approximate duration, topic discussed, and agreed next step.

What gets checked

• Agreement names a real individual and a real goal — 'coaching agreement with Jane to work on her career transition from marketing to product management' passes; 'coaching agreement with a colleague to help them' does not; the goal must be specific enough that progress is measurable over 12 months
• Three monthly session logs are present — each log must cover a distinct month; two sessions in month 1 and none in months 2–3 does not satisfy the monthly cadence; the logs should show consistent contact across three separate calendar months
• Voluntary participation is clear — the agreement should show that the coachee initiated or agreed to the coaching relationship; a log in which the coach makes all decisions and the coachee passively receives them without any indication of their own goals or responses is a yellow flag; the coachee's voice (their goals, their reactions, their next steps) should be present in the logs

Common mistakes

• Not establishing a written agreement at the start — coaching without a written agreement produces ambiguity about what the relationship is for, which leads to session drift where conversations become social rather than developmental; the written agreement does not need to be elaborate but it must exist; an email from the coachee saying 'yes I'd like to work with you monthly on X for Y months' is sufficient
• Logging sessions without capturing the coachee's perspective — a session log that records only what the coach said and did ('I asked about X, then suggested Y, then we agreed on Z') is a coaching record from one perspective; the session log should include evidence of the coachee's goals, thinking, and choices; their voice in the log demonstrates the voluntary, self-directed nature of the relationship
• Choosing a coachee who is not genuinely available for monthly sessions — friends who are not geographically accessible, family members who resist structure, or colleagues who already have full schedules often accept a coaching offer but miss sessions; the 12-month commitment requires a coachee who has the time, motivation, and willingness to meet monthly; this is the most important selection criterion and is worth discussing before agreeing

Resources

What a verifier looks for

• Check the coaching agreement for the four elements — named parties, specific goal, agreed frequency, and confirmation that it is free; an agreement missing any of these is worth asking about; the free element is what makes this GOVERNANCE rather than professional coaching practice
• Read one session log fully — check that the coachee's thinking and goals are present, not just the coach's questions and suggestions; a log that says only what the coach did is a one-sided record; ask 'what did the coachee say about X?' if the log does not show their perspective
• Confirm the voluntary participation standard — ask 'how did this coaching relationship begin?'; the answer should show that the coachee chose to be coached, not that they were assigned to it; a manager coaching a direct report as a job function does not satisfy the GOVERNANCE proof standard

You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.

Proof required

Submit: (1) session logs for months 4–6, and (2) a coachee progress note at month 6 — either the coachee's own written reflection (50+ words) or the coach's documented summary of a progress conversation with the coachee, showing where the coachee started, where they are now, and what the coachee identifies as driving their progress.

What gets checked

• Months 4–6 have a session log each — the monthly cadence must be maintained; two sessions in one month and none in another does not pass for months 4–6 any more than it did for months 1–3
• Progress note reflects the coachee's perspective, not just the coach's — a progress note written entirely by the coach that says 'my coachee has made significant progress and is now doing X' is less credible than a note that includes the coachee's own words; the coachee's voice in the progress note is the clearest evidence of genuine engagement
• Progress is described with specifics — 'the coachee made progress' does not pass; 'at month 0, the coachee had not applied for any product management roles and described their portfolio as incomplete; at month 6, they have applied for 3 roles and received one interview; they attribute this to the session in month 4 where we worked on reframing their marketing experience as product-adjacent' is the standard

Common mistakes

• Coaching without tracking progress — a coaching relationship that never references the original goal produces sessions that feel supportive but lack direction; the six-month milestone requires that the original goal is actively tracked; the session logs should show the goal being referenced and updated, not just new topics being introduced each month
• Providing advice and calling it coaching — by month 4–6, coaches who lack formal training often drift toward advising (telling the coachee what to do) because it feels more productive than questioning; this undermines the coachee's self-direction and the GOVERNANCE proof standard; the session logs at months 4–6 should show the coachee generating options and making decisions, not receiving the coach's recommendations
• Not asking the coachee for feedback — the progress note requirement at month 6 asks for the coachee's perspective; coaches who have not explicitly invited the coachee's feedback on the relationship and its usefulness cannot produce a genuine coachee progress note; the end of month 5 is a natural point to ask 'how is this working for you?' and 'what do you want to focus on for the second half?'

Resources

What a verifier looks for

• Read the progress note for the coachee's voice — the clearest signal that the relationship is genuine is the coachee's own words about their progress; a progress note written entirely in the coach's perspective without the coachee's voice is worth asking about
• Check that the original goal from the coaching agreement is referenced — the progress note should trace movement from the starting point in the agreement; if the goal has changed, ask why and whether the coachee made that decision
• Ask 'what has been the most challenging session so far and how did you handle it?' — a genuine coaching relationship will have had difficult sessions; a coach who reports all sessions as smooth and productive may not be engaging with real challenges

You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.

Proof required

Submit: (1) the full 12-month session log (all sessions with dates, duration, topics, and next steps), and (2) the coachee's written reflection on the year (100+ words in the coachee's own voice), covering what changed for them, what they valued in the coaching relationship, and what they are taking forward.

What gets checked

• Full 12-month log is present — 12 session entries, one per calendar month; missing months require explanation; the log should show progression from the starting goal through to the year-end state
• Coachee reflection is in the coachee's own voice — the reflection should read as written by someone who was coached, not coached; vocabulary, sentence structure, and perspective should match the coachee's identity as established in the session logs; a reflection that uses coaching terminology throughout ('I developed insight into my core values and enacted transformational change') reads as coach-written
• Coachee reflection addresses both what changed and what they are taking forward — the forward-looking component is the most important; a reflection that only looks back ('the coaching was helpful') without a forward intention ('I am continuing to [goal] and intend to [next step]') is half of what the milestone requires

Common mistakes

• Completing sessions through month 9 and then losing the coachee in months 10–12 — the most common reason for incomplete 12-month coaching relationships is the coachee's life changing: a new job, relocation, or simply the natural end of the goal being achieved; the best protection is a mid-year conversation (around month 6 or 7) that explicitly re-commits to the second half of the year; the six-month check-in exists partly for this reason
• Writing the coachee's reflection on their behalf — some coaches, wanting to complete the milestone, write the reflection in a slightly modified first-person voice and ask the coachee to approve it; this is the opposite of the GOVERNANCE proof standard; the coachee's reflection must be their own words; if the coachee is not willing or able to write a reflection, the relationship should be documented as it ended and the milestone is not complete
• Not maintaining the session logs throughout the year and reconstructing them at month 12 — reconstructed logs are typically uniform, surface-level, and lack the variation in topic and emotional texture that genuine monthly logs show; the logs should be written within a week of each session while the content is fresh; a 12-month set of logs written in the final month is detectable

Resources

What a verifier looks for

• Verify that the coachee reflection is in a genuinely different voice from the session logs — compare vocabulary and sentence structure; a reflection that reads identically to the session log entries (same terminology, same perspective) is likely coach-written
• Check the full session log for 12 distinct months — count the entries and confirm they span 12 calendar months; ask about any gap month with a genuine explanation
• Read the closing session log entry alongside the coachee reflection — the final session log and the coachee reflection should reference each other; a coach who never reviewed the year with the coachee before closing the relationship will have a final session log that does not match the coachee's year-end reflection

You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.