The STORMMES© Coaching Agreement Model: A Framework for Stronger Engagements

If you’ve ever attended an ICF-accredited coach training program, you likely spent time practicing the ICF Core Competency around coaching agreements and contracting. At Tandem Coaching Academy, we have found that this is the number one competency that professional coaches struggle with getting right.

Why? Because it’s hard. A coaching conversation is supposed to sound like a conversation between two people in a strong relationship, but it isn’t really that kind of conversation. In your day-to-day conversations, you generally don’t start with questions like, “What is the purpose of our conversation today?” and “What would you like to accomplish in the time we have together?”

Add to that the fact that a coaching relationship maintains a level of intimacy and trust that often exceeds what people have with friends and family. Yet it’s not intended to extend beyond the borders of a professional relationship. Coach and client come together for a specific purpose to achieve specific goals.

I’ve seen many coaches jump into coaching relationships and treat them like the practice sessions they had with other coaching students. Every conversation is a one-off, with no overarching goal for the work they do together. It always surprises me when I do a reciprocal coaching round and work with a coach who doesn’t start by understanding what the overarching goals for our work will be. Yet it’s happened to me over and over, even with skilled coaches.

When I work with a coach, it’s important to me that they understand how to manage the coaching relationship and not just the coaching conversation. I will not hire a coach who doesn’t start with a clear understanding of what we are focusing on, how we will know we’ve gotten there, and how we will work together in the process. Coaches who understand how to hold the entire relationship are more likely to get you to the intended goal than coaches who treat each session as a disconnected event.

The ICF updated its Core Coaching Competencies and placed significant emphasis on the relationship agreement as a layer of the competency around Establishing Agreements. They have now publicly recognized that the relationship agreement is just as important as, and possibly more important than, the session agreement.

Why I Created the STORMMES© Model

I developed the STORMMES© model, which maps directly to the ICF core competencies framework for establishing agreements, initially to help me in my own coaching practice. I needed a consistent way to develop a strong relationship agreement with clients at the onset of the engagement. I needed something that would help me cover all the important elements at the beginning of our relationship: the right start, the right outcomes, and clearly defined measurements of progress for regular check-ins.

The model has been widely accepted by our students at Tandem Coaching Academy, who tell me that even years after their training program ended, they are still using STORMMES© in their day-to-day work as both internal and external coaches, with individual clients, teams, and organizations.

STORMMES© is an acronym that outlines a list of conversations a coach and client should have when co-creating their relationship. You will rarely use this model in the order presented below. Instead, focus on your client and cover all these topics in the order that feels most natural. The best coaches are always responsive to client needs above holding tight to any model as presented.

S – Subject

Discuss the overall focus of the coaching engagement so both you and your client understand the general direction of your work together. A client may frame this as wanting to improve how they communicate with senior leaders, or they may use shorthand like “confidence” or “executive presence.”

I often transition from this conversation directly into Motivation because the two flow naturally together. What the client wants to focus on and why they want to focus on it are rarely separate conversations in practice.

T – Timeframes

Parts of this conversation may happen before the client signs a contract, and much of it may appear in the written agreement. The point is that these items must be discussed, whether in the initial contact, the intake session, or the contract review:

• Engagement length: a set number of weeks or months, or a stated number of sessions?
• Frequency: pre-defined cadence with standing appointments, or client-scheduled? What happens if the client reschedules or cancels? What is the cancellation window?
• Session length: if the client is late, does the session extend or does the lost time count against it? How long does the coach wait before marking a no-show?
• Progress check-ins: how often do the coach and client step back to assess progress and adjust goals? What if one party has concerns before the scheduled check-in?

O – Outcomes

The outcomes conversation defines what the client ultimately wants from the coaching engagement, the engagement goals. These typically answer: What will be different at the end of our work together if we have been successful?

Outcomes need to be specific enough to guide the work but broad enough to allow exploration. A client who says “I want to be a better leader” needs follow-up: Better at what? In whose eyes? What would “better” look like in your daily interactions? The outcomes conversation is where the coaching engagement shifts from abstract aspiration to concrete direction.

R – Roles

The roles conversation is critical. I often hear coaches I am training or mentoring tell me their clients entered the engagement expecting a consultant. That tells me the roles conversation needed strengthening.

ICF is clear: it is the coach’s responsibility to explain the difference between coaching and other disciplines, and to ensure the client understands what they are contracting for. When this is not done properly, both parties end up frustrated. Topics to cover include:

• What to expect from the coaching process
• Confidentiality boundaries
• Adherence to the ICF Code of Ethics
• Client ownership of their own change and success
• Role of coach vs. role of client
• How the client can best prepare for sessions
• The importance of reflection after sessions
• The majority of the work happens between sessions
• Legal terms (often in the written contract)
• Communication preferences for a successful relationship

M – Measures

The measures conversation usually happens during or after the outcomes discussion. For each goal, the coach and client need to define how they will know it has been achieved.

Some measures are quantifiable: getting the promotion, improving a team engagement score by 20%. Others are qualitative: “I will feel more confident.” These need investigation. What will be different if you are more confident? How confident are you now on a scale of 1–10? Where do you want to be after our engagement?

This conversation can also establish milestones along the way, helping the coach and client see progress and make adjustments before the engagement ends.

M – Motivation

Motivation is closely related to Subject and Outcomes. It is the why behind the client’s decision to engage a coach. This is what keeps the client moving forward when progress stalls or the work gets difficult.

Useful questions: Why are these goals important? What value will achieving them bring? What happens if the changes are not achieved? What is at stake that makes the investment in coaching worth making?

E – Environment

The environment conversation surfaces systemic factors that promote or prevent client success. What is happening professionally and personally that contributes to the need for these goals? Who are the stakeholders that need to be considered? What resources or relationships can the client draw on? What in their environment might be a hindrance?

This is often where coaches discover the real complexity of the engagement. A client working on communication skills may have a manager who undermines every conversation they improve. A leader pursuing executive presence may be operating in a culture that penalizes visibility. The environment conversation prevents the coach and client from working in a vacuum.

S – Start

The final conversation is about prioritization. Which goals matter most? What is the priority order? Which goals can be pursued concurrently, and which need to happen consecutively? How does the client want to approach the work? And the essential question: Where do we begin?

Starting well matters more than most coaches realize. The first topic you pursue sets the tone for the entire engagement. If the client starts with a goal that produces early visible progress, it builds momentum and trust. If they start with the hardest, most emotionally loaded goal, the early sessions may feel heavy. That is fine if that is what the client needs, but it should be a conscious choice, not a default.

Putting STORMMES© into Practice

Coaching engagements are more than a series of one-hour conversations. Clients have real reasons for seeking a coach, and those reasons deserve a structured start. The STORMMES© framework ensures that the work is set up for the client’s best success from the first interaction.

Use it flexibly. The conversations will rarely follow the acronym’s order. They flow where the client takes them. The value of the model is not in the sequence but in the coverage: every element addressed means fewer surprises, clearer expectations, and stronger outcomes.

For coaches pursuing ICF credentials, STORMMES© directly supports Competency 3 (Establishes and Maintains Agreements). Assessors and mentor coaches consistently flag the relationship agreement as the area where candidates show the most growth potential, and having a framework to rely on makes that competency visible in your practice.