Coaching Signature
System Planner

COACHING PRACTICE TOOLS

Design the proprietary methodology that makes your coaching practice
recognizable, repeatable, and referable.

Designing Your Signature System

A coaching signature system is not a rebrand of what you already do. It is an explicit articulation of the logic that has always been there - the sequence you follow, the distinctions you make, the turning points you anticipate. Most experienced coaches are already working within a coherent system. What this worksheet does is name it and make it visible.

The value of a named methodology is not primarily marketing, though it does serve that purpose. The deeper value is operational: a named system gives clients a shared vocabulary for their own progress, makes your work replicable across engagements, and lets you identify where a particular client is in the sequence rather than treating each session as a fresh start.

The most common trap in this exercise is naming the phases before understanding what each one actually produces. Complete the Outcomes column first, then name the phases to match. If your current work doesn't fit cleanly into phases, that is information worth having before you try to design a system.

How to Use This Worksheet

  1. Start with outcomes, not labels. For each phase of your work, describe what the client gains, realizes, or completes. The name of the phase should follow from what it produces.
  2. Map the journey arc. Where does your typical client start? Where do they finish? The phases should bridge that arc.
  3. Name your system last. Once the phases and outcomes are clear, a good name tends to suggest itself. If you have to force it, the system design probably needs more work first.
  4. Identify the pivotal phase. Most coaching journeys have one phase where the real shift happens. Name it explicitly - that is often what clients reference when they describe your work to others.
  5. Test for distinctiveness. What makes this sequence yours? A signature system that could describe any coach's work is not yet a signature system.
1

Your Signature System

Your Coaching System
Methodology name:

What does the name represent or stand for?

Is it an acronym? If yes, list what each letter stands for:

Phase Mapping
How many phases does your methodology have?
Phase Name Description
1
2
3
4
5
6
2

Your Signature System (continued)

Key Outcomes per Phase

What does the client gain, realize, or complete in each phase?

Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
Phase 6
Client Journey Arc

Where does your typical client start? (Presenting challenge or situation)

Where do they end up after completing your system? (Transformation)

What is the biggest shift that happens mid-way through?

What makes your system different from a standard coaching approach?

Before Your Next Session

• Which phase of your system do clients most frequently underestimate the difficulty of - and do you prepare them for it?

• If a past client were describing your work to a colleague, which phase or turning point would they most likely mention?

3

Tandem Coaching Partners

Credentialed coaches with real-world leadership experience,
partnering with executives and organizations
to unlock sustainable growth.

Consultation

tandemcoach.co/
contact-us

Email

info@tandemcoach.co

Phone

855 51 COACH

Challenge your thinking.
Discover your capabilities.
Act on them.

Dallas, TX  |  Houston, TX  |  Worldwide Virtual