Coaching Plan Template
A plan to develop one person, not a training course. Built on GROW and SMART goals, with focus areas, actions the coachee owns, the support you will give and a review cadence on every line.
Reviewed by Pradeep Arora, Chief Strategy Officer
- Focus areas with a SMART goal on each, so development is specific and measurable
- Actions owned by the coachee, because a coach guides but the coachee does the work
- The GROW model to shape each conversation, from goal through to will
- A progress tracker that scores the coachee across sessions, so movement is visible
What is inside
- A coaching plan structure where each focus area carries a SMART goal, the actions the coachee owns, the support the coach gives and a review date, so the plan is a working agreement rather than a vague promise to help.
- The GROW model built into the flow (goal, reality, options, will), so each conversation moves the coachee from where they are to what they will do, rather than becoming advice they did not ask for.
- A coaching readiness checklist that pressure-tests the plan before you start, so the goals are genuinely SMART and the actions genuinely sit with the coachee.
- A progress tracker that scores each focus area across sessions, so movement is visible and a stalled goal is caught early instead of fading out.
Who it is for
Anyone who has to plan what people learn, and answer for whether it landed.
- L&D and training teams
- People managers and team leads
- Heads of function and department
- HR business partners
- Compliance and risk teams
- Onboarding and enablement teams
- Operations and delivery leads
- COOs and HR directors
How to use this template in 4 steps
- Pick your format. Download the PDF to share, the Word file to edit, or the Excel file to work in live. All three are free.
- Make it yours. Adapt the sections, fields and wording to your team, roles and process so it fits how you actually work.
- Put it to work. Fill it in, circulate it to stakeholders for sign-off, or roll it out to your team.
- Track and improve. Review it on a set cadence and refine it as your goals, roles and priorities change.
What is inside
- A coaching plan structure where each focus area carries a SMART goal, the actions the coachee owns, the support the coach gives and a review date, so the plan is a working agreement rather than a vague promise to help.
- The GROW model built into the flow (goal, reality, options, will), so each conversation moves the coachee from where they are to what they will do, rather than becoming advice they did not ask for.
- A coaching readiness checklist that pressure-tests the plan before you start, so the goals are genuinely SMART and the actions genuinely sit with the coachee.
- A progress tracker that scores each focus area across sessions, so movement is visible and a stalled goal is caught early instead of fading out.
This is a starting structure to adapt to your coachee and context, not formal HR or legal advice. A coaching plan develops a willing person; it is not a performance improvement plan or a disciplinary record. If the situation is about underperformance or conduct, use the right process and align with your HR policy before you begin.
The coaching plan
The core of the template. One row per focus area: the goal written as SMART, the actions the coachee will own, the support the coach will provide and when it is reviewed. Keep it to two or three focus areas so the coachee can actually carry them.
| Focus area | Goal | Actions | Support | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder communication | Run a weekly written update that three stakeholders rate as clear by end of Q1. | Draft and send the update each Monday; ask one stakeholder for feedback monthly. | Coach reviews the first two drafts and models the structure. | Every 2 weeks |
| Running effective meetings | Chair the team meeting with an agenda and actions, with no overrun, for six weeks straight. | Send an agenda a day ahead; close every item with an owner and a date. | Coach observes one meeting and debriefs afterwards. | Monthly |
| Delegation | Hand off two recurring tasks fully by end of quarter, with no rework by the coachee. | Pick the tasks, brief the owners, resist taking them back when it gets hard. | Coach role-plays the handover and reviews what came back. | Every 3 weeks |
| Giving feedback | Give specific, timely feedback in the moment at least twice a week by mid-quarter. | Keep a note of moments; use the situation-behaviour-impact structure each time. | Coach practises two scenarios with the coachee before they go live. | Every 2 weeks |
When the coach can assign supporting microlearning and SOPs against each focus area in an LMS, the plan stops living only in the session. The coachee practises between meetings with content matched to their goal, and the coach sees what was actually done before the next conversation.
Coaching readiness checklist
Pressure-test the plan before the first session. A plan that fails these checks will stall, usually because the goal is fuzzy or the actions quietly belong to the coach. Tick items as you go, it stays in this browser. The download has the same list with an owner column.
- The goal is SMART, not a vague intentionGoalsCoachee
- Each focus area was agreed with the coachee, not imposedGoalsCoachee
- The GROW steps were worked through, not skipped to adviceConversationCoach
- The actions are owned by the coachee, in their own wordsActionsCoachee
- The support the coach will give is named, not assumedSupportCoach
- A review cadence is set with real datesCadenceCoach
- How progress will be measured is agreed up frontMeasurementBoth
- Feedback will be specific, not a general how-is-it-goingFeedbackCoach
- The plan has two or three focus areas, not tenScopeBoth
- The coachee is here willingly, not under a disciplinary processReadinessBoth
The most common failure is a goal that only looks SMART. If you cannot say how you will know it was reached, it is not measurable yet, and the coachee will not be able to tell whether they are winning. Fix the goal before the first session, not after the third.
Progress across sessions
The plan sets the goals. This tracker shows whether the coachee is actually moving. Score each focus area at the end of each session so a stalled area is obvious and the actions can be adjusted, rather than discovering at the final review that nothing changed. In Excel the growth and readiness calculate as you type.
| Focus area | Baseline | Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3 | Session 4 | Session 5 | Ready |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder communication | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 80% |
| Running effective meetings | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 90% |
| Delegation | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 50% |
| Giving feedback | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 30% |
| Coverage at required | 0% | 25% | 50% | 50% | 75% | 62% |
Giving feedback is the stalled area here: four sessions in and still developing. That is the signal to change the approach, with more live practice or a smaller next step, rather than waiting and hoping it moves on its own before the final review.
The session log
A coaching plan is only as good as the follow-through between sessions. This simple log captures what was discussed, what the coachee agreed to do and whether it happened, so each session starts by closing the loop on the last one rather than starting from nothing.
| Date | Focus | Agreed action | Done? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04 Nov | Stakeholder communication | Send Monday update and ask one stakeholder for feedback. | Yes |
| 11 Nov | Running effective meetings | Chair Thursday meeting with an agenda sent a day ahead. | Yes |
| 18 Nov | Delegation | Brief the owner on the reporting task and hand it over fully. | Partly |
| 25 Nov | Giving feedback | Give two pieces of in-the-moment feedback using SBI. | No |
| 02 Dec | Delegation | Resist taking the reporting task back; let the owner run it. | Yes |
An agreed action marked no is not a failure, it is information. Start the next session with it. Ask what got in the way, and either shrink the action or change the support, so the plan stays honest rather than a record of good intentions.
How to use it
- Agree the focus areas together
Start with the coachee. Pick two or three areas to develop, no more, so the plan stays focused rather than becoming a full appraisal.
- Write each goal as SMART
Turn each focus area into a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goal the coachee can picture reaching.
- Run the conversation with GROW
Work through goal, reality, options and will. The coachee explores the gap and chooses the path, so they own the decision, not just the task.
- Let the coachee own the actions
Write what the coachee will do between sessions, in their words. The coach provides support, but the work and the ownership sit with the coachee.
- Set a review cadence
Agree how often you will meet and when each goal is reviewed. A plan with no cadence is a conversation that quietly never happens again.
- Score progress each session
Rate each focus area across sessions so growth, or the lack of it, is visible, and adjust the actions rather than letting a stalled goal drift.
Coaching one person well is manageable. Making every manager a consistent coach is the real challenge. Disprz gives managers structured coaching journeys and microlearning they can assign against goals like these, so the quality of a plan does not depend on which manager you happen to report to. Teams that build capability this way see up to 50 percent gains in productivity.
Common mistakes this template prevents
- A goal that only looks SMART, so the coachee can never tell whether they have reached it.
- Actions that quietly belong to the coach, so the coachee waits to be rescued instead of doing the work.
- Skipping GROW and jumping straight to advice, so the coachee owns nothing they decided.
- No review cadence, so the plan becomes a single conversation that never happens again.
- Measuring nothing, so a stalled focus area is only discovered at the final session.
- Treating a coaching plan as a performance improvement plan, when the two are different tools for different situations.
Which format should you use?
| Format | Best for | What is inside | Editable | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sharing and print | The full template, formatted to print or circulate | No | 56 KB | |
| Word | Editing the wording | Every section as editable text you can adapt | Yes | 87 KB |
| Excel | Filling it in live | The grid and fields set up as a working spreadsheet | Yes | 66 KB |
Questions people ask
What is a coaching plan?
How is a coaching plan different from a training course?
What are GROW and SMART, and why use both?
Is a coaching plan the same as a performance improvement plan?
Does the Excel version work in Google Sheets?
Do I have to fill the form three times?
A plan shows the goals. People finishing them is the part we run.
Bring your coaching plan to a 30-minute working session. We will show how Disprz gives every manager structured coaching journeys and microlearning they can assign, so good coaching does not depend on which manager you report to. Wellness Forever reached 92 percent adoption and had new employees productive within 30 days across 400-plus stores building capability this way.