Targeted documentation of online coaching sessions

Targeted documentation of online coaching sessions

Online coaching is booming. Whether it's nutrition, career, lifestyle or personal development — more and more people are seeking help from a coach. The benefits of digitization have led to a very wide range of online coaching sessions. To stand out from the crowd of coaches, achieving your clients' goals should be your top priority. Targeted documentation of sessions is essential if you want to ensure competent support and measure progress in coaching. But how can coaching sessions be documented quickly and easily? Which digital tools make sense for an online coach? And how do you combine effective meeting minutes and data protection? We'll answer these questions for you in this article.

Documenting coaching sessions — these are the benefits

The targeted documentation of sessions is a sign of quality for you as an online coach. It shows how clean and customer-oriented you work. Effective meeting minutes tell customers that you're interested in their progress. Therefore, you shouldn't ignore this process. Documenting your coaching sessions gives you the following benefits:

• ‍transparency: You can always see where your customer stands and what their topics are. Customers can also understand their own process of discovery.
• ‍Traceability: It doesn't matter whether the last coaching session was a week ago or a year ago. All conversation content is quickly available to you again.
• ‍Continuity: With With effective meeting minutes, you can make the respective coaching process meaningful in the long term. You always know which tasks or strategies your customer has worked on and can ask specific questions.
• ‍Documentation requirement: In certain coaching areas, such as professional integration, healthcare or finance, you are required to document your coaching sessions.

But there is another advantage of targeted documentation. As a coach, you have the opportunity to continuously improve yourself. Creating effective meeting minutes is definitely worthwhile for you. You can analyze your conversations, understand the customer better and can respond directly to developments in the transformation process next time. As you can see, everyone benefits when you ensure targeted documentation of sessions.

Targeted documentation of a session — important tips for meeting notes

Coaching documentation made easy! The goal of documentation is to be able to complete the coaching sessions as precisely as possible in order to be able to offer your customers an individual process. Nothing more and nothing less! A comprehensive meeting protocol should therefore include certain parameters, such as:

• One synopsis of the conversation
• Which tasks were agreed?
• Which Strategies for action Has the coachee worked out?
• Which questions worked particularly well?
• Which emotional responses Was there?
• Which practices Did you use?
• Which template are to be recognized?
• What are the next steps?

You see: A really good documentation of coaching sessions consists of more than a few handwritten notes or a pure report of results. Creating a comprehensive meeting protocol means that your coaching will make progress measurable and comprehensible. Documenting your sessions is therefore an essential cornerstone of your work.

Tips for meeting notes - document coaching sessions effectively and purposefully

Your documentation should be standardized in every case. This is the only way you can benefit from the advantages mentioned above. Today's digitalization makes it possible for coaching sessions to take place regardless of where you are. However, documentation has therefore become more important than ever. There are various ways to ensure effective documentation in online coaching.

Digitalization has changed human communication. However, this did not make it easier to document sessions in a targeted manner. It is important that you find out which method suits you best and then follow it consistently. At the end of the article, we will introduce you to another documentation option that combines all advantages. But first, we need to address another important issue: data protection.

Documentation of a coaching session and the GDPR

So coach, you always work with sensitive, personal data. It is therefore up to you to find a viable solution for the collection, storage and further processing of data. Either way, your solution must comply with the requirements of the GDPR if you offer your service in the EU.

When it comes to data protection, it is important that you are always up to date with the applicable laws. Otherwise, you're doing a lot of things right if you keep a few things in mind. Discuss the issue of data protection transparently with your coachees. Obtain an affirmation of consent. Discuss how important targeted documentation of coaching sessions and the creation of effective meeting minutes are for the process. Only collect data that is really important for coaching.

Another point is that you use secure communication channels. Common tools for online sessions such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams are encrypted and can therefore be used without hesitation. An encrypted cloud allows you to securely store recorded coaching sessions. You can also secure the cloud with a corresponding password or two-factor authentication.

Coaching documentation made easy — these digital tools will help you do just that

There are many tools for documenting coaching sessions. The principle also applies here: The tool must meet your individual requirements. You should therefore know exactly what you need and test various tools. We are now introducing you to three tools that are already very well-known. As a bonus, you'll get another — very easy — way to document your sessions in the next section.

Evernote is very suitable when it comes to targeted documentation of sessions. In addition to written text, you can also add audio or image files to your notes. You can also create tasks or save other data. You can do the documentation individually for each coachee and thus measure the progress in coaching.

Google Docs is suitable if you prefer a more interactive coaching style. In addition to documenting coaching content, you can share tasks and notes with your clients. You are therefore up to date and at the same time ensure that your coachee is actively involved in the process.

Coach Accountable is a platform for coaches. Here you have a detailed overview of past sessions or tasks. You can therefore specifically control the process and thus the progress of your customers.

Artificial intelligence for targeted documentation of sessions

Despite all the advantages, many tools also have one important disadvantage: You have to enter the notes manually! This not only costs you valuable time, but the accuracy of the entries can also vary significantly. Documenting coaching sessions with artificial intelligence can therefore be an absolute game changer for you.

There are a variety of tools that offer automated transcription of your online sessions by simply letting them run in Zoom or Teams. What's more: Depending on the additional features, you can also link the tools directly to your task tool. So you don't have to spend time manually transferring your notes anymore. The software provides you with effective meeting minutes without additional effort.

Certain tools also have the option of analyzing your session afterwards, for example with regard to your speaking share. When using AI transcription software, you should definitely make sure that the provider comes from the EU. This is how you ensure data protection.

Conclusion — targeted documentation of sessions as a sign of quality

Comprehensive documentation of coaching conversations not only ensures the progress of your clients. Rather, it also makes you a better trainer or consultant who can measure and market coaching progress. And: In many areas, documenting sessions is not only important but also mandatory. Of course, the targeted documentation of a session is also an effort for you in everyday life. But here you can use various tools that make your life easier.

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