Most coaches don’t plan a session because they don’t have a fast way to. So they wing it, the client’s goal drifts, and the hour ends with a nice conversation but no clear next step. A reusable coaching session agenda template fixes that, and this prompt builds one for you in seconds.
You give the AI your client’s goal, what happened last time, and what you want this session to achieve. It returns a timed, segment-by-segment agenda with the exact coaching questions to ask in the core block. By the end of this page you’ll also understand why it produces a usable plan instead of generic advice, so your next prompt is sharper.
When to use this
- You have a session in an hour and no plan written down.
- A client keeps drifting off-topic and you want structure that still feels human.
- You’re onboarding a new client and want a clean, repeatable session format.
- You want timed segments so you stop running over or finishing 15 minutes early.
- You’re training an associate coach and need a consistent agenda template they can follow.
The prompt
Copy this whole block into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini:
You are an experienced coaching practice operations specialist who designs session agendas for professional coaches. Your job is to turn one client's goal and recent progress into a single, timed session agenda the coach can run from top to bottom.
Before writing, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions if anything below is unclear or missing. Otherwise, proceed.
CONTEXT
- Client: {{CLIENT_NAME}}
- Type of coaching: {{COACHING_TYPE}}
- Session length: {{SESSION_LENGTH}}
- The client's main goal: {{CLIENT_GOAL}}
- What happened last session: {{LAST_SESSION}}
- What I want this session to achieve: {{TODAY_FOCUS}}
TASK
Write ONE session agenda that:
1. Opens with a short check-in segment that reconnects to last session and surfaces wins or blockers.
2. Breaks the session into clearly timed segments whose minutes add up to exactly the session length.
3. Includes one core working block tied directly to today's focus, with 2-3 specific coaching questions I can ask in that block.
4. Ends with a commitment-and-action segment where the client names one concrete next step and how I'll follow up.
5. Gives each segment a name, a duration in minutes, and a one-line purpose.
CONSTRAINTS
- Keep it practical and scannable; no jargon or filler.
- Do not invent details about the client beyond what I gave you; if something is missing, ask.
- The total minutes must equal {{SESSION_LENGTH}}.
After the agenda, give me a 1-line opening question to start the session and 2 prompts I could use if the client gets stuck.
How to customize it
Replace the six {{VARIABLES}} before you send it:
| Variable | What to put | Example |
|---|---|---|
{{CLIENT_NAME}} |
Your client’s first name | Maya |
{{COACHING_TYPE}} |
What kind of coaching this is | executive leadership coaching |
{{SESSION_LENGTH}} |
How long the session runs | 60 minutes |
{{CLIENT_GOAL}} |
The client’s main goal | feel confident delivering hard feedback to her team |
{{LAST_SESSION}} |
What you covered last time | we mapped her three most avoided conversations; she committed to scheduling one |
{{TODAY_FOCUS}} |
What this session should achieve | debrief the conversation and build a repeatable feedback script |
See it in action (full example)
Here is the exact prompt, filled in for an executive coach. This is the whole input, nothing hidden:
You are an experienced coaching practice operations specialist who designs session agendas for professional coaches. Your job is to turn one client's goal and recent progress into a single, timed session agenda the coach can run from top to bottom.
Before writing, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions if anything below is unclear or missing. Otherwise, proceed.
CONTEXT
- Client: Maya
- Type of coaching: executive leadership coaching
- Session length: 60 minutes
- The client's main goal: feel confident delivering hard feedback to her team
- What happened last session: we mapped her three most avoided conversations; she committed to scheduling one
- What I want this session to achieve: debrief the conversation she had and build a repeatable feedback script
TASK
Write ONE session agenda... [rest of the prompt unchanged]
And here is the complete output the model returns:
Quick check before I lock the agenda: did Maya actually hold the conversation she committed to, or did it slip? I’ll plan for both, but knowing changes how much time the debrief needs. Assuming it happened, here’s your 60-minute agenda.
Session Agenda — Maya | 60 minutes
1. Check-in & reconnect — 8 min Purpose: Reopen warmly, hear how the week landed, and confirm whether the avoided conversation happened.
2. Debrief the conversation — 15 min Purpose: Walk through what she actually said and how it went, separating the facts from her self-judgment. Questions to ask: – “Walk me through the moment you started the conversation. What were the first words out of your mouth?” – “What surprised you about how the other person responded?” – “Where in that conversation did you feel most like yourself, and where did you feel like you were performing?”
3. Core block: build the repeatable feedback script — 22 min Purpose: Turn what worked into a simple structure Maya can reuse for any hard conversation. Questions to ask: – “If you stripped that conversation down to three moves, what were they?” – “What’s one sentence you could open with every time that makes you feel grounded?” – “What does the other person need to hear from you before they can hear the feedback itself?”
4. Commitment & action — 10 min Purpose: Lock one concrete next step and agree how we follow up. She names the next conversation she’ll use the script on, picks a date, and we agree she’ll send me two lines on how it went by Friday.
5. Close — 5 min Purpose: Reflect back her progress, name one strength she showed, and end on time.
Total: 60 minutes.
Opening question to start the session: “Before we dig in, tell me, did the conversation happen, and how are you feeling about it right now?”
If she gets stuck: 1. “Forget doing it perfectly. What’s the version of this you could actually pull off on a hard day?” 2. “Whose voice is telling you this has to be uncomfortable, and is it actually true?”
That is ready to run. A 10-second glance to confirm the timing matches your calendar and you’re set for the hour.
Why this works
Three LLM principles are doing the heavy lifting here. Learn them and every prompt you write gets better:
- Role priming. The opening line (“You are an experienced coaching practice operations specialist”) tells the model which slice of its knowledge to use. “Make me an agenda” pulls from generic meeting templates; assigning a coaching-operations role pulls structure that actually fits a coaching session. Always assign a role before the task.
- Specificity in, specificity out. The model can only be as specific as your input. The reason the core block produced real feedback-script questions, and not filler, is that you told it the exact goal and what last session covered. A vague goal (“help her communicate better”) would have produced a vague agenda. The quality of the output is capped by the quality of your
{{CLIENT_GOAL}}and{{TODAY_FOCUS}}. - Constraints are quality control. The rules aren’t decoration. “Minutes must add up to exactly the session length” forces a usable timed plan instead of vague phases. “Do not invent details about the client; if something is missing, ask” stops the model from fabricating a backstory, which is the most common way AI session plans go wrong. And the “ask me up to 3 clarifying questions first” line let it catch the real gap, whether the conversation actually happened, instead of guessing.
Do this now
- Copy the prompt above into ChatGPT or Claude.
- Replace the six variables with your real client, goal, last session, and today’s focus.
- Send it. If it asks a clarifying question, answer honestly, that’s where the accuracy comes from.
- Skim the timed segments against your calendar, tweak one line in your own words, and run it in your next session.
Pro tips
- Paste your real notes. Drop your last session’s notes straight into
{{LAST_SESSION}}instead of summarizing. More true detail means a tighter, more relevant agenda. - Keep the clarifying-questions line. It is the difference between an agenda built on your reality and one built on the model’s assumptions.
- Save your favorite as a base template. Once it produces a structure you love, keep that segment breakdown and just swap the core block each week.
- Ask for a follow-up email. After the agenda, ask “now draft the 3-line recap email I’ll send Maya after this session” and you’ve closed the loop in one chat.
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