Using feedback on your coaching to grow

Feedback on a recorded session can be uncomfortable to read, whether it comes from a mentor, a peer or a structured report. It is also one of the fastest ways to improve, because it shows you what happened rather than what you remember happening. The difference between coaches who grow from feedback and those who do not is mostly in how they use it.

Read it twice

Read the feedback once for the overall impression, and then put it down. Come back later and read it again slowly, this time looking for specifics: which moments, which quotes, which competencies. The first read is for your feelings; the second is for your practice.

Start with what worked

It is natural to jump to the growth areas. Begin instead with what the session did well, and ask why it worked. Strengths you understand are strengths you can repeat on purpose, including on days when you are tired or the conversation is difficult.

Check it against the evidence

Good feedback points to evidence. For each observation, find the moment in the transcript or recording. Sometimes you will agree straight away. Sometimes you will see the moment differently, and that is useful too: note why. Feedback is a perspective to think with, not a verdict. Your own judgement about the session — and your client's experience of it — still matter.

Choose one thing

A long list of improvements is easy to agree with and hard to act on. Choose one behaviour for the next few sessions. Make it concrete enough that you would recognise it in a recording:

• not "listen better", but "reflect back the client's exact words at least three times";
• not "ask better questions", but "ask one question at a time and wait".

Look again

After two or three sessions, check whether the change shows up. Compare the same section of feedback across sessions rather than looking at one report in isolation; patterns are more reliable than any single session. If the change has become a habit, choose the next one. If it has not, ask what got in the way.

Bring in another person

Talking feedback through with a peer, supervisor or mentor coach helps you separate what is useful from what is noise, and keeps you honest about following through.

About our reports

Our feedback reports rate each competency at the ICF credential level a session shows and suggest what to try next. They are a guide for your reflection, not a formal assessment. Read more on our credential levels page, or see the ICF website for the official standards.