The coaching industry is a dynamic and colorful industry. It has given us the likes of Tony Robbins, Marshall Goldsmith, and Sheila Goldgrab and helped millions of people discover who they are and how to succeed in whatever chapter of life they are in.

Though coaching has made its way into the mainstream and adopted new and innovative approaches to engaging with coachees, the model most coaches use to facilitate coaching moments hasn’t changed much in the past generation.

Most training and development resources still rely on information consumption models that are still susceptible to the forgetting curve hypothesis, which indicates that people’s memory, even of valuable information, will atrophy over time (and often very short periods of time) without good practices to retain it.

Plus, many assessment tools still use underlying research and analysis from Carl Jung and haven’t evolved much other than newer and fresher coats of paint (think colors instead of numbers, birds or animals instead of letters).

Even the coaching industry’s approach hasn’t changed much over the decades. Hourly sessions, at regular intervals, followed by the occasional check-in for accountability.

Valuable coaching conversations can lose momentum because they are confined to limitations familiar to common coaching approaches. However, in the moment coaching, especially within the workplace, is in greater demand and more relevant than ever.

Historically, coaching in a business context has been seen as something negative. Ask someone over 55 what they think of workplace coaching and they likely will talk about how they or someone they know was “coached out” of a previous job. This is a relic of corporate America in the ’80s, the Jack Welch era focused on reducing the “bottom 20%” of workers that were under-performers. 

This mindset has rightfully shifted and will continue to shift significantly as our workforce gets younger and younger. Millennials and Gen-Z expect the same level of support in their work (especially in that first job) that they experienced throughout school. Their formative years were full of coaching from sports (often even AAU or travel teams) and career development that were there for every step of the journey. But then they graduated college, started their first job, were handed a piece of technology, and told “good luck”. This support vacuum has led to an increased demand for life coaching, personal development coaching, professional coaching, business coaching, and leadership coaching to fill the void.

Researchers have conducted tens of thousands of experiments on goal setting, illustrating that things like difficulty and specificity are associated with better outcomes. Goal setting, however, is only half the battle. And arguably, it’s the easy half. Without proper “goal pursuit,” the well-set goal will never actually be achieved.

It’s that time of year to set the agenda for the upcoming year. To ensure your goals are actually achieved, consider self-reflecting on each of the goal pursuit dimensions described below.

But first, consider taking my free, validated, and theoretically grounded assessment, “The Right Way To Pursue Your Goals.” This 12-question assessment will automatically generate your scores and a comparison to your peers.

Before discussing goal pursuit, it’s important to clarify the first step—goal setting—of which there are two primary frameworks.

First is SMART goals, which stand for specific (S), measurable (M), actionable (A), realistic (R), and time-bound (T). The focus of the SMART framework is making goals clear, objective, and reasonable. The premise is that clarity is associated with action.

Second is FAST goals, which stands for frequently discussed (F), ambitious (A), specific (S), and transparent (T). The FAST framework is relatively new and builds upon the weakness of the SMART framework. Namely, that individuals are embedded within collective systems such as teams or organizations.

If goal setting is the beginning, goal pursuit is everything in-between the beginning and the end. Once a goal has been set, there are four behavioral approaches that should be pursued that increase the likelihood of goal achievement.

One of our best coaching tips is that asking “yes” and “no” questions will not lead anywhere. If your client does not expand on what they are saying, the conversation may end too quickly and provide no meaningful context to work off or toward goals.

• Good example: Ask: what do you find challenging about that? This leaves the conversation open for your coachee to speak on challenges and  to expand as much as possible. This also may draw out more than one answer.

• Bad example: Ask: do you think that is challenging because of your schedule? Your client may respond yes or no and leave the conversation there. They also may feel as though you are leading them to an answer, causing them to answer favorably. This does not leave room for them to discover problems or solutions on their own.