Cathy Liska In following the story of a coaching client, we moved through transitions after leaving a job, building confidence, prioritizing, finding a job, negotiating, starting a new job, and developing a career path. Now we move into coaching for other areas of the client’s life.
After six months on the job, Katrina chose to focus on budgeting, finding a new home, building relationships, wellness, and self-care. This blog addresses the first two areas and the next blog covers the remaining three. 
For the session on budgeting, Katrina wanted to write a budget and explore technologies for managing it. For writing her budget, she wanted to work through amounts for everything. We talked options and Katrina chose to start simple and use the Excel tool I had available (it is on the coach login page provided to all coaching certification graduates). In the spirit of our competency for designing actions and doing it now, I asked Katrina her amounts for each budget item.  As we went through what she spent, I asked her questions to expand her thinking.
- Share your thinking on the amount.
- What level of flexibility do you want with your budget?
- What irregular spending do you want to plan for?
- How will you budget for the future?
When Katrina chose to talk about finding a home, I asked questions to help her explore considerations and then choose her priorities.
- What are your considerations in choosing a home?
- What is important to you in a home?
- Where do you want to live?
- What features do you want?
- What are deal breakers?
- What are your deciding factors?
- What is your timeline?
During coach training, one of the big paradigm shifts is that instead of telling, a coach asks the questions. Because most of us want to help, it is a significant awareness that telling can be harming and asking is helping.
