Coaching practices for Session Review Coaching

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Session Review Coaching, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I start each coaching conversation from scratch and never circle back to what the person said they’d do last time
  • I only ever stop to reflect when something blows up
  • I finish a session and just move on without ever sitting down to name what actually worked and what didn’t
  • When I sit down to review, all I do is read my notes over and over, and they feel familiar so I assume I know them
  • Every time I review how I acted today I catch myself building a defense

Practices that may help

  1. Close the GROW loop with session review
    At the start of the next session, review what was committed and what actually happened before setting a new goal.
    The GROW Coaching Model, Made Practical
  2. Build a regular AAR cadence, not just crisis-triggered reviews
    Reviews triggered only by problems create a negative-events database; a regular cadence captures ordinary learning that compounds.
    After-Action Review: The US Army’s Tool for Continuous Learning
  3. Debrief each session with a structured reflection
    Write a three-question debrief right after practice to convert experience into learning.
    Growth-Edge Training: Practicing at the Edge of Your Ability
  4. Reduce: convert main notes to questions in the cue column
    After the session, cover your notes and write a question in the cue column for each main idea.
    Cornell Note-Taking: A System for Learning, Not Just Recording
  5. Post-session reflection
    Immediately after a learning session, evaluate what you learned, what strategies worked, and what to do next.
    Self-Regulated Learning: Taking Control of How You Learn
  6. Seneca’s evening court — judge the day as an honest prosecutor
    Review the day as a fair judge would: what was the evidence, what was the verdict, what is the sentence?
    The Pythagorean Evening Review
  7. Share the review with someone who will ask honest questions
    A review held privately is easier to fudge; one shared with an honest questioner is harder to rationalize.
    The Annual Review (Tim Ferriss Method)
  8. Run brief after-action reviews without blame
    After any significant outcome — success or failure — ask four questions together as a team.
    Psychological Safety in Teams
  9. Ask for clarity and honest perception
    Before reviewing, pause to ask for the capacity to see honestly rather than defensively.
    The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review
  10. Close with "What was most useful for you?"
    The closing question turns the conversation into a learning that sticks — and teaches you what is actually valuable.
    The Coaching Habit: Seven Questions to Be More Coach-Like

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