Holding the Client’s Agenda: Coaching Beyond the Surface
- Cindy Hosea
- Mar 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 23
Picture a fishing bobber floating on a still lake. It bobs gently, responding to every ripple, every small movement on the surface. But beneath the water, unseen forces are at play—currents shift, fish move, and something deeper is stirring.
In coaching, the client’s immediate concerns are like that bobber, moving with the waves of day-to-day life. But the real agenda—the deeper current—is what shapes transformation. Great coaches don’t just track the surface movement; they help clients sense what’s happening underneath, inviting them into the depth where real change begins.
The Art of Holding the Agenda
One of the most essential skills in Co-Active Coaching is holding the client’s agenda—and that doesn’t mean simply following wherever the client’s topic leads. It means holding space for two levels of focus:
The “little a” agenda — the immediate topic or task at hand (e.g., “I need to prepare for a difficult conversation”).
The “Big A” Agenda — the deeper current of growth and meaning (e.g., “I want to trust my own voice as a leader”).
You can think of the “little a” as the domain of performance coaching—working on goals, actions, and tangible results. The “Big A” sits squarely in developmental coaching—the exploration of identity, mindset, and being. If you’d like to explore that distinction more deeply, you can read my upcoming companion article, Performance vs. Developmental Coaching.
The magic of coaching lies in holding both at once: addressing what’s on the surface while staying attuned to the deeper current of transformation below.
