Keeping It Fresh: How to Make Long-Term Coaching Relationships Meaningful and Impactful

Coaching is one of the most powerful tools for leadership growth — but like any long-standing relationship, it takes intention to keep it energised, relevant and valuable.

I’ve been fortunate to coach and be coached by some incredible people over the years. The most impactful coaching relationships don’t just drift along — they evolve. They stretch, adapt and keep showing up in new ways as the leader grows and the context shifts.

So, how do we make sure long-term coaching stays fresh and continues to deliver impact? Here are a few things I’ve found helpful -

🔹 Revisit and Realign
Even the most focused leaders shift gears. Priorities change. Roles evolve. Making   space to regularly pause and reflect on where they are now — and where they’re heading — helps keep the coaching focused and future-oriented

🔹 Switch Up the Format
Sometimes it’s the smallest shifts that spark the biggest energy. Walking sessions, shorter sprints, deep-dive strategy sessions or reflection-only chats can all shake things up in a good way

🔹 Bring in Something New
Fresh tools, frameworks or even different perspectives keep things dynamic. When it’s done well, it doesn’t distract — it deepens the insight and re-ignites curiosity

🔹 Celebrate the Journey
In long-term coaching, it’s easy to keep moving without taking stock. Celebrate the milestones — the wins, the shifts in mindset, the tricky conversations navigated. That acknowledgement matters and shows you care

🔹 Co-create the Space
Invite your coachee to shape the focus. What’s on their radar right now? What do they want to stretch into? This shared ownership keeps the coaching grounded in what matters most

🔹 Stay Brave
As the relationship builds trust, it can also get a little… safe. And while safety is essential, challenge is where growth happens. Don’t shy away from asking the hard questions, naming the sticking points or nudging them forward

Long-term coaching is an incredible privilege — and a powerful enabler of leadership growth. When we stay intentional, curious and committed, it continues to unlock real impact — for the individual, their teams and the broader business.

👉 I’d love to hear your take — what’s helped you keep coaching relationships meaningful over time, whether as a coach or coachee?

Linking goal setting to training needs for meaningful change

When we’re considering performance reviews and goal setting, it is important to consider how we go about developing goals that support our ongoing learning as well as aligning with the company goals and values. 

Although I have explored different models for goal setting, I always come back to SMART goals as a starting point. The easiest part of this model is to identify a Specific goal and how to Measure our progress and success towards achieving it.  Time bound is also quick to determine: a week, two months, within the year. However, the Achievable and Relevant aspects can (and should) take a little more time.

I try to focus the conversation on these two aspects, having observed how people can downgrade their goals once they begin discussing how achievable those goals are. Where current skill levels do not align with the desired goal, it can be easier to adjust the goal than open a discussion about training needs.

As a leader, it is critical to ensure that there is clarity around what training support is available. 

In changing the conversation around how to achieve a desired goal to instead focus on personal and professional development, we can create the opportunity to provide an innovative and aspirational environment where employees thrive. With higher engagement, we see an increase in both productivity and employees’ commitment to the company vision.

At the Leadership CoLab, we believe in:

• valuing people and their aspirations;

• identifying training needs to increase engagement and productivity;

• investing in leaders to create a high-value learning culture.

Goal-setting is an important step in this process.

What models do you use for goal-setting? How do you open the conversation to promote aspirational thinking and to identify training needs?