Whether you're new to coaching or refreshing your professional vocabulary, this glossary covers the 80+ terms that come up most in coaching practice and business.
TL;DR
- Coaching has its own vocabulary, from ICF credential levels to session methodologies to business terms.
- Understanding these terms helps you communicate professionally with clients, colleagues, and certifying bodies.
- Some terms (like "therapy" vs. "coaching") have important ethical and legal weight, not just semantic differences.
- This glossary covers professional credentials, coaching techniques, client relationship terms, and business concepts.
Why Vocabulary Matters in Coaching
Coaching is a young profession. It's also developed a surprisingly consistent vocabulary, especially around ICF standards and session methodology. That vocabulary matters for real reasons: you'll communicate more precisely with clients, you won't misread training materials, and you'll sound like someone who belongs in the room during professional conversations.
That said, a lot of these terms overlap with therapy, consulting, and mentoring. In coaching, they carry specific meanings, and where those distinctions have ethical or legal weight, I've flagged them.
A
Accountability, A core coaching mechanism. Clients commit to specific actions between sessions; the coach follows up on those commitments in the next session. Honestly, this is the thing that makes coaching actually work, self-directed change rarely sticks the same way.
Action plan, A documented list of specific, time-bound steps a client commits to taking. Good action plans have clear owners (the client), deadlines, and outcomes you can actually measure.
Active listening, Listening with full attention to not just the words spoken but the emotion, hesitation, subtext, and what isn't being said. Includes reflecting back, asking clarifying questions, and noticing patterns across sessions.
Agreement (coaching agreement), A formal document signed before coaching begins. Covers scope, session structure, fees, cancellation policy, confidentiality, and the clarification that coaching is not therapy. Non-negotiable for every paid coaching relationship.
Anchor (in session), A moment, phrase, or question used to bring a client back to their stated purpose when they've drifted. "That's interesting, how does that connect to what you said you wanted to work on today?"
B
Backlog (coaching backlog), The queue of topics, goals, or issues a client has identified for future sessions. Useful for keeping track of what's been discussed and what still needs attention.
Behavioral change, The observable, measurable shifts in a client's actions or habits. Distinct from mindset change, though the two often travel together. Coaching works at both levels.
Between-session work, Actions, reflections, or experiments a client commits to completing between sessions. Sometimes called "fieldwork" or "homework," though coaches vary on what they call it (some clients respond differently to each word, which is worth knowing).
Blind spots, Areas where a client lacks self-awareness. Part of a coach's job is helping people see what they can't see themselves, patterns, behaviors, assumptions they've never examined.
Boundaries (coaching boundaries), The explicit and implicit limits of the coaching relationship. What's in scope, what isn't, session time limits, communication norms. Clear boundaries protect both people.
C
Certified Coach, A coach who has completed training from an accredited program. Certification isn't regulated by law in most places, but ICF-accredited programs are the closest thing to a recognized quality standard the industry has.
Challenge (in coaching), Offering a client a reframe, a question, or a perspective that gently pushes back on their current thinking. Different from criticism. A challenge is offered with positive intent, and ideally, the client's consent.
Client avatar, A detailed profile of the ideal client a coach serves. Used in marketing and positioning to clarify who the coaching is for and how to reach them.
Coaching, A professional relationship in which the coach helps the client achieve specific goals through structured conversations, questioning, reflection, and accountability. Forward-focused, non-directive, and grounded in the belief that clients can find their own solutions.
Coaching agreement, See "Agreement."
Coaching presence, The quality of full engagement a coach brings to a session. Being fully attentive, adapting in the moment, and keeping an open and curious stance rather than following a rigid script. Harder to teach than any framework. Arguably more important than all of them.
Competencies (ICF Core Competencies), The eight competencies the ICF defines as essential for effective coaching. These form the basis of ICF certification evaluation: demonstrates ethical practice, embodies a coaching mindset, establishes and maintains agreements, cultivates trust and safety, maintains presence, listens actively, evokes awareness, facilitates client growth.
Confidentiality, The commitment to not share what clients discuss in sessions without their explicit consent (except in cases of danger to self or others). Foundational. Everything else breaks without it.
D
Deep listening, An advanced form of active listening that attends to energy, emotion, pace, metaphor, and everything beyond the literal content of words. Related to ICF's competency of "listens actively," but honestly it goes beyond what that label suggests.
Discovery call, A free initial conversation between a coach and prospective client to assess fit. Not a free coaching session. It's a mutual interview, both parties are evaluating whether to work together.
Discovery questions, Open-ended questions used to help a client explore a topic more deeply. "What would it mean for you if that were true?" or "What's underneath that?"
E
E-E-A-T, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. A framework from Google's search quality guidelines. If you're creating content to market your practice, understand this, it describes what makes online content credible in Google's eyes.
Engagement, The full coaching relationship with a client, typically spanning a defined period (3 months, 6 months, etc.). Sometimes used interchangeably with "coaching package."
Enrollment conversation, Another term for a discovery call or sales conversation. The moment a prospective client decides to commit.
Ethics (ICF Code of Ethics), The ICF's formal standards for professional conduct: confidentiality, conflicts of interest, scope of practice, and the prohibition on providing services outside your competence. Read the whole thing at least once.
F
Fieldwork, See "Between-session work."
Frameworks, Structured models coaches use to organize client thinking. Examples: wheel of life, GROW model, SMART goals. Useful as scaffolding, just don't let the framework run the session. For a deeper look at building your own, see how to build a coaching framework that actually creates results.
G
Goal setting, The process of helping a client clarify what they want to achieve and translate it into specific, actionable objectives. In coaching, goals are set by the client, not prescribed by the coach. That distinction matters more than most new coaches realize.
GROW model, One of the most widely used coaching frameworks. Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward. Simple structure without being prescriptive. Good starting point; most experienced coaches adapt it rather than run it verbatim.
Group coaching, Coaching delivered to multiple clients simultaneously. Typically 4–12 participants, structured around a common theme or challenge. More scalable than 1:1; the dynamics are genuinely different, but it can be highly effective in the right format.