Coaching Intake Form Template

Coaching time is expensive precisely because it is undiluted — which makes spending session one on biographical throat-clearing a small tragedy. This intake moves the getting-to-know-you hour into an asynchronous form, so the first live conversation starts at the real material: what needs to change, and what has stopped it from changing so far.

Why these questions, in this order. Preferred name first, because coaching is a first-name relationship and forms that open like tax paperwork set the wrong contract. The focus-area select gives the coach a frame before reading a word of prose. Then the branch: answer yes to "have you worked with a coach before?" and a follow-up appears asking what worked and what didn't. That conditional question — a show rule built in the Logic panel — is the highest-yield field on the form. Coaching veterans arrive with formed expectations, and knowing whether the last relationship died of vague goals or clashing styles tells you exactly how to open. First-timers never see the question and never wonder about it.

Ninety days, not someday. The change question is deliberately time-boxed. "What would be different in 90 days" produces answers a coach can work with — a conversation had, a decision made, a habit running — where open-ended aspiration questions produce mission statements. Paired with the obstacle question, you hold both poles of the coaching arc before you meet. The weekly-hours select replaces the usual one-to-ten motivation scale, which everyone answers with an eight. Hours are falsifiable; motivation is theater.

Left out with intent. No wheel-of-life audit, no values inventory, no childhood history. Deep instruments belong inside the coaching container, delivered with context — not cold on a signup form. Also absent: payment and scheduling mechanics. This form starts the relationship; logistics ride separately.

Who uses it. Executive coaches send it between the chemistry call and session one. Life and career coaches attach it to their programme welcome email. Group-programme leads clone it per cohort and read the whole cohort's answers in one CSV export before the opening circle.

Making it your own. Swap the focus-area options to match your niche — founder burnout, leadership pipelines, postpartum return-to-work. Add a scale block if your methodology genuinely scores readiness. Answers here are personal, so it helps to tell coachees what the form itself guarantees: respondents need no account, and only you see responses. Sharing the link inside a private community? Add a password in Settings for a second gate. Keep email notifications on — the moment a new coachee finishes is exactly the right moment to send the first session invitation, while the decision to change is still warm.