When AI and the Coach Both Get It Wrong

What happens when the AI assessment gets part of a coaching call wrong, and the coach does too?

In this episode of Inside the Coaching Conversation, you’ll hear a real coaching session with Ashley, who explores the uncertainty, overthinking, and emotions that come up as she works toward building her businesses after a late ADHD diagnosis. What begins as a conversation about why “business” feels so heavy eventually leads to an “Uncertainty Monster” and a practical strategy for getting unstuck.

But the most important learning for me came after the session. As I reviewed the transcript and the RaeNotes AI assessment, I noticed a moment when I had an awareness I wanted Ashley to reach and began asking questions designed to take her there. I didn’t recognize it during the session. Looking back, though, I could see that I had quietly put my hand back on the wheel.

I also disagreed with part of the AI assessment, but as I reflected further, I realized neither of us had identified the question that might have served the client best. That realization became one of my biggest takeaways from this call.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How a coach’s agenda can subtly show up in the questions we ask, even when we believe we’re following the client
  • Why noticing an apparent breakthrough can be a cue to explore what the client is learning rather than deciding where to go next
  • How time constraints can influence the direction of a coaching conversation
  • Why a client can still gain meaningful insight even when we don’t demonstrate every coaching skill at the level we want
  • How AI assessments can support reflective practice and why they still require context, discernment, and human reflection

This episode is also an example of why I find AI useful for reflecting on my coaching without treating it as the final authority. RaeNotes didn’t give me all the answers. Its assessment gave me something to wrestle with, and that reflection helped me notice something in my coaching that the AI itself hadn’t identified.

Resources mentioned:

Work with me:

If you would like to learn about working with me, I offer life coaching, mentor coaching, and coaching supervision.

Listen to the Episode

AI assessment performed using ICF PCC Markers (2020).

ICF PCC Mentor Coaching Feedback

Below is an evidence-based, developmental review of your coaching session using the ICF PCC Markers (2020). The intention is to reinforce what is serving you and your client well, and to illuminate the next edges that can most expand your coaching capacity.

Overall Developmental Pattern

Across the session, you demonstrate a steady, client-centered presence and strong partnership. You co-create the session focus (“What would be really helpful to you to have by the end of our time?”) and use the client’s language (lighter, fun, hopeful, creative) to define success. You listen for patterns, mirror back key words (e.g., “work”), and invite the client to choose how to proceed (“Do we need to do anything creative…or just kind of having the conversation?”). Your style is spacious and grounded; you allow silence and reflective time, which appears to support the client’s internal processing.

Your questions frequently evoke awareness—particularly when you invite somatic noticing (“If you don’t think about this…what does your gut say?”) and perspective shifts (“If you were coaching one of these women…what would you ask them?”). You also consistently partner to transform insights into usable experiments (movement, timers, quick-win list, bulletin board, transition check).

At times, you pivot into micro-solutioning before fully exploring the emotional terrain the client initially named as their goal (“emotional awareness around the word ‘business’”). Some leading statements (e.g., “Sounds like there needs to be movement”) slightly narrow exploration. Strengthening depth around emotions/meaning prior to converging on strategies—and refining accountability design—would likely elevate the work from solid PCC-level partnering to even richer client-generated transformation.

Areas of Strength

1) Establishing and maintaining a clear session agreement with client-defined measures

  • Observation (early in session)
    • You ask: “What would be really helpful to you for you to have by the end of our time?”
    • You reflect back and check measures: “So having a new perspective or emotional awareness around the word business…Would that be a measure for us…lighter, fun, creative? What else…?”
  • Connection to Core Competencies
    • Competency 3: Establishes and Maintains Agreements (Markers 3.1–3.3)
  • Evidence
    • You explicitly partner to clarify what the client wants (new perspective/emotional awareness) and how success will feel (lighter, hopeful, fun/creative). This aligns with 3.1–3.3 by co-defining the session focus and subjective measures of success in the client’s language. This clarity helped guide the conversation and later check for progress (“You came in heavy and feeling daunted. How are you feeling now?”).

How it supported the client:

  • Anchored the conversation to what matters to the client, enabled a mid/end-session progress check, and maintained alignment with their outcome (hopeful, lighter).

2) Evoking awareness through somatic exploration and perspective shifts

  • Observation (mid-session)
    • “If you were coaching one of these women…what would you ask them?”
    • “If you don’t think about this…you just see what’s coming up in your body. What does your gut say…?”
  • Connection to Core Competencies
    • Competency 7: Evokes Awareness (Markers 7.1–7.4, 7.6); Competency 5: Maintains Presence (Marker 5.5)
  • Evidence
    • These questions are open, concise, and expand the client’s lens beyond current thinking. The somatic prompt allowed the client to name a clear inner directive (“keep moving forward,” “stop overthinking”), which immediately shifted their emotional state: “It doesn’t feel as heavy…It is helpful.” This is a strong example of 7.2–7.4 in practice.

How it supported the client:

  • Catalyzed a tangible emotional shift from heaviness to hope, increased self-trust, and moved the client from rumination to constructive forward motion.

3) Partnering to transform insight into tailored experiments and supports

  • Observation (mid-to-late session)
    • You co-create the “uncertainty monster” pattern interrupter: “Does your monster need a name?” “What’s the formula for the actual spray?”
    • You help them design “move, do, fight back,” a quick-win list, and environmental supports (“What do you want to do with the list so that you’ll see it?”).
    • You explore capacity and barriers, including transitions and overstimulation (“What needs to happen before move, do, fight back?” “How do you want to modify your plan to incorporate that [silence/transition]?”).
  • Connection to Core Competencies
    • Competency 8: Facilitates Client Growth (Markers 8.4–8.6, 8.1, 8.9)
  • Evidence
    • You partner to create client-generated actions, consider potential barriers (energy drain, overstimulation), and integrate resource planning (timer, bulletin board, walking, silence). You also check timing (“When do you want to put this plan into place?”) and invite client’s lead on closure.

How it supported the client:

  • The client left with a simple, resonant plan customized to their neurodivergent needs and context. They explicitly reported feeling “hopeful” and ready to begin “now.”

Opportunities for Growth

1) Deepen the exploration of emotions and meaning before moving into solutions

  • Observation (early to mid-session)
    • The client’s stated goal: “gain a little more emotional awareness on what’s happening in those transitions…a new perspective or emotional awareness around the word business.”
    • The conversation moved relatively quickly to process/strategy (e.g., “Do we need to do anything creative…or just having the conversation?”; later: “Sounds like there needs to be movement.”)
  • Connection to Core Competencies
    • Competency 7: Evokes Awareness (Markers 7.1–7.3), Competency 6: Listens Actively (Markers 6.2–6.3)
  • Evidence
    • While you did explore uncertainty, you could have lingered longer with the client’s emotions (fear, aversion to “business,” identity shift from salaried certainty to entrepreneurship). For example, following the client’s language (“heavy,” “daunting,” “shuts me down”), you could invite deeper discovery: “What does ‘business’ represent to you emotionally?” “Where do you feel ‘heavy’ in your body, and what does it point to?” “What belief lives underneath ‘business’ that makes it feel daunting?” This would strengthen 7.1–7.3 and 6.3 by expanding emotional and meaning-level insight before converging on tactics.

Potential impact:

  • Greater emotional clarity could lead to more sustainable, values-aligned actions and reduce recurrence of the same block.

2) Minimize subtle leading and strengthen co-designed accountability structures

  • Observation (mid-session)
    • “Sounds like there needs to be movement” (a soft conclusion offered by the coach).
    • Accountability was touched (“What do you want to do with the list so that you’ll see it?”; “When do you want to put this plan into place?”) but not fully co-designed (methods, frequency, supports, self-accountability style).
  • Connection to Core Competencies
    • Competency 7: Evokes Awareness (Markers 7.5–7.7) — share observations without attachment, ask open-ended questions; Competency 8: Facilitates Client Growth (Marker 8.7)
  • Evidence
    • The “movement” suggestion likely resonated, yet it gives a slight directional nudge. A neutral question (“What is your body asking for right now?”) would leave full authorship with the client (7.5–7.7).
    • On accountability (8.7), you could add: “What’s the best way for you to hold yourself accountable?” “What check-ins or supports will you use?” “How will you track ‘lighter/hopeful’ this week?” Explicitly co-designing accountability mechanisms and measures would strengthen follow-through.

Potential impact:

  • Preserves full client authorship and increases follow-through by matching accountability methods to the client’s neurodivergent needs and preferences.

Reflective Questions

  • When the client asked for “emotional awareness,” what cues did you notice that might have invited a few more minutes exploring the feelings, beliefs, or identity shifts underneath “business” before moving to strategy?
  • In moments where you sense a solution (“sounds like there needs to be movement”), how might you transform that intuition into a curiosity-based question that keeps authorship with the client?
  • Given this client’s stated measures (“lighter,” “hopeful”), what questions could help them operationalize those into observable indicators and a self-led accountability approach that fits their brain and environment?

Overall Reflection

What you are doing consistently well:

  • You co-create clear session focus and client-defined success measures.
  • You hold a calm, spacious presence with strong listening, reflecting the client’s words and patterns.
  • You evoke awareness through perspective shifts and somatic inquiry, resulting in observable emotional shifts.
  • You partner effectively to convert insight into practical, self-authored experiments that consider context and barriers.

Where you are developing:

  • You are already adept at moving toward action. Increasing dwell time in the emotional/meaning layer the client requested will deepen transformation.

Next developmental edge:

  • Linger longer with emotions and meaning (the “who”) before converging on the “do,” and refine co-designed accountability structures. Replace subtle leading with curiosity-based invitations to maintain full client authorship.

Readiness at PCC:

  • Based on the observable markers, this recording shows many behaviors consistent with PCC-level coaching (partnership, presence, evoking awareness, and co-designing actions). With a bit more depth in emotional exploration and explicit accountability design, it would solidly demonstrate PCC-level competency. Overall, this session likely meets PCC expectations. Keep building on these strengths.

AI assessment performed using Minimum Skills Requirements for MCC (2025).

Overall Developmental Pattern

Across the session, you partner well to co-create direction and keep the client’s agenda primary. You begin by asking for the session focus and then invite the client to articulate a desired outcome and measures of success (lighter, fun, hopeful). You check for how creativity and emotions fit the client’s desired shift, and you periodically confirm direction as the client’s focus evolves from the “word business” to the felt experience of uncertainty. Your questions are generally succinct, and you create space for the client to think (client silence/pauses are substantial), which helps the client generate her own language, metaphors, and actions.

Your listening is attentive to client language and patterns (e.g., noticing repeated use of “work”). You respond with reflections and questions that draw out distinctions (tasks vs. income; certainty vs. uncertainty) and invite the client’s body-based knowing. This produces meaningful client insights (“keep moving forward,” “stop overthinking,” “uncertainty monster”) and a personally resonant plan.

A recurring tendency is to move relatively quickly into designing tactics once momentum appears. You co-create a concrete, workable plan, yet at an MCC level there was room to deepen the developmental exploration of the client’s relationship to uncertainty, money/safety, identity as a business owner, and the faith frame you both invited at the start, before solidifying actions. There are also occasional leading statements and coach-originated framings (e.g., “sounds like there needs to be movement”) that could be returned to the client with permission and/or more reflective language to preserve the client’s authorship of meaning-making.

Areas of Strength

  1. Establishing and Maintaining the Session Agreement and Measures of Success
  • Observation (early session): You ask, “What would be really helpful to you for you to have by the end of our time?” The client replies, “a new perspective or emotional awareness around the word business,” and you further clarify, “Would that be a measure for us… lighter, fun, creative… more hopeful?”
  • Connection to Core Competencies: Competency 3 (Establishes and Maintains Agreements), markers 3.1, 3.3, and 3.4.
  • Evidence: You explicitly partner to define the session focus and outcome and co-create indicators of success (“lighter,” “hopeful”). Later, you notice a shift toward “uncertainty” and ask where to start (“Do you want to dive more into the uncertainty or see what other emotions are there?”), which keeps direction aligned with the client’s evolving agenda. This clarity supported the client to evaluate progress near the end (“hopeful… there’s a plan”), demonstrating movement toward the declared outcome.
  1. Noticing Language and Evoking Awareness through Body-Based and Perspective-Shift Questions
  • Observation (mid-session):
    • “You’ve used the word ‘work’ multiple times… in slightly different contexts. What other words come up for you…?”
    • “If you were coaching one of these women… what would you ask them?”
    • “If you don’t think about this… what does your gut say…?”
  • Connection to Core Competencies: Competency 6 (Listens Actively) markers 6.1–6.3 and Competency 7 (Evokes Awareness) markers 7.1 and 7.3.
  • Evidence: You recognize a linguistic pattern (“work”) and invite the client to differentiate meanings (tasks vs. income), which surfaces underlying uncertainty. You then evoke fresh perspective and embodied wisdom, resulting in an immediate shift (“keep moving forward,” “stop overthinking”), which reduces heaviness and increases hope. The questions are succinct and one at a time, enabling the client’s insight to emerge from their own inner authority.
  1. Facilitating Client Growth with Client-Generated Structures and Experiments
  • Observation (mid-to-late session):
    • You invite naming and operationalizing the “uncertainty monster” (“Does your monster need a name? What’s the formula for the spray?”).
    • You elicit “quick win” actions (“What needs to be on that quick do?”), environmental supports (“What do you want to do with the list so that you’ll see it?”), and timing (“When do you want to put this plan into place?” “Now. Right now.”).
  • Connection to Core Competencies: Competency 8 (Facilitates Client Growth), markers 8.1–8.3.
  • Evidence: You help the client translate awareness into small, self-designed experiments (movement, 15-minute timer, open Paperbell, text outreach, bulletin board, drawing the monster, “move do fight back,” and a transition check). You also invite reflective integration (“What are you learning about yourself and how you need to work best?”). The plan is client-owned and immediately implementable, increasing the likelihood of follow-through.

Opportunities for Growth

  1. Deepen Awareness Before Solutioning to Reach MCC-Level Generativity
  • Observation (multiple points mid-session): Momentum quickly shifts to action design (e.g., “sounds like there needs to be movement,” listing specific actions) soon after the first embodied insight appears.
  • Connection to Core Competencies: Competency 7 (Evokes Awareness) and Competency 6 (Listens Actively).
  • Evidence: The client surfaced potent threads—uncertainty as an emotional state, money and safety (“no money coming in”), identity (“owning and operating a business… I don’t like the feeling”), ADHD/neurodivergence, and the faith frame initiated at the opening prayer. At MCC, lingering with these threads can expand meaning-making (beliefs/values/identity/systemic influences) before moving to tasks. For example, exploring the client’s relationship with uncertainty and safety, how “work” has been historically defined, how faith might inform their stance with uncertainty, and how their creative value could reframe “business.” This deeper exploration often yields more sustainable, self-authored shifts. Your tactical co-design was effective; adding a beat of depth here would elevate the work to an MCC level of generativity.
  1. Minimize Leading and Keep Reflections Client-Led
  • Observation:
    • “Sounds like there needs to be movement.” (mid-session)
    • “Well you have four things on this list.” (mid-late session)
    • “We’ll just wrap up. And there you go.” (close)
    • “That is not broken.” (closing affirmation about the client’s brain)
  • Connection to Core Competencies: Competency 5 (Maintains Presence), Competency 7 (Evokes Awareness), and Ethical Practice 1.3 (use of key coaching skills to facilitate client’s own insights).
  • Evidence: These moments subtly introduce coach framing and evaluation. While supportive, at MCC the coach consistently privileges client-originated language, insights, and validation, and uses permission-based observations. For instance, instead of “sounds like there needs to be movement,” try “What are you noticing your body wants right now?” or “What’s the next micro-move that fits you?” Rather than tallying the client’s list, invite them to summarize what stands out most. And with affirmations, consider reflecting the client’s own words (“You called your brain ‘crazy’ with appreciation—what are you honoring about how it works?”). This keeps authorship and meaning squarely with the client.

Reflective Questions

  • When you heard “uncertainty,” “no money coming in,” and “I don’t like the feeling business gives me,” what helped you decide to shift into action planning at that point? What might have become possible with one or two more generative questions before designing actions?
  • Notice the moments you affirmed or framed (“sounds like there needs to be movement,” “that is not broken”). How might you convert those into client-led reflections or permission-based offerings so the client’s language and validation lead?
  • Given the spiritual frame you co-invited at the start, what (if anything) could support integrating the client’s faith perspective into their relationship with uncertainty, in their own words and meaning-making?

Overall Reflection

You are consistently partnering to co-create clear session outcomes and measures, using succinct, evocative questions and strong listening to the client’s language patterns. You effectively invite embodied awareness, leverage metaphors, and facilitate client-owned experiments that are concrete and immediately implementable. Trust and safety are palpable; you honor the client’s neurodivergent wiring and help them design supports that fit.

You appear to be developing your capacity to notice shifts and to hold space for silence and reflection that leads to client-generated insights. The next developmental edge likely to produce the greatest improvement is to deepen exploration of meaning (beliefs, identity, values, systemic factors) before moving into tactics, and to further reduce leading statements so that the client’s language and validations do the heavy lifting.

Does this recording exhibit the necessary evidence to pass at the level assessed (MCC)? Not yet. The coaching shows many strong PCC-level behaviors with glimpses toward MCC (spaciousness, embodiment, client-generated metaphors/actions). To meet MCC Minimum Skills Requirements, lean further into generative presence and exploration—stay longer with the client’s sense-making around uncertainty, money/safety, identity, and faith—then co-design from that deeper awareness using primarily the client’s words.

Reflect

How many hands did you feel like you had on the wheel as you listened?

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