Clarify Focus

One basic definition of coaching is: to inspire an individual or team to produce a desired result.

The clarify focus element of the coaching process is to determine what exactly is the desired result. This is not as easy as it seems for most folks don't know exactly what they desire.

Instead they have a collection of vague notions. Vague notions rarely have the energy to move all the way to fulfillment so the coach must inspire the coachee to think clearly and boldly about what is truly meaningful - what is most important.
This often requires a great deal of intuition and experience on the part of the coach.

Intuition is important because you must be able to "feel into" what the coachee is saying - AND not saying.
We call it "squeeze until you get some juice". You can hear it when the true purpose behind an objective is revealed - the whole conversation comes to life.

Experience is needed here because the coach must be able to gauge what is in the realm of "possibility" given the coachee's talent, experience and overall life situation. It is a fine line between encouraging the coachee to play bigger AND setting an unrealistic objective.
The coach and coachee must collaborate to establish one (at most three) MAJOR objectives for the next few months. Often the question: "What one thing, if accomplished, would change your life / business forever?

While creating focus on one to three primary meaningful objectives, the coach must also work in a holistic manner by doing a complete "environmental scan" of the clients life - no objective can be considered without regard for the whole picture of the coachee's relationships, finances, health etc.