Silent Coaching for Goals

Dimension: Direction · Type: Stage

A 14-question silent coaching sequence that moves a vague goal to a concrete next action and a commitment rating, in roughly 15 minutes.

Introduced by Erin Bowser (IOM) at the Make Career Moves with the 5i Framework session of the UN Inter-Agency Career Week 2026, on 7 May 2026. Erin ran the sequence live during the session, walking through each question with reflection time after each. The protocol is hers, drawing on her ICF-aligned coaching practice. It is the goal-focused complement to the Silent Coaching Sequence from Day 4 Session 5. Same technique, different application.

The framework

A silent, written self-coaching protocol. 14 questions, four phases, roughly 15 minutes. Designed to convert a goal you keep meaning to act on into a specific committed first action, with a date.

When to use it

• After setting a SMARTEER Goal, to convert it into a specific committed first action.
• When you have an important goal you keep meaning to act on but have not.
• As the Intentional dimension follow-up in the 5i Framework.
• In a facilitated group setting where the host wants participants to leave with an action rather than just an intention.

What you need

• One specific goal (career, development, personal). It does not have to be SMARTEER-formatted yet; the sequence will sharpen it.
• 15 quiet minutes.
• A notebook or document. The sequence works as written reflection, not as live thinking.
• An honest commitment to follow the sequence to the end, especially the action-and-when questions.

How the sequence is structured

The 14 questions move through four phases:

• Questions 1 to 4: name and clarify. Headline the goal; describe what useful progress looks like; state the outcome you want; articulate what achieving it would give you.
• Questions 5 to 7: surface context. What you have already done; in what situations the urgency is most obvious; what is preventing action.
• Questions 8 to 10: rate progress and find the next move. Where you are on a 1 to 10 scale; what would move it up by one point; what specific action follows.
• Questions 11 to 14: commit. When you will take it; commitment rating on a 1 to 10 scale; what would raise commitment by one point; first action plus exact timing.

The 14 questions

Work through these in sequence. Write each answer down. Do not skip.

1. Think of an important goal you want to address in the near future. Write a keyword or headline that captures it.
2. What would be useful progress on this goal? What outcome would you like to see?
3. What would achieving that outcome give you?
4. What have you already done around this goal? What did it result in for you?
5. In what situations is it most obvious that you need to do something about this goal?
6. What might be preventing you from taking action? What barrier or block is keeping you from making progress?
7. What is really holding you back?
8. On a scale of 1 to 10, where ten means you are there and one means you are just starting, where do you feel you are in your progress toward this goal?
9. What would it take to move your score up by just one point? Not all the way to ten. Just one.
10. What action, what behaviour, what intention would move you one point forward? What are you going to do next to get moving?
11. When are you going to take that next step? Specific date and time.
12. Rate your commitment to this goal on a scale of 1 to 10.
13. What would it take to move your commitment up by one point?
14. What is your first action, and when exactly will you take it?

The repetition between questions 9 and 10 (move up by one point), and again between questions 11 and 14 (when), is intentional. Each pass forces a sharper specificity than the last.

Worked example

A staff member runs the sequence on a goal she has been carrying for months: building a meaningful peer network outside her current team.

• Q1. Goal headline: build a peer network across other UN agencies.
• Q2. Useful progress: three real working relationships with colleagues at other agencies, where I can call them up with a question.
• Q3. What it would give me: perspective beyond my own agency, and a foundation for future moves.
• Q4. What I have done: attended two interagency events but not followed up afterward. Result: zero ongoing connections.
• Q5. When the urgency is most obvious: when a vacancy at another agency comes up and I realise I do not have anyone to ask about it.
• Q6 to 7. What is holding me back: I never know what to write in the follow-up message, and I worry it will sound transactional.
• Q8. Current progress: 2 out of 10.
• Q9. What would move it to 3: one real follow-up message to one person from a recent event.
• Q10. The action: send a single specific follow-up message to the colleague I had a real conversation with at the last interagency event.
• Q11. When: today, before 5pm.
• Q12. Commitment level: 7.
• Q13. What would move it to 8: drafting the message right now while I am still in the energy of this exercise.
• Q14. First action: draft and send the follow-up message to that colleague, today, before 5pm.

The sequence ran in 12 minutes. The action happened the same afternoon.

How this differs from the strengths variant

The technique (silent written reflection with structured prompts) is the same as the Silent Coaching Sequence from Day 4 Session 5. The application is different.

Dimension	Goals variant (this page)	Strengths variant
Source	Erin Bowser, Day 4 Session 8	Katarina Posa, Day 4 Session 5
Length	14 questions, around 15 minutes	24 questions, around 30 minutes
Focus	Convert a goal into a concrete action with a date	Activate a specific unrealised strength
Output	One committed first action	One committed first action that uses the strength
Pairs with	SMARTEER Goals, 5i Framework Intentional dimension	Strengths Profile Unrealised quadrant
When to use	You have a clear goal but cannot move on it	You have identified a strength but have no platform for it

Both are valid. Pick based on what you are stuck on.

Pitfalls

• Skipping the early questions to get to the action. The early questions surface the meaning and motivation that make the action sustainable. Without them, the late-phase commitment is brittle.
• Treating the action as the answer to “what should I do with my career?“. This sequence is about one goal at a time. It is not about choosing a destination. Use Career Mapping or the 5i Framework for direction-level decisions.
• Defining the action too big. “Build my peer network” is a goal. “Send one specific follow-up message to one specific person, today before 5pm” is an action. The sequence wants the action.
• Setting “soon” or “next week” as the date. Be specific. The vague date is the failure mode.
• Doing the sequence and not running the action. The sequence does its work; you have to do the rest. Block the action time on the calendar before you close the notebook.
• Running the same sequence on the same goal repeatedly without acting. If you have run the sequence twice and still not acted, the inhibitor is not on the action side; it is upstream. Look at the goal itself, your inhibitors, or whether the goal is actually yours.

When not to use it

When the goal is unclear. The sequence assumes the goal is named. If you cannot articulate it in one keyword, run Career Mapping first to clarify direction, then return.

When you are in acute fatigue or burnout. The sequence requires reflective energy. Stabilise first; come back when you can think.

When the goal has structural blockers no first action can address (a hiring freeze, a contract restriction). The sequence will produce action, but the action will not move the goal until the structural blocker shifts.

How I use it

Personal note pending. Davide to fill.

Related frameworks

• SMARTEER Goals, the structure that produces the goals this sequence converts to action.
• 5i Framework, the umbrella framework this protocol supports inside the Intentional dimension.
• Silent Coaching Sequence, Kata Posa’s 24-question variant focused on activating an unrealised strength.
• Career Mapping, the longer-arc gap analysis that names direction before the goal is set.

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Notes compiled by Davide Piga. Last updated 2026-05-09.