Beyond Sessions 3: Why Structure Doesn’t Limit Coaching — It Frees It

When I work with a coach who’s hesitant about structure, what they’re usually protecting is something specific.

They’re protecting the freedom to respond to what emerges. The ability to sense a shift in the room and follow it. The permission to slow down, speed up, or change direction based on what the client actually needs in that moment — not what a plan says should happen.

This matters. Presence and responsiveness are foundational to coaching. Without them, coaching becomes delivery of content rather than facilitation of transformation.

So the concern is legitimate: If I design the journey in advance, won’t I be locked into a plan that can’t respond to what’s real?

The belief underneath this concern is worth naming clearly: Structure limits responsiveness. Intuition requires freedom from structure.

This belief feels protective. And for a time, it is. But over time, it becomes the very thing that makes sustainable coaching impossible.

This is the tension many coaches experience once they’ve moved past believing sessions alone create transformation.

What Actually Exhausts

When you’re working without structure — when the engagement itself is being improvised week to week — something specific begins to happen.

You start carrying the entire engagement in your head.

Not just the content of the sessions. Not just what was said last time. But the full arc: where the client is, where they’re going, what’s been covered, what hasn’t, what needs to happen next, and how all of it connects.

Every decision about pacing, sequencing, and transition has to be held mentally—the cognitive load that defines this developmental stage. The coaching itself may be excellent. The sessions may feel generative and alive. But the effort required to hold it all together — to create coherence without a map — is unsustainable.

This is the hidden cost of structure-avoidance. It’s not that the coaching fails. It’s that you become responsible for doing the work that structure is designed to do: holding the journey, maintaining continuity, and creating a sense of progression over time.

Without structure, intuition doesn’t just operate freely. It operates under load. And over time, that load becomes the primary experience of the work.

The Misunderstanding About Freedom

Here’s where the resistance to structure begins to shift.

Structure is not the opposite of intuition. Structure is the condition that allows intuition to function without exhaustion.

When the journey is designed and held — when there are clear phases, agreements, and a shared sense of what’s happening and why — you’re freed to be fully present inside each moment. You’re not simultaneously trying to figure out where the engagement is going, whether the client is on track, or what should happen next week.

The journey holds the work. You can be present with the person.

This is what structure as leadership actually means. It doesn’t mean following a script. It means creating a professional structure strong enough that you don’t have to hold everything yourself.

Presence doesn’t require the absence of structure. Presence requires the support of structure.

What Structure Actually Is

Professional coaching structure holds three things:

Sequence — the phases of an engagement, each with clear intent
Agreements — what we’re doing, why, and how we’ll know when we’re complete
Completion — how the work lands and integrates

Within that structure, every session remains responsive, intuitive, and alive. The structure doesn’t script the coaching — it holds the journey so you don’t have to.

If structure were a script, the concern would be valid. But that’s not what professional structure is. It defines the phases of an engagement and the intent of each phase — not the content of every conversation.

It answers questions like: What is this phase of the work designed to achieve? What does the client need to be resourced with before we move forward? How do we know when one phase is complete and the next begins?

It does not answer: What should I say in this moment? What should we talk about today? How should I respond to what just happened?

Those questions remain in the domain of coaching skill, presence, and intuition. Structure doesn’t replace them. It creates the conditions where they can operate cleanly.

When Structure Becomes Visible

There’s a pattern worth noticing.

When you’re working with structure, clients often don’t consciously notice it. What they notice is that the engagement feels coherent. That sessions build on one another. That there’s a sense of momentum and direction without pressure or rigidity.

They experience the journey as intentional — not because it’s controlled, but because it’s held.

When you’re working without structure, that’s when the absence becomes felt. Not always immediately, but eventually. Clients begin to wonder where they are, whether they’re making progress, or what’s supposed to happen next. The lack of clarity creates subtle anxiety. And sensing that anxiety, you try to compensate with reassurance or performance — which only increases the load.

Structure becomes visible in its absence, not its presence. When it’s there, it feels like safety and coherence. When it’s not, it feels like uncertainty and effort.

Who This Is For

This distinction matters for coaches already coaching well but feeling the weight of holding everything themselves — curious about structure but worried it will mechanise their work. If you believe structure and intuition are fundamentally incompatible, or want a script to follow, this isn’t the right frame.

Where This Leads

If structure is what makes presence sustainable, then sequence is what makes structure real. And sequence begins with not rushing discovery.

Beyond Sessions is where coaches learn that structure and intuition work in partnership, not opposition. If this distinction resonates, it’s worth exploring further.

This is part 3 of a 6 blog series helping coaches to elevate their professional impact.

Written by Dr Steve Jeffs & Erwin de Grave

Contributing Author:

Dr Steve Jeffs is a Master Certified Coach (MCC), business and organisational psychologist, and leadership transformation expert with over 20 years of global experience. Before becoming a full-time coach, Steve led large-scale leadership assessment and development programs, organisational change initiatives, and cultural transformation projects across the Middle East, working with government bodies, multinationals, and high-growth businesses. His early career as a registered psychologist and management consultant continues to shape his pragmatic, systems-oriented approach to coaching and leadership.

Today, Steve serves as Director of Coaching at The Coaching Tools Company, where he brings together his expertise in psychology, strategy, and personal development to create practical, impactful tools for coaches and leaders alike. He is also the Co-Founder of The Guiding Matrix, a company dedicated to helping coaches grow sustainable businesses while expanding their leadership capacity.

With over 5,000 coaching hours, Steve has worked with executives and teams in more than 20 countries, including in the UK, UAE, KSA, USA, Egypt, South Africa, and the Philippines. His coaching clients include leaders from organisations such as HSBC, Siemens, Roche Diagnostics, STC, Etisalat, Sanofi, and Dubai Holding. As one of the first MCCs in the Middle East, Steve has also trained and mentored over 1,000 coaches globally and continues to supervise coaches through their credentialing journeys.

Steve is a multi-award-winning coach, recognised globally for his work on leadership and innovation—including honours from the World Innovation Congress and CHRO Asia. He is co-author of Stuck No More: Practical Self-Coaching for Everyday Problems and Shift Up: Strength Strategies for Optimal Living, and is the creator of multiple strengths-based assessments and coaching tools, including the StrengthsMultiplier™. With a Doctorate in Leadership and a Master's in Organisational Psychology, Steve blends deep psychological insight with practical coaching to help individuals, teams, and organisations thrive.

Originally from Australia, Steve now lives in the UK having worked in the UAE for over a decade, bringing both global perspective and deep regional understanding to his work. When not coaching or creating tools, you’ll likely find him exploring deep caves or shipwrecks—he’s a certified technical diver and cave explorer who brings the same spirit of curiosity and courage to his coaching and leadership work.

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