Coaching notes

Coaching notes are a private, chronological record of your conversations with a team member.

Adding one

From the team dashboard, click View Coaching on someone’s row — or open their member detail page and use the coaching panel.

Write the note and click Add Note. Previous notes are listed underneath, newest first.

Who can see them

Leaders (owners and admins) can see coaching notes for anyone in the team. Supervisors can see them for their assigned members.

The member cannot see their own coaching notes.

Write as though they might read it anyway

Notes are not visible to the member in the product, but they’re a record about a real person held in a system their organisation controls. Write what you’d be comfortable defending in a conversation with them — specific, factual, about the work.

If you find yourself wanting to record something you’d never say to their face, that’s usually a sign the conversation needs having rather than recording.

What makes a useful note

The purpose is continuity — so the next conversation starts where the last one ended, and so a handover to a different supervisor doesn’t lose everything.

Useful:

Talked through the year-end appeal. Strong list, but hasn’t asked most of it yet — agreed to send 15 asks before the end of the month and to follow up by phone the week after.

That records what was discussed, what was agreed, and by when.

Less useful:

Good chat, seems motivated.

Nothing to pick up from next time.

Coaching notes vs. interactions

Different things for different purposes:

	Coaching notes	Interactions
About	A team member	A donor or contact
Visible to	Leaders and their supervisor	The account holder
Live in	The team	The contact’s record
Feed reports	No	Yes — out of touch, unthanked, What’s Next

If you’re a supervisor who also fundraises, keep them apart: your donor notes go on contacts, your coaching notes go here.

A rhythm that works

Coaching notes reward regularity more than length.

• After every check-in, write three lines: what’s going well, what’s stuck, what was agreed.
• Pair agreements with a task on the member’s account so the thing you agreed actually shows up in their list.
• Read the last note before the next call. That’s the entire point.