How to ask great questions
“At the end of the day, the questions we ask of ourselves determine the type of people that we will become.” Leo Babauta
The main tools of a coach’s trade are great questions. On Barefoot Coaching’s Postgraduate Certificate in Coaching, we encourage coaches to experiment with a wide range of coaching questions. We also encourage the use of questions which are obvious, simple, direct and uncomplicated. These questions have far more effect than overly complicated, “clever” questions, which coaches sometimes feel they should be using.
Barefoot Coaches ask questions to raise awareness within their clients, questions to elicit emotion, questions to check out decisions or goals and questions to challenge perceptions. Here are my five rules to make sure every coaching question is a great question:
- The starting point of good questioning is dynamic listening and wholehearted attention. The quality of your attention will determine the quality of your questions.
- Questions should ALWAYS be for your client's self - discovery and not for your curiosity. Questions to fact find should be very rare in a good coaching conversation.
- Realise that there is no one ‘right’ question. Spend time in supervision with other coaches reflecting on the questions you ask and what leads you to ask them.
- It is ok to ask questions which create a state of puzzlement in your client - this is a pre-requisite of change. Think of yourself as an empathetic provocateur.
- Avoid using stock questions, or questions which play to your own preferences. What is a great question for you is not necessarily a question that will ignite your client’s thinking.
Enabling people, teams and organisations to be at their resourceful best.
9yVery helpful piece, Kim. Questions that are asked to appear clever or impress are generally worthless to a coachee.
Chairperson at Barefoot Coaching Ltd
9yThank you Maria. I really appreciate you taking the time to post a comment and I agree entirely about the deceptive power and simplicity of Nancy Kline's approach - her philosophy underpins our work.
Strengths Champion | Coaching Female L&D Leaders to Amplify Their Voice | Founder of Quirky Bird Strengths | Helping Leaders and Teams Thrive
9yLovely summary Kim. I think sometimes we try and make it more complicated than it needs to be. Recently I attended a Thinking Partnership course and was blown away by the power and impact of asking what seems to be a simple question "what do you want to think about, and what are your thoughts?" - but they only work with the generative attention you talk about. Thanks for sharing.
Leadership Development | Organisational Culture | Community Impact
9yLove this simple summary of the art of coaching. So true. Honest simple questioning that reflects 100% focus on your client.
Founder - Executive Coach at Spacechanges People Development
9yThank you - questions are our dynamite - with which we move mountains