Have you ever been in a coaching situation and realised that something you said could have been received a little better?

Most of us who are coaches have had this happen more than once.

There’s an excellent solution: ask better questions!

Good questioning is at the heart of good leadership.  They promote thought, learning, self-discovery, and reflection.

Here are a few tips for becoming a more effective, question-asking coach!

  1. Take time when coaching, leading, or working with others to shift your communication style from telling more to asking more.
  2. When you find yourself itching to jump in and offer a solution, take a moment to pause and consider that the better response might be to ask another question.
  3. Realise that sometimes when people ask for advice what they are really doing is exploring your reactions.
  4. Understand that when you have asked a really good question, you may be met with silence.  Be comfortable with that.  You will know that they are carefully processing your question by paying careful attention to small facial movements and in even eye movements. Just wait and give your client time to think.

Excellent coaching questions to keep in mind:

  • Tell me more about that …
  • What’s that like?
  • Specifically, what do you mean by that?
  • What do you want out of this?
  • What else?
  • What do you want instead?
  • How should it be?
  • If you were to wake up tomorrow and everything was how you want, what would that look like?
  • If you pretended you could, what would you do?
  • What stops you?

Remember: good coaches and leaders ask excellent questions. Developing your own set of questions will improve your effectiveness as a coach.

What are some questions you use to help your clients make important breakthroughs?

For more information on how you can become a powerful business communicator, download a complimentary copy of our groundbreaking new ebook, “The Leader’s Guide to Clear and Effective Communication” at EvolutionTraining.co.uk/LeadershipBook.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy YouTube channel

Roger Terry

Director of Training and Coaching at Evolution Training Ltd
Roger Terry is one of the world’s leading experts on applying NLP to drive excellence both professionally and personally. Roger leads seminars and consults with companies all over the world, including in the UK, USA, Europe and Middle East. He is the author of several books, including The Hidden Art of Interviewing, NLP and Qualitative Research, NLP for Teachers and The NLP Toolkit.