"What's Your Question, Coach?"

 

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

What are you now thinking after reading the question above? Of course, your favorite ice cream flavor! My question temporarily hijacked your mind and for a moment I got you to focus on only one thing – ice cream. That’s the power of a question. It triggers your mind to automatically think (think focus) on the subject matter in the question posed. The moment you hear a question, you literally can’t think of anything else! Questions can indeed be a powerful tool in coaching (some say the most powerful).

Instinctive elaboration. That’s the term we were introduced to by Coach Wendy (thanks) which describes what I have just mentioned and it caught my attention. When seeking to answer why questions are powerful, I believe it is good to begin by recognizing the power questions have to help the mind focus on one subject and uncover at least an answer and if this happens, the possibility of the client gaining insight and/knowledge increases.

Another interesting question-mind related response is the “mere measurement effect” where just by asking a client about their future decisions significantly influenced those decisions. In other wors, thinking about a question posed increases the likelihood of acting or creating the change or conditions that the question encouraged the client to consider. In a study by Morwitz, Johnson and Schmitlein showed that by asking people if they were going to buy a car within six months increased their purchasing rates by 35%. “Are you going to take the steps you identified today within this week?” is a powerful closed ended question that could increase the possibility of the client taking action.

As you lick a lemon slice you just cut, what does it taste like?

Even as you begin to think of the answer, most probably you have begun to salivate, an action beyond your control triggered by a question. Questions that require the client to bring into play one or more of her senses when creating an answer has greater impact on the client, making her answers more ‘real’. The more the brain contemplates on a behavior that involves the senses, the more likely the client will engage in it, experience a shift in thinking and even alter body chemistry. Questions that help the client engage with her senses could be like, “If you do what you decided, how would your situation be different?” or “How would you act if the situation was reversed?” or “Based on what you have said, how do you see yourself five years from now?”

Asking powerful questions helps provide the client with answers she can then use to create her own actions. Powerful questions creates curiosity and is guided by the agreed goal at the beginning of the session. ‘Keeping an eye on the desired outcome’- is the key to creating the questions a coach would ask throughout the coaching session. So what are some of the characteristics of a powerful questions? Here are some suggestions:

• questions that reveal the information needed for maximum benefit to the coaching relationship and the client
• questions that reflect active listening and an understanding of the client’s perspective
• questions that evoke discovery, insight, commitment or action (e.g., those that challenge the client’s assumptions)
• questions that create greater clarity, possibility or new learning
• questions that move the client towards what they desire, to look forward

As coaches, we have the opportunity to use this powerful tool – questions – to assist our clients to think about their situations, goals, needs, environments and more as well as giving them the time and space for them to think, for reflection. For starters, open ended questions ae a safe bet. Open ended questions usually start with ‘what,’ and ‘how,’ or statements such as ‘tell me about…’ or ‘explain to me more about…’

Here are some sample questions:

• What would you like to achieve from this session?
• How did you do that?
• Tell me about your experience with…..

Even so, there are actually so many types of questions you could ask. Again, it is determine by the agreed goal of the session, your level of curiosity in the context of careful listening, being fully present and attuned to the needs of the client. As a guide, lean more towards creating and posing questions that help the client

• Gain clarity, understanding, and perspective.
• Experience deeper or alternative thinking.
• Have her current thinking challenged.
• Encouraged to evaluate herself and her situation.
• Explore options.
• Explore facts, thoughts, and feelings.
• Look at issues from a different point of view.
• Plan and take action.

Two types of questions I would like to better create and incorporate in my coaching sessions are solution-focused questions (questions that assist the client to identify possibilities and action that she could take to reach the agreed goal) and reflective questions (which will challenge me to keep quiet, listen and give safe space for my client to consider options or evaluate what was said). Here are some questions I would like to use more often:

• What would you like to achieve from this session?
• What progress have you made so far?
• What would it mean to achieve success?
• “You said, you are upset about the changes…., tell me more?”
• “You sound concerned, but I’m also sensing you are little excited. What is the cause of this?”

Growing up, I enjoyed watching detective stories on television. One scene remains in my mind (though I have forgotten the drama series and who the actors were). Two detectives are talking at a bar and a younger rather upset detective asked the senior, more successful detective this question: How come you always get the bad guy? The senior detective looked at the other detective as said in a rough voice, “I ask the right questions”. Ask a wrong question and you get a wrong answer. Crafting questions that will enable your client to gain insights and knowledge that will eventually lead to action and change is a skill every coach can and must sharpen. You know you hit the nail on the head when your client says something like this:

•  “No one ever asked me that before.”
• “That’s a good question!”
• “I never given thought to that before”

So to recap, powerful questions are produced when the questions you create and pose do one or more of the following:

• Make the client evaluate new information.
• Helps the client qualify needs.
• Questions the client’s personal goals.
• Makes the client think before giving a response.
• Helps the client focus on themselves and what possible response they have for the situation