From the course: Coaching and Developing Employees

Asking powerful questions

- Powerful questions are provocative questions. They're open-ended and typically begin with who, what, when, where, why, and how, and they are the bread and butter in your coaching toolbox. Powerful questions invite your people to find clarity and self-awareness, or options for action and new perspectives. And they act as little triggers to help your people come up with their own ideas and solutions. So questions like, do you like your new office, or are you enjoying your work with Mary are closed-ended questions, and they can be answered with a simple yes or no. They do very little to encourage conversation or self-awareness. So let's reframe those questions from closed-ended to open-ended. And these are powerful ones. So what do you think about your new office? Or how are things working with Mary? That subtle little shift will encourage more thoughtfulness and draw out more insight and information. I've included a list of powerful questions in the exercise files, but feel free to use the note taking tool to capture any of the upcoming examples. Let's begin with a few questions for starting a coaching conversation. You might ask, what are your wins and challenges since we last spoke? Or what would you like to focus on today? Next, here are a few questions to get at the substance of an issue or a challenge. What seems to be the main obstacle? Or what's stopping you? Or what do you want? The next set of questions are helpful for sourcing new perspectives. If the same thing came up again, what do you think you'd do? Or what's another perspective? What are all the possible solutions? And finally, here are a few questions for planning and action. How could you improve the situation? What's your game plan? What are your next steps? Or by what day or time will you complete these steps? So think of all these questions as kind of a cheat sheet to turn to until you gain more fluency as a coach. And here's a power tip to help you turn close-ended questions into open-ended ones. When you feel you're about to give advice or offer criticism, pause and then start your question with what or how, and improvise your way through the question. I promise you this simple power tip will speed up your skill building immensely. And when you pair powerful questions with the skill of listening which I cover in the next video, you will be one step closer to competence.

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