Questions, questions, questions

Purpose

To encourage your coachee to think widely and deeply about a subject, issue, situation or problem.

Resources

Depending upon the depth of questioning involved and the discussion required, this activity will require 20 “60 minutes.

No equipment is required.

Notes to coach

In order to be an effective coach, you will need to be able to use questioning skills and listening skills. Asking challenging and probing questions of your coachee will provide him or her with the opportunity to really consider his or her performance and how it might be improved in the future. Asking questions will come into every aspect of your coaching programme.

Instructions

Prepare a list of questions that you wish to ask your coachee about the topic in hand. Use open questions such as ˜How. . .? , ˜Why. . .? and ˜What. . .? to get the coachee to think widely about the issue. Use questions such as ˜Which. . .? , ˜When. . .? , ˜Where. . .? and ˜Who. . .? to get to the detail of the issue and then use closed questions such as ˜Do. . .? , ˜Can. . .? and ˜Will. . .? when you wish the coachee to commit to a course of action or when you want to ensure that he or she has fully stated an opinion about something.

If you are working with a problem, using a series of ˜Why. . .? questions will help the coachee to get to the real crux of the problem. Once the coachee has reached this point, ask him or her a ˜How. . .? question to help him or her begin to consider solutions.