This is a document relisting all the powerful and brilliant comments shared by Coaches, members of the ICF group on linkedin during the month of October-November 2010.
The question asked by Coach Dorcas Manou Lasme Adou, Founding Director of imPROOV (www.improovcoaching.com), the 1st coaching practice in French-speaking West Africa was:
‘MOST POWERFUL COACHING QUESTION:
Let us all benefit from each other's experience regarding powerful questioning. Please share the Coaching question you consider MOST POWERFUL, and please state the client context, challenge or situation it is best used in.’
Thank you to everyone who participated. Hooray for our clients and for great Coaches!
There are 3 parts in this document:
1. List of powerful questions classified by category (List of all questions shared as of 12/11/10)
2. Notes on powerful questioning (All comments made regarding asking powerful questions.)
3. Websites
We asked Coaches :
What do you find are great questions or reflections that help clients make progress?
Please email your responses to me for inclusion at PeterCobbe@coachingcosmos.comCarolyn Cook-Roberts, MAE September 2009
The ONYX Group
I invite clients to indulge in this exercise. Consider the things in life that they feel passionate about. Consider the job skills they have acquired. Consider the job they believer they would like to have. Then, together, we look at possibilities for marrying their interests, their passions and employment skills into work opportunities they could love.
Tony Lacertosa
V.P. Program Development at Core Themes Career Consulting
One of the questions we ask clients going through our Core Themes program is "Imagine yourself at age 85 reflecting back on your life and career. What do you want your life to have counted for?"
Jim Elliker
Sr Org Dev Associate at Air Products
One question that I find useful is "if you were running your own company, what would it be known for?" It gives insight into both strengths and potential weaknesses for the client to consider.
Marsha Cook
Owner at Choices
One discussion I present is , "If you look at your life as your business and you were hiring a manager today to run the whole show for you, would you hire you as you are right this moment?" It always proves to be an eye opener.
Chief Relationship Officer at Your Vision Partners
If I asked your kids to describe you, what would they say?
If I asked your best in class competitor, what would they say?
What would be the story your Great Grand Children will be telling to thier kids about you... or will they even know about you?
Mel Salsbury
Human Resources Professional & Coach
One of the questions I have asked managers/leaders to consider when self reflecting is:
- Imagine if your direct reports, peers and boss were asked to describe you as a manager/leader. With what you know about the relationship you have with these people 'what do you imagine they would say about you'. And 'in light of this what would you choose to do differently (if anything) and how would you want to be in order to bring about change?
-Also, sometimes I explore if it is change that is required as this can sometimes be associated with loss which for some people can be difficult and that it could be something that can be done 'as well as' ('not instead of).
Regards
Mel
Deborah Frey
Coach
Can't remember how I ran across this question, but I use it frequently and it always inspires conversation and reflection: "What did you do yesterday worth talking about?"
Simple, yet powerful.
Deb
Warren Rutherford
Owner, Rutherford Advisors, Inc. Business Advisor and Consultant
On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the greatest, how would you rate your ...(insert item to be discussed). Whatever their response, "That's great, now what would it take for you to make it a 10?" It always gets them to focus on results
Using carefully selected questions can be an effective way to structure coaching sessions.
One of the great myths about coaching is that it can be conducted around a fixed set of questions.
"Some trainee coaches, or line managers who are taking on coaching, ask for a list of questions to get them started," says Jonathan Passmore, programme director of the Masters in Psychology and director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the University of East London.
"There are some that might be relevant, but they should not be used in a mechanistic way," he says. "Coaching is a skill, it's not just about following a recipe."
Open up horizons
Nonetheless, Passmore concedes there are certain coaching questions that can be relied on to elicit a helpful response.
"Questions are for opening up horizons and getting the coachee to think. In this context, 'what?', 'where?', 'when?' and 'how?' are the questions to remember," he says.
The desire to find the perfect questions is understandable: more leaders and line managers are expected to act as internal coaches, and external coaches are under pressure to demonstrate added value.
These forces are compounded by the uncertain economy both internal and external coaches have to ask questions that will keep the coaching session moving towards a positive outcome, while often helping coachees to deal with self-doubt (particularly if they are feeling the burden of announcing redundancies).
Positive and powerful
Positive and powerful questions that help the coachee progress are the favoured option of Geraldine Gallacher, managing director of The Executive Coaching Consultancy.
"For example, I ask questions such as 'what would happen if you do nothing?'," she says.
"Here, the coachee is being given permission not to solve the problem, although paradoxically it often galvanises them into solving it anyway," she adds.
Care is needed when encouraging internal coaches to hone their questioning skills, according to Sally Baxter, deputy managing director of Penna Boardroom and Executive Coaching.
"Leaders tend to use 'why' questions with their employees, which can sound too analytical," she says. "They should think in terms of 'what', which can be received more openly."
"One of the great coaching questions is 'what else?', which encourages the coachee to summarise the current situation and look for ways to move forward."
Baxter adds that a question's value only becomes apparent when the coachee responds. "You can never know in advance what that great coaching question will be, but you know when it lands," she says. "It's all about context."
Effective listening
At the Association for Coaching, vice-president Gladeana McMahon agrees that context is crucial.
"Good questions come from effective listening," she says. "The coach has to analyse, personalise, contextualise, then ask the question."
McMahon gives an example. "If someone says they want to be x, the question to ask them is: if you were x, what would you be doing that you are not doing now?" she says. "And how would other people notice the difference?"
At the Bath Consultancy Group, Gil Schwenk has identified a series of questions that help the coachee overcome indecision.
Schwenk favours devices such as: 'What will happen or might happen if you change?'. He also likes to introduce questions that will make the coachee realise their behaviour is a decision or a learned response that can be overridden by new decisions and learning.
"Such questions are 'when did you decide that?', or 'how did you decide that?'" he says. "These are key when discussing a behaviour and when an underlying assumption or a belief prevents the desired outcome from being reached."
Yet the coach still has to tread carefully. Asking Schwenk's 'when did you decide that?' should not be confused with a more blatant 'why did you decide that?'.
Avoid 'why?'
The 'why' question can create fear and destroy trust, according to executive coach Graham Alexander. Alexander, who is widely credited with creating the Grow model (Goal, Reality, Options and Wrap-up) says the 'why' question implies there are right or wrong answers, whereas it is up to the coach to create a safety net in a coaching session.
"The coach needs to ask sufficiently generic and open questions," says Alexander (see examples below). "But should also be a great listener who operates in the moment."
And sometimes it's best to say nothing, as Penna's Baxter points out. "The most powerful question I came across was when I was training," she says. "The senior coach raised her eyebrows at me. That was all, but the way she did it right there, in the moment, asked everything."
Best questions for coaching
Graham Alexander shares this list of questions, based on thousands of hours of coaching, which could be of value to the coachee if used at an appropriate time.
* What would be the most valuable topic to focus on?
* When you get up out of your chair, what outcome would be most valuable for you?
* What is the current situation?
* If you could only take the one option that you believe would add most value, what would it be?
* What will you do when?
* Is this an effective use of time?
Source: Graham Alexander and Excellence in Coaching, published by Kogan Page
See the Harvard Business Review on Executive Coaching here:
http://www.edbatista.com/2009/02/hbr.html
A List of Brilliant Coaching Questions
About the Author
Linda Ballew heads up the 'Breaking News' section of The Coaching Commons and is Operational Team Lead to boot. Responsible for coordinating all mentions of coaching around the world each week, Linda truly has the pulse of coaching's place in popular culture. And with 20 years of experience in the nonprofit world behind her, we rely on Linda to be our glue.
There are 33 Responses so far...
The following are questions that I ask in my coaching sessions which I originally acquired from Dr Rob McNeilly (www.cet.net.au)
1. Ask your client ‚ÄúWhat will be different when you have your solution?”
2. Ask yourself ‚ÄúWhat’s missing for this client?”
3. Ask clients randomly about what it is about the problem that is problematic, even if you are both completely clear.
4. Ask clients randomly about what problem is important to make a difference to, even if you are both totally certain.
5. Ask clients what they like about their likes. What specific resource begins to emerge?
6. Ask the client “what’s missing?”
I find these useful and hope others do to.
“Right this moment, what physical sensations can you identify?”
Our bodies are far better truth tellers than our minds or our emotions, and it is very difficult to dispute the tangible proof they offer to a client who otherwise has difficulty thinking through to the answers.
It’s both grounding and disarming, and a great short-cut through the ‘yeah, but..’ and is a direct road to the beliefs that act like chains keeping a client stuck.
Note to coaches who’ve never used this one: expect your client to look at you as though you are from Mars. It means you’ve just tapped into a powerful source of information that they don’t normally access.
Thomas Leonard had a good one that I have found amazingly useful at various points of my coaching career:
Why are you telling me this?
Thank you for stimulating me to review my own habits to decide which questions I find bring special value to my sessions with my coaching clients.
Here is a brief list of questions that have arisen in recent sessions:
1. What will it mean for your life/business/career if you DON’T….?
2. What will be different about the way you see yourself if you…?
3. What major fear will you be addressing if you…?
4. What ‘magic solution’ would make that fear decrease/disappear?
5. How can you/Who can help you make that ‘magic solution’ become reality?
I like to use the question “what makes that important to you” at the early goal setting stages of the coaching conversation as it often provides a heartfelt connection between the client and their stated desired outcome (or it makes it clear their stated outcome is not what they really want).
Into the conversation, I find the most powerful question do come in the moment from the energy between coach and client and I allow myself to be guided in that way. In doing so I have learned two things (at least): the first is that the question that sometimes feels like the uncomfortable one to ask is often the most crucial one for the client to hear – so I ground, breathe and give them the gift of asking it; secondly I believe holding the silence and the space for any question to resonate fully with the client is what can make even the most simple question powerful.
Great conversation topic! Thanks for all the ideas.
Aileen
When clients are anxious I’ve found it helpful to ask: “Where do you know you are stopping short?”
By answering this question in the company of a good coach, the person can begin to see the way forward. I’ve been asking myself this question a lot lately – it leaves you nowhere to hide!
Thanks for Coaching Commons. I love being part of this community.
Regards to All,
Elle
It’s tempting to look for a list of magic questions that will unlock all of your client’s self-limiting behaviors. I don’t think these exist. It’s always a in-the-moment conversation and I try to be aware of any “script” that I might have in my mind. Having said that, it is helpful to have a coaching toolkit that includes a variety of power questions. I tend to go with broad questions that allow the coachee to come forth with whatever answer has value to them. For example, I tend to like:
“How is that working for you?”
“How will it feel to do that?”
“What other options can you think of?”
“How does that fit in with your goal?”
“What is the worst thing / the best thing that could happen?”
“If you take this step, what would you do next?”
Love the concept . . . Wonderful idea?
Some of my favorites:
What inspires you about you?
What is the gift in this challenge?
Who do you need to be . . . to invite the flow of effortless manifestation?
Let’s play a game: You are God . . . What do you choose as God?
Tons of blessings,
Nancy
Some from Tim Gallwey that are often useful and powerful:
How do you know?
What can you control in the situation?
What can’t you control in the situation?
What might you control that you haven’t been?
Great idea Linda!
Some of my favourite questions:
1. What’s the problem in a nutshell/in one sentence/in one word?
2. Who will you have to become to have all that you want?
3. OK, so imagine you have a magic wand. Now what? (useful in SO many scenarios!)
4. Where do YOU add stress to your life?
5. What do you get out of having this difficulty/problem? What are the benefits?
6. Think of someone you truly respect and admire. How would they look differently at this situation? What would they do in your position?
7. If you were at your best, what would you do right now?
I have been collecting questions for a while and really want to put them into an ebook!
Warmly, Emma-Louise
One question I find really helpful – the very first one of the session: “What would you like to have happen by the end of this session?”
Really sets up the focus for the session, in the context of coaching as something purposeful. Also the client assumes quite naturally a mind-set that something will happen, be achieved or occur!
I think the origin of this question is probably in Clean Language. I also like the way that it holds the client’s agenda from the start.
Warmest,
Lisa
At times I will ask the 5 whys? depending on the situation and be careful in my tone and actions.
Says a client wishes has a challenge and create a certain reaction to it. We can ask,
Why do you think this makes you react this way? and when the answer, we ask them ‘Why’ does this make you react this way. Why does this make you mad? Usually the third ‘Why’ may expose the underlying reason which we can see if this is healthy or not for the client.
Usually if I’m trying to help a client get to the bottom of where they’re stuck (and they’re all over the place with their energy / or very overwhelmed), I’ll zero in with questions like:
1) In a perfect world, what would [x] look like for you?
2) If you could only pick one TODAY [ideal client, issue to solve, battle to fight, etc] what would it be?
Sometimes people just need a place to start the journey without worrying about being right or wrong or tripping, and these two questions are surefire ways to kick start that!
I am really enjoying reading everyone’s list of wonderful coaching questions! I work largely with teens with AD/HD and have not found a specific set of questions that are consistently helpful with my clients. Instead, I find I rely on intuition and bravery for my individualized best questions.
Thanks for this interesting exchange,
Liz Ahmann
Thanks for the fascinating responses so far. I tend to believe that the most powerful questions arise out of the moment, but I do have a few favourites that I keep tucked away for sticky moments – my favourite is
What knowledge do you have about this situation that you are hiding from yourself?
It usually produces a look of dumbfounded amazement, followed by a very busy silence…and more often than not a door is unlocked for the client.
When clients are procrastinating with “I’ll do this (have this, be this) when I get(that)my favourite question is
“What’s stopping you from having this right now?”
This has been met with jaw dropping silence, followed by “OMGosh actually nothing” and then a stream of possibilities. A whole new dialogue opens up.
Wow- these questions are sensational! I just started compiling them in a document and am going to keep tracking this thread and adding to it! I love hearing what works for other people.
I’m going to throw one out that goes in a bit of a different direction, but tends to have powerful results for me:
When the client is on the verge of tears (you can either see tears welling up or hear it in their voice) then ask, “What do the tears want to say?”
It gives them permission to speak from the heart and beautiful things inevitably flow out.
I’ll throw out one more bonus one too. After a session of hard work, ask the client: “What would you like to celebrate about your work today?” Great way to deepen the learning and help them recognize what they accomplished!
Keep the great questions coming,
Sarah
Lable, I just read your book, In Case of Emergency, Ask Question, and you have some great questions and insights in there! I really enjoyed it and will refer to it often.
I’m just getting started in this work, but I’ve been having good success with the question, “What would have to be true in order for you to feel confident moving forward?”
1- If you knew that people would follow you where would you lead them?
2-What is the one question you are not asking yourself?
3-What is the one thing that nobady knows about you?
Hi,
Everytime I ask this question, people remember it:
What would you have to do again if in the future you want to be in the same situation you are now?
Ana
Oh Ana this is a good one. It works for situations people want to change as well as situations they want to stay the same. Thanks so much for this idea.
Best,
Elle
Generally, all questions are brilliant or near brilliant or not so brilliant depending on the context in question.
Perhaps when we ask a question, we could validate with:
“What are the indications/evidences that I have asked the ‘right’ question in this context?”
If there are ‘positive indications/evidences’, then the question is brilliant. Am I correct?
Billy C H Teoh
Malaysia.
Good point, Billy. One way I know I’ve asked a brilliant question is if I get a pregnant pause. 
You can also hear the aha in the client’s tone of voice when they do respond.
I absoluetly agree with Sue… the longer the silence, the better the question
Now, what if we are to measure the reactions or responses of our clents/coachees as measurements of how effective, impactful and brilliant our ‘coaching questions’ are?
If we take ’silence’ as a measurement, how do we measure it? Response time/duration to access ‘internal frames’ in order to respond to the ‘coaching question’?; the ‘quality’ of the response that would ‘discover’ the ‘answers’ that the client/coachee is seeking (whether consciously or unconsciously or intuitively)?; the shift in ‘frames’/'insights’/'paradigms’ that the client/coachee is experiencing as a result of the ‘coaching question’?; or what else?
Should we be focusing on ‘coaching brilliant questions’ themselves; or should we explore further on what measurements of responses/reactions that ‘brilliant coaching questions’ can bring about?
Billy C H Teoh
Malaysia
If you could go back in time what advice would you give your younger self?
My question to people I coach is; If you could look at the bigger picture and there were no obatacles in the way what would your goal look like?
My clients all lack direction and clarity in their life. They also allow fears and limiting self-beliefs to hold them back from achieving their hearfelt deep desires.
I ask the following 10 base questions:
1. Who are you?
2. Why are you here? What are you here to do?
3. What is the one thing you can say that nobody else can say?
4. Why should I believe you?
5. What are you afraid of? What could be holding you back?
6. What is most important to you? (values)
7. What are your natural gifts/talents? What is your core gift?
8. What are your strengths?
9. What are you passionate about?
10.What exactly does your dream life look like?
When a client is feeling stuck and having problems resolving their “stickiness” I ask the clean coaching question ….. and that [clients own issue] is like what? Then we can talk about, resolve and move the “metaphor”. It works every time 
As a business and executive improvement coach, I begin by asking the chief officer this question: Is there a horizontal or vertical style of communication in place; do you as the leader only count on your staff to know what is going on, or is there an open and horizontal line of communication from you, all the way to the very nadir of your organization, and then back to you again? Like most leaders who go through this exercise, they begin to question whether or not they really do know what is going on in their workplace. I have proven time and again to many executives that whoever sets up ‘awareness’ in their own system, will know more about what is happening at that place of business than anyone else there.
What a great idea this is! So much useful information. I like to ask the client ‘what lens are you looking through right now’. That often gets them to think about it from a different perspective.
Here are some more that are great to use:
What tools do you know about that you haven’t used yet? Which will you try?
What could you change/do to make the situation more positive?
What have you tried so far?
What are you holding as true that may not be?
Thanks for the reference to The Perfect Question, Linda. The question “What is out of Harmony, and how do I restore it?” is my best starting point for coaching conversations because it immediately sets the goal – restoring whatever is out of Harmony back into harmonic resonance. But the person I’m working with will then often throw up a bunch of roadblocks as an excuse as to why Disharmony needs to be maintained. The dreaded “becauses”. “It’s out of Harmony because …” It’s like bringing a note from one’s mother: “Please excuse my child from having to be in Harmony because …”
“What if …” questions are the best means I’ve found for getting past the “becauses”. “What if you did have enough money to do that?” “What if you did make friends easily?” “What if you were able to get past your writer’s block?” “What if your employees were properly motivated?”
“What if …” questions are suitable for use with any roadblock the client throws up. They slice past the objections and keep us from getting stuck. Once the client gets to the point where they can actually see themselves at the goal state, albeit by assuming a lot of “what ifs”, they become enamored with the ultimate state they want to reach and are a lot more motivated for us to go back and deal with the “becauses” in a realistic manner. The “becauses” then become issues to be dealt with rather than excuses.
I think this is a great idea, Linda. Thanks for suggesting it. I look forward to reading about all the inventive questions that my fellow coaches use.
Lable