During coaching sessions, coaches provide clients with opportunities for self-exploration, assessment, and evaluation through questions, allowing the client to unleash their potential within. This generative process fosters thoughts, ideas, revelations, and the creation of future actions. During this time, a coach performs a few tasks, focusing on speaking less and listening more. These tasks revolve around asking questions, leading to a place where all thoughts, ideas, and revelations blend into a logical path forward for the client.
ICF-credentialed coaches are trained in three important questioning techniques. These approaches form the very basis of ethics and the code of conduct for coaches, closely related to three coaching core competencies.
One Question at a Time (Active Listening)
While asking a question, one might be tempted to clarify the question and, in doing so, add more questions into the mix. The coach’s role is to ask relevant questions at the right moment, one at a time, and not barrage a client with questions. This process reflects the ICF Core Competency of “Active Listening.” It helps to focus on what the client is and is not saying, to fully understand what is being communicated, and to support their self-expression.
Too many questions at once creates confusion for both the client and the coach. It also hinders the client’s ability to express themselves and to focus inwardly. When a coach asks a new question or the first one is clarified before the client can think it through and offer a response, this can create a blockade to a client’s thought process. Let the client decode the question and wait for their answer. The coaching process is a time to let the client internalize your question, understand it, and formulate a thoughtful, not impulsive response. Encourage the client to delve into their thinking and bring out a deep reflection. This helps generate active listening not only for the coach but also for the client as they dive deep and listen to their inner thoughts and feelings.
No Leading Questions (Evoke Awareness)
Another interesting phenomenon is when coaches go into helping mode — advising and counseling the client through their experience. This happens when the coach, who has already achieved the goal the client is aiming for, asks leading questions with obvious answers. For example, asking, “Will you speak to your boss for a promotion?” guides the client in speaking to their boss for a promotion. Here, the ICF Core Competency of “Evoke Awareness” comes into play. When the coach asks a leading question, this hinders the client from reaching an awareness that may have been generated to lead them to a different, more dignified, and alternate conclusion on their own. It is not a coach’s role to provide the answer, taking the ownership of the decision away from the client.
No Question Related to the Past (Cultivating Trust and Safety)
Sometimes, situations arise during coaching sessions when a client refers to a past incident. Although this information is important for the coach to understand, this is a delicate moment where the coach has to resist the temptation to delve too deeply into the past. By not digging into the past, coaches cultivate a moment of trust and safety for the client. The “Cultivation of Trust and Safety” is a significant ICF Core Competency. By demonstrating this, the coach partners with the client to create a safe, supportive environment that allows the client to share freely without fear of judgment. An attempt to uncover the past by the coach may put the client in an uncomfortable situation and result in a loss of trust.
The coach’s role throughout the questioning process is to travel with the client and empower them to make their own decisions and own their choices about what to do and the best way forward. When they decide for themselves, they take ownership and form an accountability process. Using these questioning techniques helps the coach cultivate a trustworthy relationship by listening actively and evoking an authentic awareness.
Umer Bhutta, PCC, SHRM, SCP, MCIPD
Umer Bhutta, PCC, is the CEO and Founder of Abundance Business and Consulting. With over 25 years of experience, he has held leadership positions in HR for large corporations spanning the textile, hospitality, and telecom sectors. His expertise lies in training and development, organizational development, restructuring, and implementing business improvement projects across various corporate, public sector, and donor–funded organizations. Additionally, his company is an approved program provider accredited by CCE in Pakistan. Umer is also an accomplished author, having written four books: “Choose Or Be Chosen,” “Chahat (The Want),” “YOU in Search of Job in Search of You,” and “Becoming an Entrepreneur”. Furthermore, he serves as a SHRM certification instructor in Pakistan.
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