The Value of Powerful Questions in Coaching

09/03/2007

There are 3 essentials that make up great coaching, namely: Being fully present with your client, Active Listening and Powerful Questions. If you are in coaching because it is a calling or a vocation then I assume that you do already possess these wonderful skills which you may use in many areas of your life, including coaching. However, if you want to be EXTRAORDINARY in all you do, you will want to enhance these skills to a level where you outperform yourself. As a coach you already know that this is possible and within anyone’s reach, on condition that they have the tools, motivation and support.

The skill of powerful questioning is the tool that can help take your coaching to even greater heights. So, what exactly is a powerful question? Well, it is that question which stops you dead in your tracks. It is the question that validates who you are. It is a question that opens up possibilities that one never dreamed about before, and lastly, it is that question that gets you moving forward and gets you into action. Powerful questioning is quite an art-form in itself and can make the difference between a great session or an extraordinary one and ultimately the difference between being a great coach or an extraordinary coach. Now, I am not sure about you, but once I started coaching I knew that there was no other choice for me than to be the very best I could be: to be an expert coach and great individual. Coaching is not just a job for most of us coaches; it is the very essence of who we are and that calling together with our unique coaching styles is what we have to offer our clients. HOW does one become an extraordinary, unique, special and fantastic coach? The secret is hidden in asking POWERFUL QUESTIONS. The perfect question at the perfect time unlocks the “ah-ha” moment, unlocks gremlins, unlocks new perspectives, unlocks new awareness, unlocks new understanding and unlocks the very moment for change that makes moving forward possible. Questions may need to be non-traditional, unthought-of or downright bizarre, but they do need to get results, and by utilizing them at the correct time you will have you something incredible to offer your clients. With just one powerful question you can help to unleash the life-changing moment of truth for a client. To get amazing results you need to be phenomenal and outrageous, you need to challenge the norm and stretch outside the box of prescribed questions and possibilities.

Asking a powerful question helps the client to open up his or her mind to a different way of looking at things. To really help someone to change you have to be able to reach deep down into the core of their thinking and experiences and stir something in their inner selves. At times you may need to shake them up. This starts with the first question you ask your client. Once you have awakened some hope of possibility within an individual, the path for moving forward becomes a real probability. A different way of approaching questions and presenting information helps the client to look at their same reality through different eyes and possibly more accurately. It’s as Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

As coaches we aim to serve our clients by finding the question that stops clients in their tracks and opens up possibilities that they never allowed themselves to dream of before -- a powerful question that gets them moving forward and gets them into action. We need to use questions that keep our clients on their toes, so they may never become complacent bystanders in their lives. Questions are there to hold their attention. As a coach, there really cannot be anything more soul-gratifying than hearing or seeing the light go on for your client. This can be achieved by asking that either that one or many extraordinarily insightful and powerful questions.

For more on Powerful Questions click on 450 Powerful Questions