Coaching Tips & Tricks - Asking the Right Questions

Coaching is a powerful tool to employee success! Along with being prepared, asking the right questions is powerful key to getting the right results. In this post, we present the top 25 questions that can jump start any coaching session.

Open-ended questions are usually the best questions.

Here are some examples that can get your next coaching session off on the right foot:

1. How do you see yourself making progress on this problem?
2. What ideas do you have for resolving this issue?
3. Who else has a vested interest in this issue?
4. Why do you think this problem persists?
5. When you look at your work plan for this week, what opportunities do you see for finding more time to do your most important tasks?
6. What are some of your ongoing or frequent frustrations when you think about how your time is being spent?
7. What seems to be the root cause of this problem?
8. What other departments or people can help you get a handle on how to solve this?
9. How do you think the problem you’re experiencing is affecting other people on our team?
10. What implications does this have for people outside of our team?
11. What benefits do you see in spending time to resolve this now?
12. What do you see as your top priority today/this week?
13. What do you struggle with as you prepare your plan for the next week?
14. How can I support you as you tackle this difficult conversation/problem/task?
15. What questions do you have?
16. Help me understand where you think there are gaps in the process.
17. What is still unclear about my direction on this assignment?
18. What are your long-range career goals?
19. What is hard about the work you’re doing?
20. What excites you the most about the work you’re doing?
21. What tools do you need to be successful?
22. What makes you want to come to work each day?
23. What are we doing that will help us attract and retain top notch professionals?
24. What can we change to help us attract and retain top notch professionals?

Closed-ended questions usually don’t work as well. People can answer these with a single word (e.g., fine, yes, no). Examples include:

• How are you doing?
• Do you have any questions?
• Is there a problem?
• Is everything all right?
• Anything else?
• Do you understand the assignment?
• Are my directions clear?
• Are you good to go?

Remember, when it comes to active conversation and coaching, you need to plan your session. Don't simply read off a list of questions. Plan ahead with both questions and feedback that will really help the person being coached. Provide concrete ideas to help alleviate some of the issues you are coaching to. Coaching helps! Make your next coaching opportunity a positive learning experience.

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