101 Life Changing Questions.
Posted on January 05, 2010 by Ton de Graaf, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
I have a gift for you today. These are the questions that seasoned coaches use during the different stages of their coaching sessions.
Questions are the tools of the coach. We use words to bring about change. We don’t use hammers, pliers, nails, saws, jacks, screws or whatever else there is to change people, just words. And when we put words in a particular order, you get questions. Pretty amazing don’t you think?
We use those questions to help our coachees in the problem solving process. Those questions are supposed to dig-in deeper and open up their thoughts to explore ideas even further.
It would be a mistake to think that there is an ultimate list of ’killer questions’. Coaching interactions always need to be appropriate to the individual in his or her unique position, and thus a coach who falls back on a predictable set of tried and trusted questions is likely to be mechanical and out of tune with the coachee. Having said this, the questions in this book are based on thousands of hours coaching, have a high probability of value to the coachee, particularly if embedded in language that fits for both the coach and the coachee.
Thinking critically involves a process of reason and discernment through a set of questions. When we respond to the questions we discern a set of answers. This in turn leads to more questions until we come to a point which does not appear to present a new question, or which seems to answer all previous questions. This becomes the basis for discovering the truth about an issue.
Asking questions in order to bring out the truth is nothing new. It’s called the ‘Socratic Method’ and derives from the Greek philosopher Socrates. By asking questions he triggered thinking in the right direction. Questioning continued until the listeners provided the most logical answer to a particular problem and discovery followed. The intention was not to guide the listeners into the direction which was perceived as ‘right’ by the one asking questions. It was about discovering the truth. There is no right or wrong, only the truth.
I have a gift for you today. I have written a booklet that you might enjoy. It’s called 101 Life Changing Questions. These are the questions that seasoned coaches use during the different stages of their coaching sessions.
you can pick it up here: http://www.youcoachnow.com
