This article explores why coaching questions are so important, different ways questions can be used and looks at how questions fit into the coaching relationship. Also, throughout this article, look for the lists of coaching questions to enjoy and play with, inspiring quotes and links to free coaching question tools.
Coaching is not psychology or therapy, it”s learning. Dr Marcia Reynolds
The purpose of coaching questions is simply this: to help our clients learn and grow.
In every coaching session, we’re building a relationship. We want our clients to feel heard and understood, supported and encouraged. We want them to get to know and trust themselves—and then act in alignment with who they are.
So we listen, reflect back and help them get the all-important helicopter view on their behaviour and their lives. We help them dream, envision, set goals, brainstorm and plan actions. And we also hold them accountable and help them see—and be—the best version of themselves.
And what underpins all of these activities? The coaching questions we ask.
Every coaching school and coaching association references asking powerful questions as a key coaching skill, competency or proficiency.
That’s because it’s our coaching questions that help our clients figure out what they want and why. It’s our questions that help people identify solutions: how to get there, what they’ll do—and when. And coaching questions also raise awareness about who we are, what matters, where we get in our own way and how we could be—and do—better.
Every man ought to be inquisitive through every hour of his great adventure down to the day when he shall no longer cast a shadow in the sun. For if he dies without a question in his heart, what excuse is there for his continuance? Frank Moore Colby
Here are 9 Coaching Questions to Get Started with a New Client
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You may also like our Powerful Pondering Questions Tool which we recommend for new clients
Being a great coach is not about the specific questions you ask, it’s about asking questions that provoke insight and learning.
And that means it’s about asking the right question, in the right way, at the right time. It’s all about dancing in the moment—and giving our clients plenty of space and time to pause and reflect.
More than anything, your clients need your full attention and presence. Don’t get so hung up trying to think of “the perfect question” that you stop being present. Clients need you to notice their shifts and changes, their excitements and disappointments, their meaningful pauses and their avoidances.
As coaches we dance in the moment and let our questions and our silences lead our clients to great inner discoveries.
Think about it. People hire a coach because they want change—and haven’t been able to do it alone.
So we use coaching questions to help. After all, most of us are just caught up in habitual ways of thinking, being and doing that stop us from seeing what’s possible—and sometimes right in front of us.
The great value is not fixing, but helping them see better. Dr Marcia Reynolds
As coaches, it’s our coaching questions that help people figure out what they want, and set meaningful and inspiring goals. But it’s our relationship with the client, and the trust we build, that enables the client to be vulnerable and explore what they deeply, truly want, think and feel…
Here are 10 Questions to Help your Clients Set Meaningful Goals
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Click here for a great free tool with 21 goal-setting questions
Uncertainty makes us uncomfortable. Human brains have evolved to get us back to the safety of certainty: is that just a shadow of a bush—or a marauding bear?
This is why we like clarity. And when we’re unsure of the outcome, or can’t find the answers we need, our brains can become a little obsessed. We can’t relax until we know.
This means that when we ask a coaching question, it’s like starting the engine on our clients’ brains. Our question will start up the client’s brain—and then the cogs will keep turning until it finds a satisfactory answer…
Here are 12 Coaching Questions to Help Your Clients Get Unstuck
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You may also like: 10 Powerful Coaching Questions to Unblock Your Clients!
Coaching questions are used for much more than to help a client set goals and choose actions or next steps; we use questions throughout a coaching session.
This is because our clients are the expert in their lives—not the coach.
One of my favourite ways to play with coaching questions is brainstorming—helping a client come up with as many ideas as possible.
The important thing is to get the brain beyond the ‘usual suspects’—the ideas they’ve run over and over in their mind, but discarded or not acted upon yet for some reason.
During brainstorming we encourage our clients to think bigger, more broadly and to get out there and go wild with their ideas. In particular, it’s important to get the client into a frame of “possiblity, not probability”. From this state of mind, and with a nice big list of ideas we can surely get our clients to take one small step forwards…
Here are 15 Fun Coaching Questions to Brainstorm New Ideas
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Check out our Free 37 Coaching Questions to Liberate Your Clients Tool
The goal of coaching is to get clients to stop and question the thoughts and behaviors that limit their perspective so they can see a new way forward to achieve their desires. Dr Marcia Reynolds
The coaching questions we ask help our clients make sense of their lives—and what they might want to be different. Whether it’s reflecting back what our client said, offering space for a client to think more deeply or probing to get to the root of a limiting belief, it’s our coaching questions that do the work.
As you’ve probably already noticed, there are also many ways to categorise coaching questions. And it’s helpful to have a broad understanding of the types of questions that are most commonly used and when to use them.
That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer. Jacob Bronowski
You may also like Why You Need to Embrace Silence in Your Coaching plus 6 Practices by Sarah Evans MCC
Sometimes we’re so busy living our lives that we can’t see what we want, what needs to change or how we sabotage ourselves.
Coaching offers the environment for clients to think bigger and get perspective on their lives. And our coaching questions are what start the process!
The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure. Joseph Campbell
Here are 7 Coaching Questions to take the Helicopter View—and Get Perspective
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I hope you enjoyed this article exploring the importance of coaching questions!
There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question. Carl Sagan
Remember that the best coaching questions are provocative—evoking a curious, learning response that challenges the listener to go beyond their unconscious thought patterns and into somewhere new. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to ask yourself:
![]() Contributing Author: Emma-Louise Elsey has been coaching since 2003. She’s a huge coaching fan and the founder of The Coaching Tools Company.com. Originally a project and relationship manager for Fortune 500 companies she combined her passion for coaching, creativity and love of systems to create over 100 brandable coaching tools, forms and exercises including 25+ completely free coaching tools. She now serves coaches and the coaching world through her exclusive newsletter for coaches, Coaches Helping Coaches Facebook Group and many other great tools, resources and ideas for your coaching toolbox. The Coaching Tools Company is an official ICF Business Solutions Partner. |
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Image of Client holding post-it with question mark and pointing finger learning by krakenimages via Kraken Images
Image of Two heads with cogs by Gordon Dylan Johnson via Openclipart
Image of Client or Coach at desk holding paper with large question mark by krakenimages via Kraken Images
Image of Coach in light-filled room with cushions in background by Gyorgy Barna via Shutterstock