How to Shape Effective Coaching Questions
Coaching works!
In fact, it’s still the best method for encouraging people and teams to reach their full potential. Coaching helps the team grow. It encourages self belief and self-development, and promotes self-sufficiency in the team.
Stick with me and I will give you concrete guidance that’ll have you asking appropriate coaching questions and see the team grow.
Let’s begin.
Helping Teams to Reach Their Full Potential
Want to improve team performance, and set realistic goals?
Start with questions first.
Effective business coaching is all about the questions. Helping people to think about their options and what they should do encourages self belief and self-development.
It starts by asking the correct kind of coaching questions.
Starting with these tested questions can help the team to sort out problems for themselves, which in turn should translate into improved team performance. I’ll demonstrate several winning coaching questions and explain why they work. What’s more, I will show you how to shape your coaching questions.
But first, let’s examine the GROW model, and why this can be confusing when attempting to coach. The answer may not be what you think.
The GROW Model
The purpose of the GROW model is to structure coaching conversations. It goes like this:
Goal: What does the team want to achieve?
Reality: What is stopping the team from achieving the goal?
Options: What are the options that may help the team make progress?
Will: What action will the team take?
And here lies the issue. The GROW model follows a series of sequential steps. It portrays a journey that starts with a goal.
In the workplace, coaching may not start with a goal. Often the team may face a problem or be seeking new ways to improve on something. So, it seems reasonable to begin coaching at any of the four stages.
What’s more, we must remember that the GROW model is simply a framework. Merely following the process is not the same as coaching. If you use it, be flexible and make sure you respond to what the person is saying and ask the correct questions!
Coaching is helping people to think things through for themselves. Coaching challenges how people think.