50 focused coaching questions
By Jim LaDoux
As coaches gain mastery in asking powerful questions, they explore new avenues of possibilities for the client by seeing situations from new angles of vision. Listed below are 50 questions you may find helpful to invite your clients into deeper conversations
50 WAYS TO VIEW A SITUATION
1 | Advantage: What advantages do you have in this situation?
2 | Assumptions: What are you basing your assumptions on?
3 | Background: What are the underlying issues?
4 | Calling: What parts of this connect to your calling?
5 | Change: In what ways do you need to change?
6 | Community: What solutions would benefit the most people?
7 | Creativity: How would you illustrate this?
8 | Culture: How might culture be impacting this situation?
9 | Decision: What criteria will you base the decision on?
10 | Delegation: What could be delegated to someone else?
11 | Emotion: What emotions are you experiencing?
12 | Energy: Which parts of this give you energy?
13 | Experience: Where does this intersect with your past experience?
14 | Family: How is this affecting your family?
15 | Fear: What are you afraid of?
16 | Financial: What if money weren’t an issue?
17 | From / To: What are you moving from? And to?
18 | Fulfillment: In what ways is this fulfilling for you?
19 | Ideal: What’s the ideal in your mind?
20 | Importance: What’s the most important part for you?
21 | Information: What additional information do you need?
22 | Intuition: What is your gut telling you?
23 | Loss: What do you not want to lose?
24 | Motivation: What would achieving this do for you?
25 | Opportunity: What opportunities are emerging right now?
26 | Options: What are three viable options?
27 | Organization: How might organizational culture be an influence?
28 | Personality: How might personality be involved?
29 | Positive: What is the “glass-is-half-full” perspective here?
30 | Priority: How do you prioritize the competing interests?
31 | Quit: What do you need to quit?
32 | Reframe: How would you reframe this problem as a goal?
33 | Relational: What are the relational dynamics?
34 | Relationships: Whom do you know who could help?
35 | Result: What is the end result you want?
36 | Risk: How could you do it differently and reduce your risk?
37 | Simplicity: What would be the simplest way to do it?
38 | Spiritual: From a spiritual perspective what do you see?
39 | Spouse: What is your spouse's opinion?
40 | Start: What do you need to begin?
41 | Strategy: What is your strategy?
42 | Strengths: How could you approach this using your strengths?
43 | Success: What would “success” look like?
44 | Symptoms: What might these things be symptoms of?
45 | Synergy: Where could you tap into natural momentum?
46 | Talents: Which of your natural abilities might help?
47 | Tension: How would you describe the tensions you are experiencing?
48 | Time: What difference would more or less time make?
49 | Values: Which of your values are you trying to honor here?
50 | Vision: What do you want to see happen?
2 | Assumptions: What are you basing your assumptions on?
3 | Background: What are the underlying issues?
4 | Calling: What parts of this connect to your calling?
5 | Change: In what ways do you need to change?
6 | Community: What solutions would benefit the most people?
7 | Creativity: How would you illustrate this?
8 | Culture: How might culture be impacting this situation?
9 | Decision: What criteria will you base the decision on?
10 | Delegation: What could be delegated to someone else?
11 | Emotion: What emotions are you experiencing?
12 | Energy: Which parts of this give you energy?
13 | Experience: Where does this intersect with your past experience?
14 | Family: How is this affecting your family?
15 | Fear: What are you afraid of?
16 | Financial: What if money weren’t an issue?
17 | From / To: What are you moving from? And to?
18 | Fulfillment: In what ways is this fulfilling for you?
19 | Ideal: What’s the ideal in your mind?
20 | Importance: What’s the most important part for you?
21 | Information: What additional information do you need?
22 | Intuition: What is your gut telling you?
23 | Loss: What do you not want to lose?
24 | Motivation: What would achieving this do for you?
25 | Opportunity: What opportunities are emerging right now?
26 | Options: What are three viable options?
27 | Organization: How might organizational culture be an influence?
28 | Personality: How might personality be involved?
29 | Positive: What is the “glass-is-half-full” perspective here?
30 | Priority: How do you prioritize the competing interests?
31 | Quit: What do you need to quit?
32 | Reframe: How would you reframe this problem as a goal?
33 | Relational: What are the relational dynamics?
34 | Relationships: Whom do you know who could help?
35 | Result: What is the end result you want?
36 | Risk: How could you do it differently and reduce your risk?
37 | Simplicity: What would be the simplest way to do it?
38 | Spiritual: From a spiritual perspective what do you see?
39 | Spouse: What is your spouse's opinion?
40 | Start: What do you need to begin?
41 | Strategy: What is your strategy?
42 | Strengths: How could you approach this using your strengths?
43 | Success: What would “success” look like?
44 | Symptoms: What might these things be symptoms of?
45 | Synergy: Where could you tap into natural momentum?
46 | Talents: Which of your natural abilities might help?
47 | Tension: How would you describe the tensions you are experiencing?
48 | Time: What difference would more or less time make?
49 | Values: Which of your values are you trying to honor here?
50 | Vision: What do you want to see happen?
QUESTIONS | APPLICATIONS
- What are one or more questions you could envision using in an upcoming conversation?
- What's one question you find yourself already using on a regular basis?
- Where do you keep your library of "go to" questions?
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1 Comment
We doing different programming with our young adults and thinking of doing the "debrief" for a dinner church experience they just had as group coaching thing. I could see myself asking questions about emotions (what they felt as they got ready and started doing the ministry), talents (what they already have that can help in the future), reframe (turning the stresses and problems from the event into a kind of goal for a better experience), and assumptions (their expectations vs. reality).
n
nI believe I use a lot of values, motivation, strategy, strength, and success questions already.
n
nI didn't have a library questions until I copied and pasted this list into a starter question libarary document.