A Question Bank is something that all coaches should consider adding to their tool box. A Question Bank gives you the opportunity to quickly review before a coaching session to help you start the conversation. Questions can be divided into several categories, depending upon your focus and ideal client. Some will work for your clients and some will not. Read below for questions you might consider having in your own Question Bank.
General Challenges
Questions about general challenges, are just that – questions that probe the struggles your client is facing right now. Here are a few:
- What is the biggest challenge you are facing right now?
- What have you done to overcome this challenge so far?
- What do you believe is your next step?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- What do you think is holding you back?
- What assumptions do you have about yourself that could be limiting your potential?
- What are some of the lessons you have learned from failure?
- What are the barriers you believe are keeping you stuck?
Creating a Question Bank can help you prepare for every coaching session.
Goals
Many coaching clients seek coaching in order to set and/or achieve their goals. Here are some questions that might guide your ideal client into discovering what they really want and how they might get there.
- What do you want to achieve over the next six months?
- What would success look like and how will you know when you’ve achieved it?
- What risks are you willing to take as you pursue your goals?
- What are your current priorities and what can interfere with reaching your goals?
- How will you stay focused on your goals?
- What motivates you to succeed?
- What might prevent you from attaining your goals?
- What are some of the changes you want to make in your life and how can you make them happen?
- How can you maintain momentum as you pursue your new
Past Success
Sometimes exploring past successes can help a client understand how to achieve new goals. Looking back can help them move forward. The questions below can help them examine what they did before to determine how to accomplish current goals.
- What is something you did in the past that you are especially proud of and why?
- What are the key values in your life that guide you in making decisions?
- What are the most important things you’ve learned about yourself in the past year (or two or five)?
- What are some of the habits you have that you believe contribute to your success?
- How can you mirror past behaviors that helped you achieve in the past?
Handling Stress
Managing stress and handling self-care can be a challenge for some clients as they pursue their desires. Drawing attention to their current strategies can help them solve problems as they move forward. These questions might help.
- How well do you believe you handle stress and uncertainty?
- How can you better handle your emotions during stressful situations?
- What are some of your current practices to ensure you are physically fit and emotionally well?
- What daily routines do you have around your own self-care?
- What can you do to eliminate stress in your life right now?
Having a bank of questions can help you maintain curiosity.
Relationships
All coaches know that relationships can enhance or impede someone’s accomplishments and those issues should be explored. If you are a coach who helps people in their relationships, you will likely have more questions than the ones below. In general, these questions can help uncover perceived problems.
- What are the most important relationships in your life?
- How much support do they provide in accomplishing your goals and dreams?
- Where can you find more support?
- How can you build new relationships with those who can help you?
Commitments
The ending of every coaching session usually has your client making a commitment to themselves and their next steps. Asking them directly what they plan to do before the next coaching session can push them forward into action. Here are a few questions that may be helpful in gaining your client’s agreement to put their work into action.
- What will you commit to doing before our next session?
- Is there anything that can stop you from getting it done?
- Do you have everything you need to take this action?
Having a Question Bank and reviewing it before your coaching sessions can help you maintain curiosity and allow your clients to open themselves up to their own solutions. Do you have other favorite questions?
For more information, check out The Coach Business Guide: The Path to Launch and Grow your Coaching Practice, Chapter 13, Some Assembly Required.
Juicy list! And a good exercise.
I can see these being tailored for various coaching niches.
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