Powerful Questioning

by | Apr 25, 2019

This is a guest post by Megha Gupta, Coacharya training program learner. 

Coaching, as popularly believed, is a profession where the coach helps the client in reflecting on thoughts, beliefs, feelings and emotions in order to live a more mindful life. It is a service where the ‘best thing’ a client requests his coach to do is to ask ‘powerful questions’.

Contrary to the norm, the coaching competency number 6 is ‘Powerful Questioning’ and not ‘Powerful Questions’. What this means is, rather than succumbing to the pressure of coming up with really fiery questions one after the other, the coach needs to first actively listen to what the client is saying and then to ask curiosity driven questions.

Powerful questioning isn’t a set template of questions to ask which may or may not help your client reach his goal. In fact, it is about asking the client those questions, which help both the coach as well as the client to understand the client’s world.

In order to do understand a client, the coach must be fully present with the client, with the purpose of understanding the client’s language, beliefs, feelings and goals. Powerful questioning is first about perceiving the client thoughts, then exploring their emotions and beliefs and then moving on to finding their solutions. It isn’t just about creating awareness but also about placing and organizing the thoughts.

Coaching in itself is a very creative profession and the way each coach demonstrates powerful questioning is unique and authentic to them. The more a coach gets creative with the way they interact and question their clients the more powerful a coaching session becomes. Sometimes just asking a question in an innovative way can open up a whole new conversation for the client.

So naturally, there is no set of powerful questions to ask and there definitely is no such thing as the one ‘right’ question. Powerful questioning is all about giving your client a tailor-experience which helps them expand their current conscious cognitive process.

Nishmita D'Souza
Nishmita D'Souza

Nishmita

Nishmita D'Souza is Marketing Coordinator at Coacharya. She is a firm believer that the key to development is education and awareness. She is also an illustrator by hobby. Follow her on Instagram using the handle: @damsel.in.a.doodle

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