One of the key skills to being an effective coach is learning how to ask the right questions.
As a Life Coach with over ten years experience, I have been able to build up a sizable number of coaching questions that I’ve used effectively and I thought that I would try to catalogue some of my favourites for this post.
I was trained in the GROW (Goal, Reality, Options and Way Forward) Model, so I’ll be listing these questions under the relevant section.
Goal:
- What must you accomplish in the next 12 months?
- What would you like to focus on today?
- What’s important to you at the moment?
- What are you working on at the moment?
- What challenges are you struggling with at the moment?
- How can you word that goal more specifically?
- How can you measure that goal?
- How can you break down that goal into bite-sized pieces?
- How can you word this goal using positive language?
- What do you want to be doing in five years time?
- What’s your ideal future?
- Where is your life out of balance?
- What is the legacy that you want to leave?
- What new skill do you want to learn or develop?
Reality:
- What’s working well for you at the moment?
- What isn’t working well at the moment?
- What have you done so far to improve things?
- How does this goal impact your spouse/partner?
- What’s the excuse that you have always used for not achieving your goals?
- What aspects of your life will be impacted by reaching the above goal?
- What is the biggest obstacle that you are facing?
- What are you afraid of?
- What are you passionate about?
- What are you willing to endure to see your goal become a reality?
- Is that a need or a want?
- Where are you sabotaging yourself?
Options:
- What do you think you should do first?
- What would be the most helpful thing that you could do now?
- If money wasn’t a restriction for you, what would you do?
- If time wasn’t a restriction for you, what would you do?
- What would you do if you weren’t answerable to anyone?
- What would (enter name of relevant expert) do in this situation?
- What do you sense God is telling you to do?
- If you were guaranteed to succeed, what would you do?
- What’s the best use of your time at the moment?
- If you could only do one thing this week, what would it be?
- What can you do better than anyone else in your organisation?
- What books should you be reading to help you achieve your goals?
- If you went to your boss with this problem, what would they suggest?
- If you saw someone else in your situation, what would you suggest they do?
- If you had 50% more confidence, what would you be doing that would be different?
- If you weren’t holding anything back, what would you be doing?
Way Forward:
- What are you going to do in the next 24 hours?
- How committed are you in reaching this goal?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how motivated are you to achieving this goal?
- What will it take to turn that 6 into a 9?
- Who do you need to speak to about this goal?
- How are you going to celebrate reaching your goal?
- Whatever your first step is, can you think of anything that might stop you from doing it?
- Is there anything else that you need to consider before starting?
Do you have any other coaching questions that you would like to add?
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46 comments
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August 5, 2010 at 4:10 am
Dr. JM Perry
I really like the questions you posed. It is best to write things out and get your thoughts out in front of you. From there, move forward…
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August 5, 2010 at 8:44 am
Darren Poke
Thanks Dr. Perry.
I agree that writing down your thoughts makes a big difference.
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August 5, 2010 at 6:03 am
Aly
Hi, I loved the 50 coaching questions you have posted here, I think my favourite has to be number 16 “If you weren’t holding anything back, what would you be doing?”. Great post, thanks. Aly
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August 5, 2010 at 8:45 am
Darren Poke
Thanks Aly,
I think that’s one of my favourites as well.
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August 5, 2010 at 12:27 pm
BT
these are excellent Darren. these are great tools and thanks for making them public. love your posts. 🙂
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August 5, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks BT, I appreciate your support.
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August 6, 2010 at 11:59 am
Jimmy V.
Thanks for posting Darren. I copied them all in a Word file and started answering those that I need in order to move forward . . . – Jimmy
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August 6, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Darren Poke
Great idea Jimmy. Let us know how you go.
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October 3, 2011 at 2:23 am
Ymabyts
nice questions
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October 3, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks mate, I’m glad you liked them.
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October 25, 2011 at 1:05 am
livetowincoaching
Thanks Darren
Helped to stimulate a lot of thoughts!!
SW
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October 25, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks SW.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Dolly Yeo
Thank you for the excellent questions, its very helpful, so generous of you:)
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November 3, 2011 at 10:29 am
Darren Poke
You’re welcome Dolly, thanks for taking the time to comment
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December 20, 2011 at 10:41 pm
steve werner
How right you are!!
Asking the right questions is the Key to coaching.
you have compiled a very useful list.
thank you
sw
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December 21, 2011 at 8:45 am
Darren Poke
Thanks Steve, I’m glad you liked them.
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January 21, 2012 at 12:04 am
vicky nieve spencer
just starting out my journey as a life coach, your 50 questions were very inspirational! thankyou
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January 21, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Vicky and all the best in your life coaching journey. I’m sure that you will find it fulfilling.
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February 8, 2012 at 12:39 am
kristy farewell
Love the questions!
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February 22, 2012 at 4:10 am
Sereda Aleta Dailey
Awesome!
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February 23, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Sereda.
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February 22, 2012 at 5:52 am
Suzanne Muusers
Love this question: “What books should you be reading to help you achieve your goals?” I find that books equal information. Information equals learning. Learning improves behavior. Behavior helps action. Nice list!
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February 23, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Suzanne, I certainly agree with you about the value of reading.
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April 21, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Emily
These are great! Suddenly feeling less nervous about my coaching assessment next week! Thank you.
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April 21, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Emily, I’m glad that they helped. All the best with your assessment next week.
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June 9, 2012 at 8:22 pm
bonniedavid
If money wasn’t a restriction for you, what would you do? I would become debt free, become a life coach, attend Dr. John F. Demartini’s Breakthrough Experience, invest in healing and personal development, save and invest. Perhaps I will receive insights now.! Thanks Darren!
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June 13, 2012 at 11:42 am
Darren Poke
Thanks Bonnie, that sounds like a plan!
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November 15, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Ahmed Wazeeri
Realy great questions! But what about the questions to be avoided when coaching others?
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January 18, 2013 at 2:15 am
susan
I have just come across your blog and have been reading some of the entries. My son is autistic and very bright but he is refusing to work in class and finding things at school quite tough. I am going to try this method of coaching and as he is 12yrs I really think he needs to become more aware about taking his own responsibilities for things and making positive choices for himself.
I don’t want to keep up with blackmail such as, ‘do this task and you can choose your xbox, etc…I want to move away from this entirely and encourage his own good choice making and his own motivation to try harder …for himself. He is easy to give up trying and does not feel able to succeed
If you can give me any further advice or resources that may be helpful, I would be very grateful for this.
Thank you very much and thank you in the first instance for sharing your experience and insight here. I am feeling very hopeful that these tools will be of enormous help to us both
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January 19, 2013 at 10:25 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks for your kind comments Susan. I don’t have any specific resources for your particular situation, but there are a lot of very qualified people out there who I’m sure can help. Hopefully, you are able to find something useful and I trust that things continue to improve with your son.
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June 15, 2013 at 5:50 am
richcross13
Thanks for these questions. I just started doing personal coaching and these questions are really helpful.
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June 16, 2013 at 9:15 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Rich and good luck on your coaching journey
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June 17, 2013 at 12:03 am
richcross13
Thanks!
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August 14, 2013 at 7:44 am
Jennine
How can these questions be rephrased to begin coaching a person who is offended by the word “goal”. The words “goal” and “plan” seem to set one of the persons I work with off…having major issues getting around this. Thanks!
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August 15, 2013 at 10:20 pm
Darren Poke
Hi Jennine, you could use other words such as target or aspiration. Alternatively, you could use metaphors such as “mountains to climb.” I would also want to know why this person is offended by goals, perhaps you could start there. I hope this helps.
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October 23, 2015 at 9:23 am
Diana
Thank you Darren for sharing these great questions! I am in the early stages of my new journey as a transformational life coach, what would be your number one advice to maintain focus and purpose?
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October 23, 2015 at 10:30 am
Darren Poke
Always remember why you are coaching. If you can keep that in front of yourself every day, you will never lack for motivation.
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July 5, 2016 at 2:27 pm
Bren Murphy
Great Darren, I am looking for resources and inspirations for questions as I appreciate that questions are the core of coaching – no question – no coach.
Thanks,
Bren
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September 1, 2016 at 1:38 pm
W Laurie McIntosh
I appreciate your way of seeing things, Darren. I am happy to learn from you. Do you have an outline of steps to take (over several sessions) for helping a client who wishes to transform his life?
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September 25, 2016 at 4:44 pm
town of the yeaster year
It’s remarkable for mme to have a web site, which is beneficial in favor of
my knowledge. thabks admin
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April 3, 2017 at 9:15 pm
USA Coaching Directory
“Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.”
– Robert Eliot
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April 13, 2017 at 9:04 pm
Ashley Warren
Very good questions posed. All these questions are very important to be asked by a coach. Each answer will decide how serious and motivated your students are. My friend is soon launching an app CoachCycle http://www.coachcycle.com/ where coaches and players can come together. Players can find coaches for a sport they want to. Well written. I share this post with him and will ask him to share this with all the coaches registered with CoachCycle.
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January 18, 2018 at 1:32 am
Marcel
Hi Darren, one of my favorites is “What are you going to do in the next 24 hours?”, because it empowers you to take action – NOW!
I created a post about the most important question types as well. Maybe you’ll find some useful examples there for your coaching (https://clevermemo.com/blog/en/coaching-questions/)
Happy Coaching!
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March 13, 2018 at 2:15 am
Magnify
love this post
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May 5, 2020 at 5:00 pm
th
nice comprehensive list!
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September 9, 2020 at 1:07 am
Life Coaching for Women (@LifeCoachingfo3)
Thanks Darren these questions are brilliant. The two I like especially like are “What are you passionate about?” And If time wasn’t a restriction for you what would you do?”
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