The Power of Effective Coaching Questions

Debra Hamilton, Chief Learning & Development Officer, Fulton Bank

High-performance cultures are those that have a coaching culture where managers provide regular feedback, engage in transparent conversations, and build trusting relationships.They see coaching as an essential tool for achieving business goals.When a manager provides effective coaching, it helps individuals become more self-aware and generate insightswhich often lead to their own solutions. With this focus, coaching is clearly not therapy, counseling, telling, advising,or fixing problems.It is helping a person acquire the mindset and skillset to change behavior, achieve personal success, and seize growth opportunities. When done well, there are many benefits to coaching. Authors Zenger and Folkman report that effective coaching raises employee commitment and engagement, productivity, retention rates, customer loyalty, and subordinate’s perception of the strength of upper-level leadership. 

Though there can be many coaching moments throughout a day or week, coaching is usually a planned face-to-face conversation that includes seeking and sharing information, asking questions, listening, checking for understanding, agreeing on the gap or opportunity, and exploring solutions. Here are some common coaching opportunities:

• Taking on a stretch assignment

• Establishing new direction

• Managing multiple deliverables

• Navigating through change

• Managing sales goals

With the “rush to solve” bias at the center of today’s fast-paced business environments coupled with remote working and back-to-back virtual meetings, managers may default to “telling” and “directing” to achieve results.In contrast, coaching is a partnership between the manager and the team member—this requires slowing down and opening the space for transparent conversations. A central component of this open and authentic dialogue is asking purposeful questions. Open-ended questions are powerful and will stimulate thinking and dialogue and help a team member take on responsibility for behavior change.

"Listening actively and without judgment will help advance the coaching conversation and ensure a fluid, rather than scripted, dialogue"

Imagine an important project is off track and will be late. The manager has a choice to direct and correct or engage the team member in a dialogue to elicit new thinking and higher levels of accountability. Here are questions that would invite dialogue.

• What is your perspective on the situation?

• What is the impact of this (project being late) to you? To the team?

• What would it take to turn this around?

• What options might you consider?

• What is your plan and timeline for turning this around?

• What are you taking away from this experience?

In another example, you want to propose a stretch assignment to a high performer.Here are questions that would invite dialogue.

• What energizes you about this project?

• Which of your skills do you see transferring over to this work?

• What tradeoffs will you need to consider in taking this on?

• What resources will you need to be successful?

• What concerns you about this project?

• What does success look like for you as you lead this project?

Effective questions are open-ended and framed with “what” and “how” to encourage responses that go beyond one-word. It is helpful to avoid “why” questions, which can put people on the defensive. Likewise, the dialogue must be inviting and convey warmthand empathy. This does not mean being “nice” but setting the stage for a candid yet compassionate conversation with the goal of achieving agreement and commitment. Awareness of your emotions and attitude will help you to identify negative thinking, biases, and hot buttons that can be barriers to effective coaching.

Listening actively andwithout judgment will helpadvance the coaching conversation and ensure a fluid, rather than scripted, dialogue. Probing, with genuine curiosity, is part of listening, and it can be as simple as “I am curious about your approach, how might this work?” In addition, listening includesreflecting back what you are hearing and acknowledging another’s perspective or underlying concern, including what might be behind the words, for example:

• I am sensing some frustration in your voice, what is coming up for you about this?

• I don’t see the same level of work I saw a few months ago; what has changed?

• Something seems to still be holding you back, what do you think that is?

It is worth noting that many managers fall into the trap of asking: “What can I do to help you?” This, while an ice gesture, does not adequately transfer ownership to the team member and often keeps the monkey on the manager’s back. Consider using the questions below which are more empowering.

• What is one step you can take to move this forward?

• What checkpoints will you establish to stay on track?

• What resources will you need?

• What can I do to support your plan?

Even the performance review is an opportunity for open dialogue where powerful coaching questionscan strengthen trust in the relationship.

• What are you most proud of accomplishing?

• What did you find most satisfying and rewarding about your work?

• What did you find the least satisfying and rewarding about your work?

• What kind of feedback would you like about your performance that you aren’t currently receiving?

• What are some new things you would like to learn in the next year?

Using powerful questions in your coaching takes patience, practice, and self-reflection. Remember to keep questions succinct, make sure you are posing them as questions and not statements, ask one question at a time, demonstrate genuine curiosity, and wait for a response. Effective questions will equip your team member with more effective thinking and will always uncover more of what is possible.

Bio

Debra Hamilton is the Chief Learning & Development Officer at Fulton Financial Corporation in Lancaster, PA, with 25 years of expertise in talent management and leadership development.Prior to joining Fulton, Debra was at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she founded and managed the CHOP Leadership Institute. She also spent 15 years as a leadership consultant designing programs for a global clientele. Debra has a Bachelor of Science in Business Education and she earned herComprehensive Evidenced-Based Coaching Certificate from Fielding Graduate University.

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