Leadership coaches like to have questions handy to ask a prospective client in that first conversation.
Here are a few I like to ask:
If we worked together, what would you want the result to be?
Why do you believe that result hasn’t happened yet?
What do you believe people who have that kind of thing happen? do differently than you do?
What do you believe about yourself that makes that possibility look not as possible as it is for others?
Are you sure that belief is true?
Do you think it’s a permanent part of your identity or something that just became a thought habit?
But here’s the real answer: The best and most effective questions arise on their own out of your: experience coaching others, and experience being coached, and compassion for the person for your client, and curiosity about their world and the filters they see it through.
Pre-scripted lists of questions CAN be somewhat helpful in a limited way, but they are nothing compared to the question that arises through you — seemingly out of nowhere — based on the compassionate connection that has been developed between the two of you.
