Are your questions directing your clients, without you even knowing it?

Directing is pretty much the opposite of coaching, yet most coaches, including MCCs, subtly direct their clients via their questions, without even knowing it.

We all have preferred ways of learning and communicating, and coaches are no exception. These preferences often result in habitual channels of questioning that can subtly direct our clients.

If you’re a visual person, for example, your questions will frequently explore what your clients see. Similarly, feeling-oriented coaches will often explore what their clients feel. However, this default line of questioning may be ineffective for thinking-, kinaesthetic- or auditory-oriented clients.

In contrast, open-channel or blank-access questioning techniques allow clients to choose their own channel. This “demonstrates respect for the client’s identity, perceptions, style and language and adapts one’s coaching to the client” (ICF Core Competency, 4.2).

MCC Melanie Parish explains that open-channel or blank-access questioning helps to avoid breakdowns between the coach and client, and cleans up the coaching path. “If you improve your questions, then your coaching will improve quickly,” she says.

This is why ReciproCoach has teamed up with Melanie to bring you an interactive workshop-style group mentoring session to skill-drill you in the art of questions. No more closed, therapeutic or stacked questions. No more unwittingly directing your clients via your questions. With live coaching and loving stop-and-start guidance from Melanie, you will improve your questions and your coaching. This is an interactive group mentoring session with a limit of 10 participants, so you’ll need to be quick to secure your place.