Before we start the second part of this coaching series, it is useful to remind ourselves as to what coaching is. Using the same quote by The Coaching Academy as mentioned in the article about Active Listening, we can see that ‘insightful questioning’ is the tool to achieve positive outcomes.
‘It is about setting and achieving goals… a coach uses insightful questioning to help their clients identify the goals they want to achieve, recognise their current circumstances, consider all the options open to them and choose which actions they will take within a defined timeframe.
There are various models of coaching, including The Grow Model, the Clear Model and the OSKAR Model. Each model differs slightly in approach, however, all models are reliant on active listening and ‘insightful questioning’.
What Is It About Coaching And Questioning That Is So Important?
Good questions help people to:
- feel valued/build trust
- clarify expectations
- facilitate change
- learn and grow
- raise self-awareness
- challenge assumptions
- generate new perspectives
There are many kinds of questions that we use, including open-ended and closed.
- Open-ended questions are those that provide respondents with a question prompt and provide them a space in which to construct their own response.
- Closed-ended questions, alternatively, provide a question prompt and ask respondents to choose from a list of possible responses eg ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Both kinds are valid and suitable for different purposes. In terms of coaching individuals, open-ended questions cause the coachee to think, to ponder, to deliberate and to find their own answers. Open-ended questions are keys with which potential can be unlocked and options explored. They provide a space for a person to discover new avenues and a space to validate their current thoughts and ideas.
Closed questions are useful when tying a concept or an action down. One such question could be, ‘So do you confirm that this task will be completed by the 3rd December?’ A ‘yes’ answer will confirm the preceding discussion. A ‘no’ answer will probably generate further open-ended questions!
Other kinds of questions we can use are:
- Reflective Questions
These help our team members look back, review and make sense of things they, and others, may have said or done. These are used to help raise awareness, help them learn and do better next time. - Evaluative Questions
These help our team members understand themselves, their thought processes, values, knowledge, experiences and beliefs. Sometimes we can use scaling to assess understanding, for example, ‘on a scale of 1- 10, where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent, where would you rate yourself in terms of your knowledge about…?’ - The 5 Ws (plus an H) Questions
These start with Who, What, How, Where, When and Why? and they help people to focus their thoughts and formulate considered responses. - Hypothetical Questions
These help get people past their own limiting beliefs. Starting a question with ‘What if _____? is a great way to expand thinking and for them to look at unexplored possibilities! - Provocative Questions
These are anything that challenge your team member, including their limiting beliefs, excuses, judgements and prejudices. These questions probe their assumptions and make them look at their inner drivers afresh. - Silence
The Coaching Tool Company suggests that silence can be a coaching question. After our team member has said something interesting, instead of asking the next coaching question we can ‘offer a generous and welcoming silence. This allows respondents to go deeper, say more, or even ask themselves the next question!’
Coaching questions should be used in Early Years practice both informally and formally. During walk-arounds, chats in the staff room or just during everyday tasks and activities on the floor, coaching questions help people develop and grow their own abilities as well as boost their self-confidence.
Coaching Techniques To Empower And Develop Your Team
Informally
It is so easy for a manager or leader to become the ‘parent’. Team members can quickly rely on others to solve problems when, in fact, they are perfectly capable of figuring things out for themselves! Asking them what they think could be done to solve an issue causes them to develop ownership and responsibility for their own practice. Being the fount of all wisdom as a leader can lead to spoon-feeding team members, which inhibits personal growth and development.
This dynamic can be described using the example of a child learning to feed himself. At first, the parent feeds the baby with a spoon, and if all goes well, the food goes into his mouth and is enjoyed. Then, as baby grows, he discovers that he’d quite like to feed himself, thank you very much. So he arms himself with a spoon (or just uses his hands) and aims the food in the general direction of his face. Sometimes this technique works. At other times, this activity resembles a Jackson Pollack painting and very little food actually lands where it should. The parent may have to spoon-feed a bit of mashed pumpkin into this burgeoning modern artist so that the job can be done.
The more the baby feeds himself, the more successful the result. He learns techniques that will help him manage his meals and soon enough, his artistic gifting will move away from experimental foodie expressionism onto drawing on the walls with permanent marker.
It is the same for leaders and team members. Asking them coaching questions that stretch their thinking and make them grow instead of spoon-feeding answers is the way to develop their skills. Coaching is an empowerment tool and asking good questions is a basic component skill, alongside active listening.
By using open-ended questions and phrases we can also encourage their individuality and their ideas. We can ask questions such as:
‘This looks interesting…can you tell me more about your ideas?’
‘I am intrigued…can you explain what the next steps are for the children to reach the desired outcome?
‘What could we do to refocus the children’s attention?’
Formally
Coaching questions can be used during formal reviews such as supervisions, appraisals and professional discussions. Effective questions lead to team members being given the opportunity to help set their own goals at a pace that suits them. They are able to take ownership of their progress.
Open-ended, reflective, evaluative and Five W questions elevate a formal review into a dynamic experience – there will be movement, there will be change, there will be growth!
W. Edwards Deming, an American theorist known for his management theories, says, ’Without questions there is no learning’.
Take time to self-reflect;
- What kind of questions are you asking?
- How effectively are you using closed questions and open-ended ones?
- To what degree are you spoon-feeding your team members rather than growing them through coaching?
The final article in this short series will be all about setting actions. Coaching is action-orientated and once we have actively listened and asked good questions, we can, together with our team members, set appropriate action points that reap rewarding results.
Explore more in this series on sensory needs here:
Coaching Success: The Power of Active Listening In Leadership
