COACHING

TOOLS
Questions
WITH LINDSAY DOTZLAF
Coaching Tools
QUESTIONS:
QUESTIONS! QUESTIONS! QUESTIONS!

Questions are so important.

I don’t care what kind of coach you are, learning how to ask useful, open-ended
questions can be SO POWERFUL.

Questions can be used:

• To explore the way you (or a client) are thinking about something. I think of this
as just wandering around in my brain, trying to f igure out if I missed anything,
or if there are any surprises hiding around the corners.
• When you don’t know what else to do with a client - when you feel stuck or
unsure of what to say next.
• When you aren’t sure what the “problem” is, or why something isn’t working.
• To determine thought patterns and how your client thinks about things
generally.
• When there are strong emotions coming up, and it isn’t clear why.
• When you feel compelled to just tell your client YOUR answer, instead of being
curious about their brain instead.
• To have FUN when your client doesn’t have anything specif ic to be coached on.
• To explore options that you (or your client) may not have thought of.
• To f ind thoughts to think on purpose.
• To explore certain emotions on purpose.

How NOT to use questions:

• Never use a question to blame yourself or your client (Example: Can you see
you only feel that way because you are choosing THAT thought??)
• Never use a question to judge yourself or a client (Example: Why would you do
THAT??)
• Questions are not for leading, (Example: Can you see this other thing would be
a way better solution?)
• Questions aren’t for shaming yourself or your client (Example: Are THOSE the
only options you can come up with?)
• Yes/No questions aren’t super helpful when it comes to exploring
Here are some of my favorites:

What if nothing has gone wrong?

Why do you think it’s not working?

Why do you think it IS working?

What do you think is standing in the way of your goals?

Who would you be without that thought?

What are the top 3 emotions you have felt this week?

Tell me about an emotion that you love to experience?

Tell me about an emotion you do not like to feel?

Tell me all of the things that are working?

What would the best case scenario look like?

What would you consider a win?

Why do you want to hit this goal?

What will you believe about yourself when you do?

How can you believe those things now?

How will your life (relationship/ body/ etc) be different when you achieve this?

Who do you have to become to make this inevitable?

What would you say to your best f riend about this?

How do you think you can f ind the answer to this?

What are all of the options? Let’s brainstorm at least 10.

What do you want?

Why does this matter?

What will you do if the worst cast DOES happen?

Have you felt this emotion before? Tell me about that time.

What if you’re wrong?

What if you’re wrong about that person/situation?

Why do you think it will be better there?

How can you make this simple?

What if you did know the answer?

What have you learned?

How did you create this result?

What are you willing to feel to make this happen?

Are you willing to be uncomfortable?

What are these thoughts/feelings protecting you f rom?

What discomfort are you avoiding if you continue to believe this?

Can you explain that in a different way?

What are you making this mean about you?

How do you want to move forward?

Tell me all of the facts about this situation.

Can you experience this emotion and keep moving forward?

What do you think is the next best step?

What if you knew it would work?

What are you really good at?

How would you do it differently next time?

What did you learn?

What is working?

What is your deepest truth?

What is the thing you haven’t told anyone else?

If you trusted yourself to get it right, what would you do?

What is scary about hitting the goal?

What is scary about not hitting the goal?