Coaching involves encouraging people to reach their full potential through self-belief and self-development, unlike teaching which involves transferring skills and knowledge. Coaches help people improve by encouraging them to set stretch goals and develop their own action plans, and by providing neutral feedback to help people gain self-awareness and think issues through using open-ended questions. Different types of questions can increase awareness, help people think through options, or identify areas for performance improvement. Coaching focuses on developing the individual through a process like G.R.O.W that addresses goals, current reality, options, and actions.

1. Coaching
• What is coaching?
• What is the difference
between coaching and
teaching?

2. Coaching:
The Power of Questions
Stephen Remedios

3. Learning Objectives
After this short session, you will:
• be able to explain what coaching is and how it
differs from teaching or training.
• be able to explain the importance of asking
questions when coaching
• be able to describe the different types of
question a coach may use
• be able to demonstrate the ability to frame and
ask different types of questions whilst coaching.

4. My definition of coaching
A style of management in which the coach
encourages people to reach their full
potential by encouraging self-belief and
self-development.

5. Teaching and training
Involve transferring
knowledge and skills to
other people.

6. ?
How does a coach help someone to
improve if that individual is already a better
performer than the coach?

7. What is Coaching?
A style of management in which the
manager encourages people to reach their
full potential by encouraging self-belief and
self-development.

8. How do people improve?
• Self-belief gives people the drive
• Self-development gives them the means

9. Encouraging success...
• Helping people to set goals for themselves
that stretch them beyond what they can
comfortably achieve but which are within
their capacity
• Helping them to achieve those goals by
encouraging them to devise and
implement their own effective action plans

10. Encouraging self-development
• Helping them to review their experiences
and to draw appropriate lessons from
them
• Helping them to understand themselves
better by providing neutral, objective
feedback

11. More aware
By providing feedback
By asking questions

12. Neutral feedback
“Your right foot was about two inches in
front of your left when you landed.”

13. Judgemental feedback
“No, your feet are still not together all the
way through.”

14. Judgemental feedback
“You are really good with people”

15. Neutral feedback
“Three of your people have told me that
they feel very motivated working for you.
When I asked why this was, they said it
was because you worked so hard yourself.
One person told me that she felt you took
too much on yourself and did not delegate
enough to her.”

16. Providing feedback
Choose a piece of
feedback that you would
like to give to one of
your staff or to a
colleague.
1. Devise a judgemental
form of words
2. Devise a neutral form of
words.

17. Questions
• Help people become more aware
• Help people think things through

18. Types of questions
Clarify
Simplify
Multiply
Will it fly?
Do it by?

19. Questions that increase awareness
• What do you think is the effect on
your team of your adopting this
approach?
• How confident are you that you
are going to achieve your goal at
the current rate of progress?
• How stressed do you feel about
this?
• How would you characterise your
attitude to the HR department?

20. Questions that help people think
• What would happen if your
supplier missed the delivery
date?
• What other approaches
might you consider?
• What would the effect of that
be on the accounts
department?
• How would you know if you
had succeeded in this goal?

21. Identify an area of
performance that you would
like a colleague to think
about. Devise a question that
would help him or her to do
this.

22. • Avoid manipulative questions
• Be open about your reasons for asking

23. Coaching and G.R.O.W

24. G.R.O.W
• Goal
• Reality
• Options
• Will/What/When/Where etc

25. G.R.O.W and the power of
questions
• G.R.O.W is only a framework
• What matters is your intention
• Principles and skill are more important