Moving Clients With The 3-Step Coaching Conversation
Ask the right powerful coaching questions to help get your clients unstuck and move forward in life.
As a coach, your number one goal is to make an impact. Helping your clients move from point A to point B is the biggest success you can achieve. You want to help people improve their lives in all the different areas that matter to them.
It’s important to have a strategy to encourage your clients to move forward. The thing is, this is not always easy. That's why it's important to ask powerful coaching questions. A "stuck" client is a pretty common experience for most coaches. When it comes up, you can use this 3-step coaching conversation to help move things forward.
"Where are you now?"
It is one thing for a client to share her story and for you to know exactly where she is. It’s another for her to know exactly where she is! Your client can keep talking about life and sharing her stories, but sometimes, she can’t really see where she IS inside that story.
As a coach, it's important to help your client assess their current state so that you both understand the starting point.
Your client needs someone else to help her see, and to help her gain more clarity. It starts with asking where she is right now.
"Where do you want to be?"
This is the second step to helping your client move forward. Generally, this question garners a lot of different answers, and possibly some confusion.
We all want to be in so many places at the same time. We want different things -- to have a house, be successful, have a great career, travel the world… this list goes on and on. But it's helpful for the client to pick one or two things to work on at a time.
The question ‘Where do you want to be?’ is among the most powerful coaching questions because it invites the client to step out of their story and begin thinking about the future in a specific way.
By asking this question of your client regularly, you’re helping them dream into the possibilities as they slowly pave the path to where they really want to be. You’re helping them claim their true goals in life.
"What’s getting in the way?"
Last question is a tough one, but necessary. More often than not, it’s not just one thing. It is a series of things. A series of bumps and hiccups on the road. And until your client acknowledges those bumps and hiccups, she won’t really be able to move forward.
That’s why this is considered one of the most powerful coaching questions. It forces your clients to actually see what's blocking her from achieving her goals, which may not be what she originally assumed. What’s blocking her from getting what she REALLY wants?
After that, it's about working together to figure out an action plan to move through the things blocking her from achieving the big goals. And of course, as a coach you're always providing a heaping helping of motivation and accountability all along the way.
These are only three questions, but they are powerful in application. It's amazing waht a few simple questions can do to help facilitate lasting change in a client’s life!
Ready to Become A Coach?
One of our values at Lumia is that we dare to be different. Our life coaches ignore the expectations society tries to impose on them, and seek to live from their own truth instead. If you are ready to step into your power and you’d like a partner in the process, come check out Lumia Life Coach Training. Grounded in science, our ICF accredited program features authentic instructors, a robust curriculum, and business instruction to prepare you for liftoff.
