Life Coaching Questions to Ask Clients

Life coaches help people move forward, work towards their professional and personal goals, and help them achieve that standard of life they desire. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of life coaching clients are people who are already successful, or have achieved a lot of their goals.

These clients understand the value of working towards bettering themselves, but sometimes need help when they hit a wall. Using the help of a professional and understanding the life coaching questions to ask clients is the best way to ensure they get past that wall.

Life coaches have to ask a lot of questions of their clients, and interpret their answers to formulate the best resolve. This is where the real skill lies and asking the right questions will be the difference between success and failure.

A lot of people who have not been to a life coach are always interested to know the kind of questions they will be asked if they do see a coach. It’s important to point out that simply reading these questions and answering them yourself will not be the same. But it does help to know the kind of questions you will be asked.

I have worked with the GROW model before, which means Goal, Reality, Options, and Way Forward. To understand why these four sections are used, this is what is being achieved by the questions:

Goal – This is to find the goal to the end point where a client wants to end up. The goal needs to be defined, and then a path can be forged.

Reality – This is the reality of where the client is right now. Then their issues and challenges can be looked into.

Options – There are always options, finding the best options and way to lever them in tackled in this part of the process.

Way Forward – The options identified are converted into steps of action. Each step will take the client nearer to their end goal.

Here are some examples of questions a life coach may ask their client within each of the GROW sections:

Life Coaching Questions to Ask Clients in the GROW Model

Goal

1. What must you accomplish in the next 12 months?
2. What are you working on at the moment?
3. What challenges are you struggling with at the moment?
4. What would you like to focus on today?
5. What’s your ideal future?
6. What goal are you focusing on right now?
7. How can you break down that goal into bite-sized pieces?
8. What do you want to be doing in five years time?
9. Where is your life out of balance?
10. What’s important to you at the moment?

Reality

1. What are you afraid of?
2. What’s working well for you at the moment?
3. What isn’t working well at the moment?
4. What have you done so far to improve things?
5. What is the biggest obstacle that you are facing?
6. What are you willing to endure to see your goal become a reality?
7. How does this goal impact your spouse/partner?
8. What’s the excuse that you have always used for not achieving your goals?
9. What are you passionate about?
10. What aspects of your life will be impacted by reaching the above goal?

Options

1. What would you do if you weren’t answerable to anyone?
2. If time wasn’t a restriction for you, what would you do?
3. What would be the most helpful thing that you could do now?
4. If money wasn’t a restriction for you, what would you do?
5. What do you think you should do first?
6. What books should you be reading to help you achieve your goals?
7. If you had 50% more confidence, what would you be doing that would be different?
8. What can you do better than anyone else in your organisation?
9. If you could only do one thing this week, what would it be?
10. If you weren’t holding anything back, what would you be doing?

Way Forward

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how motivated are you to achieving this goal?
2. What will it take to turn that 6 into a 9?
3. How committed are you in reaching this goal?
4. What are you going to do in the next 24 hours?
5. Who do you need to speak to about this goal?
6. How are you going to celebrate reaching your goal?
7. What do you see as the first step you need to take?
8. Whatever your first step is, can you think of anything that might stop you from doing it?
9. Is there anything else that you need to consider before starting?
10. Have you written down on paper all the steps you need to take?

This covers a lot of the questions you will need to ask a client in order to formulate a plan for the GROW model. There are lots more questions, and you will obviously need to tailor some to the individual being questioned. However, hopefully these have given you something to think about, and a better understanding of life coaching questions to ask clients.