Coaching is more than only asking Powerful Questions

During the FIFA world cup, it is almost impossible to escape the conversation without referencing soccer (or football, depending on which part of the world one is living in). I asked one question during a conversation, “What is the most important skill for a soccer player?” and enjoyed the responses. The most common response I got was “Passing the ball.” Let’s explore it in more detail.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no standard for how many types of passes there are, but a quick google search showed 15 ways to pass a ball.

The story is not even ending here. There are seven ways to pass the ball.

Without going into the discussion of the correctness of this list, my follow-up question is, if a person gets the expertise of all different types of passes and ways to pass the ball, is this enough to win the match? Without any surprise, I always get the answer no. The most common additions I got are “dribbling” and “ball possession.”

How can we forget about several formations, such as 4–4–2, 4–3–3, 3–4–3, and more than dozens of other formations? Besides all this, we still need a plan based on our and our opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.

Passing the ball is a necessary but not sufficient condition to win the match. No one can win the game by only getting expertise in passing the ball. Let’s take a look at another example to drive home a point. To become a US senator, one must be a US citizen; it is necessary. However, having US citizenship doesn’t make anyone a US senator; one has to win the election. It makes US citizenship necessary but not a sufficient condition to become a US senator.

I found a similar story in coaching, and here the focal point of discussion is usually “Powerful Questions.” I observed that individuals often collect a list of powerful questions like collectible items. Similar to “passing the ball,” “Powerful Questions” are necessary but insufficient for coaching. The primary purpose of coaching is the client’s growth from the present performance level to the future potential level, with the possibility of action-oriented accountability and commitment from the client. Asking only powerful questions without having the client’s growth in mind looks like an interrogation.

Coaching is not a regulated industry; as a result, more than dozens of coaching associations exist. Let’s look at three famous coaching associations ICF, IAC, and EMCC, and see what they say.

ICF: International Coaching Federation

ICF has eight competencies defined as

• Demonstrate Ethical Practice
• Embodies a Coaching Mindset
• Establishes and Maintains Agreements
• Cultivates Trust and Safety
• Maintains Presence
• Listen Actively
• Evoke Awareness
• Facilitates Client Growth

To further explore the competencies, especially the last one “Facilitate Client Growth”, let’s take a look at PCC Market. ICF defined 9 PCC markers out of 37, the highest for any competency.

1. Coach invites or allows the client to explore progress toward what the client wanted to accomplish in this session.
2. Coach invites the client to state or explore the client’s learning in this session about themself (the who).
3. Coach invites the client to state or explore the client’s learning in this session about their situation (the what).
4. Coach invites the client to consider how they will use new learning from this coaching session.
5. Coach partners with the client to design post-session thinking, reflection or action.
6. Coach partners with the client to consider how to move forward, including resources, support or potential barriers.
7. Coach partners with the client to design the best methods of accountability for themself.
8. Coach celebrates the client’s progress and learning.
9. Coach partners with the client on how they want to complete this session.

IAC: International Association of Coaching

IAC defines nine coaching masteries as follows:

• Establishing and maintain a relationship
• Perceiving, affirming and expanding the client’s potential
• Engaged Listening
• Processing in the present
• Expressing
• Clarifying
• Helping the client set and keep clear intentions
• Inviting possibility
• Helping the client to create and use support systems and structures

IAC defined the effects and measures for each mastery. IAC defines five effects on the second last mastery, “Inviting possibility.”

1. The coach enables expansion of thoughts and actions.
2. The client’s awareness is expanded.
3. The coach helps the client transcend barriers.
4. The client is willing to leave his/her comfort zone.
5. The client has more options.

EMCC: European Mentoring and Coaching Council

EMCC competencies framework defines eight competencies as follows

• Understanding Self
• Commitment to Self-Development
• Managing the Contract
• Building the Relationship
• Enabling Insight and Learning
• Outcome and Action Oriented
• Use of Models and Techniques
• Evaluation

EMCC defines the “Capability Indicator” for each competency for four different levels “foundation,” “practitioner,” “senior practitioner,” and “master practitioner.” EMCC defines six Capability Indicators at the foundation level for “Outcome and Action Oriented” competency.

1. Assists client to clarify and review their desired outcomes and to set appropriate goals
2. Ensures congruence between client’s goals and the context they are in
3. Engages the client to explore a range of options for achieving the goals.
4. Ensures the client chooses solutions
5. Keeps appropriate notes to track and review client progress with the client
6. Ensures the client leaves the session enabled to go further with their own development process

We saw in three different coaching organizations that client growth is the ultimate goal of coaching. Although we use Powerful questions to achieve this, we should keep the client’s growth in mind all the time. It can be demonstrated with an abstract concept of coaching arc. There are several version of coaching arc circulated on the internet, but the main point of all of them are same, to come up with some possibility, action with accountability, commitment, and a support system. Here is one such example of a coaching arc from the net.

Coaching Models

Coaching models helps us during the coaching process. More than a dozen coaching models are available, and all focus on client growth through some action. Here are examples of some popular coaching models to demonstrate this.

GROW Model was originally developed in 1980 by Graham Alexander, Alan Fine, and Sir John Whitmore

TGOROW Model developed by Christian Simpson, a John Maxwell Team Faculty Member

CLEAR Model developed by Peter Hawkins

ACHIEVE Model developed by Dembkowski, S. and Eldridge, F

It shows that coaching by only asking powerful questions and without client growth is more like an interrogation than coaching.