If you read our blog, attend our webinars, listen to our podcast or take our training classes, you’ve probably heard us say “coach the person, not the problem” plenty of times. We say that a lot because that’s one of (if not THE) big distinctions between beginner-level coaching and professional-level coaching.

When you coach the person, you’re helping the client explore his inner world: emotions, perspectives, beliefs, attitudes, judgments, and self-talk. This is deep stuff. And it’s high-leverage stuff. It can also be challenging stuff.

One of the questions on this topic I often hear from coaching students concerns the type of questions that explore the client’s inner world. I’m always reluctant to provide lists of questions because the best questions come not from a list but in response to what a real client shares in an actual coaching session. In other words, powerful questions are specific to the situation. That said, some sample questions can spur you to form your own distinct questions, so I thought it’d be a good idea to share some questions that exemplify coaching the person, not the problem.

Here are some questions that I’ve heard myself ask lately. Each of these has been slightly modified to make sense without the context of the specific coaching conversation, but each one is essentially what I asked a real coaching client:

• We’ve talked about what this challenge requires you to do different but what’s this challenge require you  to think different? (believe different, see different, etc.)
• In order to find success, how does your attitude need to change?
• What character strength are you going to need to grow in order to reach this goal?
• What has this challenge/issue/opportunity taught you about yourself?
• What’s the emotional energy you’re bringing to this?
• How would the best version of yourself see this?
• What would be different if you treated yourself as someone who really matters?
• What’s your inner critic telling you? What’s the truth?

These types of questions invite the client to shift their attention from the world beyond her and focus on herself in the midst of the situation. Great coaching allows the client not just to see the issue more clearly, but to see the client more clearly. New self-awareness generates changes of the person, not just changes of external activity.

What are some examples of powerful coach-the-person questions you’ve asked? Our readers would benefit from your examples, so please share them in the comment section below.