A Great Question in Coaching is a Puzzle

In the coaching, a simple closed-ended question (can be answered with “yes” or “no”) is designed to obtain specific information. An open-ended question gives the coach more detail and insight; (Coach to Client) “Why did you go into the restaurant business?”. A third type of question used in coaching is more of a suggested puzzle. It is posed, not to obtain information from the client but to create a point of reflection. (Coach to Client) “What does it mean to YOU to be successful in the restaurant business?”

The point of reflection is not chosen randomly but rather it is a result of the client having revealed a sticking point for the client-perhaps the reason that they have come to hiring a coach. The goal of this type of question is not to immediately find an answer. This type of mystery is at once intriguing to the client and unanswerable. (Client to Coach) “I know it’s important to know what success looks like in the restaurant business but I’m not sure how I would define it…and yet I am somehow aware of the importance of answering the question!”.

In, The CCL Handbook of Coaching (Scisco, P., Ting, S.), the authors describe a coaching process they use called Reflective Leadership Conversations, which is an informal application of their Constructive Development Theory. In RLC coaching conversations the goal is to assist the client in arriving at a single “focal” question that the client finds-at least for the time being-unanswerable. They intend for the question to remain with the client for months, a year or even more than a year. Eventually, through continuing conversations and thoughtful consideration, the client arrives, not at a definitive answer but more a dissolving of the question and transformation to a wider, more complex understanding of themselves.

In this way a question more like a puzzle than a prompt for a solution to a problem. It is in reflection that we not only learn but we grow. A timely question posed as a conundrum requires us to stretch curiously beyond our current reach or capacity. Great coaching works in mysterious ways!