How To Effectively Frame Questions To Your Coach
You should reach out to your coach when you need help but sometimes we don’t know how to frame questions in order to receive the help that we need. This week, I’m leading a mastermind for my private clients. It’s two full days, and I’m so excited to create materials and inspire my clients to step up to the next level.
Now, many of my clients have worked with me for three years, five years, even seven years or more – and I’m so honored and proud that they choose to maintain their relationships with me as they continue to grow their businesses each year.
One of the reasons I’ve been able to continually help my clients grow their businesses is their ability to effectively and regularly communicate with me and ask important questions.
But for many of us, it’s not second nature to reach out to our coaches when we need help – sometimes we don’t know how to frame questions in order to receive the help that we need from our coaches.
So this week, I want to give you a handful of strategies for framing questions to your coach, especially if you’re building a business.
I’m going to break this down into four general situations that you may encounter, and we’ll talk through how to communicate to your coach what you need from her in each situation.
Situation Number One: You need help because you’re doing something that you’ve never done before.
For example, one of my clients, Mary, was creating a workshop for a corporate client. She wrote to me and said, “Monica, I’ve been working for the last hour trying to create the outline for this workshop and it’s not getting anywhere.”
And I wrote back to her and said, “What do you think the problem is? Is it that you know what to say but you don’t trust yourself, or is it that you don’t know what to say?
She wrote back and said, “Actually, I think it’s that I don’t know how to outline the workshop.”
So I wrote back and said, “Great! I have some resources for how to outline a workshop.” And I sent her my fill-in-the-blank Google Doc template and a link to my documents that train on outlining workshops.
When you find that you don’t know how to do something – be it writing an email to an important contact, doing a social media post on a new platform, or creating a workshop – a great question frame might be, “Do you have any training on how to ________?”
Maybe you fill in that blank with “how to write a social media post” or “how to outline a workshop.”
This way, you’re asking your coach if they have some sort of existing framework to share with you to help you work through whatever it is that you don’t know how to do.
Situation Number Two: You’re struggling with something, and you can’t really put your finger on why you’re upset about it.
For example, my client Tina just recently told me, “Monica, I had a client who I was sure was going to sign with me. Then, after our third conversation, she backed out. I’m feeling really defeated and upset, and I just can’t seem to get my work done.”
A great question to ask your coach in a case like this might be, “How do I deal with my feelings about this situation and continue to move forward with my work?”
Here, you’re asking for support around an emotion, a disappointment, a mindset breakdown, etc. From there, your coach can give you some guidance on how to move through it and let go of feeling upset.
Situation Number Three: You’re in a place where you don’t know what to do next.
Maybe you’re overwhelmed, or maybe you looked at your bank account and it terrified you, and you’re thinking to yourself, Gosh, what next step do I need to take in my business to get a new client or make that next bit of money?
A great question to pose to your coach in this situation is something like, “I’m feeling confused or overwhelmed about what my next step is. Can you give me some ideas on _______?”
You might fill in that blank with “how to generate more sales conversations” or “locations to reach out to.”
This is a great way to let your coach help you get unblocked both emotionally and logistically.
Situation Number Four: You finish a call with your coach and find that you don’t know what your next steps are.
I think it’s really important that, before you get off the phone with your coach, you take responsibility for making sure you know what your next three action steps are.
For some of you, you already know what your next action steps are, so you’re just using your coach to help you talk through your current action steps.
But for some folks, it can be hard to prioritize, whether you don’t know which direction to go in or there’s just too much on your plate.
I think it’s really important that, either at the end of each coaching session or over email, you’re saying to your coach, “Can we review my next three action steps for between now and my next call?”
This way, you’re clear on what you’re doing, and your coach is clear on where your energy is headed next.
And those are our four situations! I know that many of you out there are working with business coaches or mindset coaches to help you grow your businesses, so I hope this helps.
Having a coach can be incredibly helpful – but I think that, in order to get the most out of these relationships, we sometimes need a little guidance on how to get help.
So here’s to getting help, and here’s to getting help with getting help!
Need additional helping finding what questions to ask most effectively? Join us over on our Facebook group!
