When I think of improving my coaching, 3 areas come to mind. Those 3 areas are beliefs, skills, and process. 

Want to empower people? Want to develop leaders? Want to help others become better problem solvers and solve their problems? If so, try this one thing. It’s free. You can do it anywhere. And those you talk with like it.
 
What is it? It’s the 80/20 Rule. The 80/20 Rule says that in each conversation, you should listen 80% of the time and talk 20% of the time.
 
Question: How often do you talk 20% of the time?

• Consistently?
• Usually?
• Sometimes?
• Rarely?

Make sure you consistently follow the 80/20 Rule. To do this, you’re going to have to keep the other person talking. What I do to keep others talking (so I can listen) is make inviting statements (Tell me more about that.) and ask open-ended questions like “What’s a key challenge you’re facing?”
 
Question: What action steps will you take to ensure that you consistently talk a maximum of 20% of the time?
 
*To learn more about listening, click here.

That’s a good question. Let me respond by asking you a question: What encouraged you to get coached and to coach others? Figure out what encouraged you and use that to encourage coaching in your organization.

What initially encouraged me to get coached was reading about coaching and talking with a friend about how coaching encouraged him and helped him achieve his goals. What really sold me on getting coached was the results I got from getting coached—I felt encouraged, I was better able to achieve my personal and professional goals, and I was empowered to pursue God’s calling.

What encouraged me to coach others was the results I got from getting coached, talking with a friend who coached others, reading books, and completing a coaching certification program.


Question: So, how can you encourage coaching in your organization?

Answer: Based on what encouraged me to get coaching and coach others, I suggest you consider taking action steps like:

1. Continuing getting coached yourself, coaching others, and talking about the results of coaching.
2. Helping leaders understand what coaching is and how they can benefit from it. 
3. Getting leaders to receive coaching.
4. Training leaders to coach others.
5. Getting leaders to start coaching key staff members and use coaching skills throughout the day. 
6. Helping staff understand what coaching is and how they can benefit from it. 
7. Getting more and more staff to receiving coaching.
8. Training staff to coach others.
9. Getting staff to start coaching other staff members and use coaching skills throughout the day. 

You might be thinking, “Looks like I should take those steps in the order they are listed.” I can see why you would think that, and generally speaking, taking the steps in the order listed is helpful. But, there is no one right way to do it—for example, you can take the steps in a different order if that is what works best for you and your organization.


Question: How can you determine the action steps you want to take and the sequence of those action steps?

Answer: I suggest that you get a team together and:

• Share what encouraged you to get coached, what encouraged you to coach others, and how coaching has helped you and others.
• Reflect on the benefits of establishing a coaching culture.
• Take a self-assessment on how a coaching culture could help your organization, and discuss your assessment results.
• Review the action steps listed above. Then, determine what action steps you will take and the order of those action steps.

Question: What might encouraging coaching in your organization look like?

Answer: Here’s an example. Let’s assume you’ve already talked with your team about establishing a coaching culture, and you’ve determined that you want to start by introducing everyone to coaching through a 3-hour workshop:

Your goals for the workshop include having participants:

1. Reflect on the power of questions.
2. Understand what coaching is and how it works.
3. Experience leading by asking questions/coaching.
4. Get more interested in getting coached and getting coach training.

To prepare leaders and staff for the workshop, you:

1. Ask them to take a short online tutorial on exploring getting coaching.
2. Encourage key staff (especially the members of your team) to experience coaching by providing coaching sessions at their convenience.

Then during the 3-hour workshop, you have participants:

1. (10 minutes) Listen to 1 or more testimonials on how coaching has helped.
2. (10 minutes) Watch 2 people model coaching by using a set of questions, for example: What people/projects are you spending your time/energy on? What’s been satisfying/frustrating? What are the reasons for your feelings of satisfaction/frustration? What do you think you’ll do?
3. (25 minutes) Use a set of questions to talk with a partner (What people/projects are you spending your time/energy on? What’s been satisfying/frustrating? What are the reasons for your feelings of satisfaction/frustration? How can I pray for you?). Then, pray together.
4. (20 minutes) Reflect on why God asks questions.
5. (30 minutes) Read and discuss 1 or more articles on Christian coaching that include an emphasis on asking questions, for example: “Lead by Asking Questions,” “The Startup Guide to Coaching Leaders,” “The Coaching Approach to Growth,” “The Heart of a Coach,” and “What is ‘Coaching’ to You?” (Additional resources are available through Close the Gap Now, Creative Results Management, The Christian Coaching Center, and Coach22.)
6. (15 minutes) Break
7. (20 minutes) Take and discuss a self-assessment on leading by asking questions.
8. (25 minutes) Use a set of questions to help a partner process something. (Time permitting, debrief this.)
9. (15 minutes) Use a set of questions to debrief the workshop, for example: What did we do during the workshop? What excites/concerns you about leading by asking questions? What excites/concerns you about coaching? What insights did you have? How could leading by asking questions/coaching help us? What’s next? (This can be done in partners/small groups and then as a whole group.)
10. (10 minutes) Receive information about how they can get coach training and coaching.

After the workshop, you will:

1. Continue getting coached, coaching others, and talking about the results of coaching.
2. Continue meeting as a team to talk about encouraging coaching and to identify action steps.
3. Provide coaching and encourage staff (especially leaders) to receive coaching.
4. Provide coach training.
5. Provide reading material.

Reflect: How are you going to encourage coaching in your organization? What action steps are you going to take? In what order?

*Want additional resources on coaching?

• Tutorials
• Videos
• Blog entries on coaching culture
• Books
• Newsletters
• Training: Close the Gap Now, Creative Results Management

We all want to accomplish our goals. To accomplish our goals, we need to take action steps. I’ve found that the SMARTer the action step, the more likely I am to accomplish it. A SMART action steps is:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timebound

“Get in shape” is not a SMART action step, and it’s actually not that easy to accomplish. “Walk for 30 minutes 3 times per week for 1 month” is a SMART action step, and it’s actually easier to accomplish than “Get in shape.”
 
Question: How often do you empower others to develop SMART action steps for each of their goals?

• Consistently?
• Usually?
• Sometimes?
• Rarely?

Make sure you consistently empower others to develop SMART actions steps for each of their goals. If the person you’re talking to develops general action steps, help them SMARTen them up by asking questions like:

• Specific: What do you mean by ___?
• Measurable: How will you know when you’ve achieved your action step?
• Attainable: How doable is this?
• Relevant: How will this action step help you achieve your goal?
• Timebound: When will you do this?

Question: What action steps will you take to ensure that you consistently empower others to develop SMART action steps for each of their goals?
 
*To learn more about coaching others on taking action, click here.

You're a missionary serving in Latin America. You send monthly newsletters to your supporters, and you send monthly reports to your mission. Each time you send a newsletter, you receive encouraging emails and notes; each time you send a report, you receive an acknowledgement (and most times not even that). Unless things aren't going well—then you receive “feedback.”
 
Now you learn that your mission wants to encourage you to get coaching.
 
How do you feel about getting coaching? I wouldn’t be feeling good. And I'd be thinking, "Am I doing something wrong? Is something not going well? I think things are going well, so maybe coaching is for others. The mission tends to offer help when things aren't going well, so coaching probably wouldn't be useful."
 
My point: If you want missionaries to feel good about getting coaching, you may need to help them see coaching as a way of getting positive feedback. You can do this by:

• Explaining that the coach provides encouragement (not criticism).
• Sharing that coaching is a way to build on strengths.
• Emphasizing that in coaching, the client (not the supervisor) decides what to work on.

What are some other ways you can help missionaries feel good about getting coaching?

Sometimes I get stuck. I have a problem, and I can’t find a way to solve it. Then, I remember to brainstorm my options, to think outside the box. In short order, I’m unstuck and on my way to solving my problem. Brainstorming works for me. And I’ve found that brainstorming helps others.
 
Question: How often do you empower others to brainstorm options?

• Consistently?
• Usually?
• Sometimes?
• Rarely?

Make sure you consistently empower others to brainstorm options. To help others brainstorm options, I like to ask “What are your options?” and “What else?”
 
Question: What action steps will you take to ensure that you consistently empower others to brainstorm options?
 
*To learn more about coaching on options, click here.

You want to achieve your goal. And you want to take action now! Ever feel like that? I have. I like the energy, but I don’t necessarily like the results.
 
Why? Because when I take action without reflecting on my current reality, I forget to take into account things like family plans and my overall workload. What happens? I achieve things I don’t want (like family disharmony and personal fatigue), and I don’t achieve my goal.
 
Question: How often do you empower others to explore their current reality?

• Consistently?
• Usually?
• Sometimes?
• Rarely?

Make sure you consistently empower others to explore their current reality. What helps me do this is asking open-ended questions:

• What’s happening?
• How do you feel about this?
• How is God using _______ in your life?
• What are some other ways to look at this?

Question: What action steps will you take to ensure that you consistently empower others to explore their reality?
 
*To learn more about coaching others on the reality of their goals, click here.

If you want to help missionaries value getting coaching, you may need to start by helping them value personal and professional growth. Why? Because coaching is about growth, and if missionaries don’t value growth, they won’t seek coaching.
 
Question: Why might missionaries not value personal and professional growth?
 
Answer: Because they focus on serving others. Because they work in an organization that doesn’t have an organizational growth plan or a professional development plan. Because their mission doesn’t emphasize personal or professional growth.
 
Question: How can you help missionaries value growth?
 
Answer: By asking questions like “If you could grow in one area of your life, what would it be?” And by encouraging missions to develop organizational growth plans and professional development plans—this will help missions emphasize personal and professional growth.
 
Question: What strategies have you found useful in helping missionaries value personal and professional growth?

Missionaries want to proclaim the good news of Jesus. So, they do evangelism, baptize and disciple believers, and preach during worship services. God uses these activities to build His kingdom. These activities tend to flow from an advice-giving paradigm, rather than a question-asking paradigm.

Implications: Missionaries have more experience with giving advice than with asking questions. And missionaries value getting advice than more than getting asked questions—which is one reason they don’t pursue getting coaching.

Question: How can you help missionaries value getting asked questions?

My answer: I’m publishing sets of coaching questions in a quarterly magazine that missionaries I know read. I’m encouraging missions to publish short articles on asking questions.

Question: What strategies have you found useful in helping missionaries value getting asked questions?

In a coaching culture, staff members empower each other through listening, inquiry, focusing on SMART actions, and encouragement. To find out how establishing a coaching culture would help you, take the following self-assessment (download). Circle the number that comes closest to representing how true the statement is for your organization right now. Use the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely
 

Culture
___ We communicate effectively.
___ We have good morale.
___ We have good staff longevity.
___ We support staff to achieve work-related goals.
___ We support staff to achieve personal goals.
___ We don’t experience fear of change.
___ We collaborate (instead of conflicting).
___ We focus on results (instead of activity).
___ We focus on the mission (instead of other good things).
___ We focus on working smarter (instead of working harder).
___ We pursue defined goals (instead of pursuing undefined goals).
 
Coaching skills
___ We listen (instead of talking).
___ We inquire (instead of giving advice).
___ We focus others on taking SMART actions (instead of letting others take undefined action).
___ We encourage (instead of criticizing).
 
Coaching skills usage
___ We use coaching skills to move in new directions.
___ We use coaching skills to influence each other.
___ We use coaching skills to collaborate with each other.
___ We empower others to solve their problems (instead of solving others’ problems).
___ We support, encourage, and hold others accountable to achieve goals more (instead of just assigning goals).
 
Coaching culture building blocks
___ Leaders receive coaching.
___ Leaders have taken at least 12-hours of coach training.
___ Leaders coach staff.
___ Leaders use coaching skills throughout the day.
___ Leaders communicate about how coaching helps them and the organization.
___ Staff understand what coaching is and how they can benefit from it.
___ Staff receive coaching.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What excites/concerns me about the data?
3. How would establishing a coaching culture help?
4. What can I do to encourage the development of a coaching culture?
5. What will I do?

Empower others. Develop a coaching culture.

You’re coaching Toru. You have 30 minutes to help Toru achieve his goal. To use this time effectively, make sure you are clear on Toru’s goal. Otherwise, you’ll waste Toru’s time by asking irrelevant questions.
 
Question: How often are you clear on the other person’s goal?

• Consistently?
• Usually?
• Sometimes?
• Rarely?

Make sure you consistently are clear on the other person’s goal. I know that I’m clear on the goal when I restate the goal and the client says, “Yes, that’s what I want to accomplish.” Here’s an example of what I do:

Me: What would you like to accomplish in our session?
Client: I want to find ways to get better at my job.

Me: What do you mean by “get better” at your job?
Client: Well, I’m having trouble with my boss. I’m not getting my projects done on time. I want to find ways to get my projects done before the deadline.

Me: So your goal for our session is to identify ways to get your projects done before the deadline.
Client: Yes, that’s what I want to accomplish.
 
Question: What action steps will you take to ensure that you consistently are clear on the other person’s goal?
 
*To learn more about coaching others on goals, click here.

Leaders empower others. A key way leaders empower others is by asking questions.

Through Christian coaching, you can empower others to pursue God’s call. To get an idea of how you can empower others even more effectively, complete the following self-assessment that addresses coaching beliefs, skills, and process (download). Write the number in the blank that comes closest to representing how true a given statement is for you right now. Use the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

The coach’s heart
___  I trust that the Holy Spirit is working in the heart of every believer.
___  I believe others can define and achieve their goals.
___  I target motivation, not information.
___  I empower others to take responsibility.
 
LIFE skills: Listen • Inquire • Focus • Encourage
___  I’m interested in what others say.
___  When listening, I look interested.
___  When listening, I sound interested.
___  I target understanding, not judging.
___  I don’t talk more than 20% of the time.

___  I ask open-ended questions.
___  I make inviting statements.
___  I don’t ask “why” questions.
___  I don’t give advice.

___  I focus others on developing their own SMART action steps.
___  I don’t suggest action steps.

___  I encourage others through clarification.
___  I encourage others through affirmation.
___  I encourage others through restatement.
___  I encourage others through “encouragers.”
___  I don’t criticize.
 
GROW process: Goal • Reality • Options • Will do
___  I’m clear on what the other person wants to accomplish for the session.
___  I don’t suggest goals for the session.

___  I empower others to explore the current reality regarding their goals.
___  I don’t describe others’ reality.

___  I empower others to brainstorm options for taking action on their goals.
___  I don’t suggest options.

___  I empower others to develop 2-3 SMART action steps per goal.
___  I don’t advise others on what actions to take.

Missionaries want to proclaim the good news of Jesus. So, they do evangelism, baptize and disciple believers, and preach during worship services. God uses these activities to build His kingdom. These activities tend to flow from an advice-giving paradigm, rather than a question-asking paradigm.

Implications: Missionaries have more experience with giving advice than with asking questions. And missionaries value getting advice than more than getting asked questions—which is one reason they don't pursue getting coaching.

Question: How can you help missionaries value getting asked questions?

My answer: By publishing sets of coaching questions in a quarterly magazine (Japan Harvest) that missionaries I know read. By encouraging missions to publish short articles on asking questions. Here's an example.

Question: What strategies have you found useful in helping missionaries value getting asked questions?

Your client wants to clarify and strategically pursue God’s calling. That’s great!

Question: How can you empower your client to do this?

Answer: By asking 10 questions:

1. How has God blessed you to pursue His calling?”
2. What problems and opportunities are you passionate about & blessed by God to address?
3. What’s your mission?
4. What’s it take to carry out your God-given mission?
5. What’s already been accomplished?
6. What helps/hinders you in achieving your goals?
7. What are your options for achieving your goals?
8. What will you do to achieve your goals?
9. What will you do this week?
10. How can you continue to make progress?

Your client will need multiple sessions to reflect on these 10 questions, and your client might benefit from using tools. This set of tools includes a self-assessment and addresses questions 1-7.

To get an idea of how you can more effectively lead by asking questions, complete the following self-assessment (or download it here). Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sort of • 1: Rarely


Lead from your heart
___ I trust that the Holy Spirit is working in the heart of every believer.
___ I believe others can define and achieve their goals.
___ I target motivation, not information.
___ I empower others to take responsibility.
___ I believe that reflection is powerful.
___ I want to help staff be better problem solvers (not to solve their problems).
 
Inquiry skills
___ I ask open-ended questions.
___ I don’t ask “why” questions.
___ I don’t give advice.
___ I easily think of good questions to ask.

Lead by asking questions
___ I ask questions to help others.
 
___ I ask questions to help others reflect.
___ I ask questions to help others get clear.
___ I ask questions to help others prioritize.
___ I ask questions to help others get organized.
 
___ I ask questions to help others focus.
___ I ask questions to help others target their strengths.
___ I ask questions to help others pay attention to their goals.
___ I ask questions to help others reduce their frustrations.
 
___ I lead by asking questions.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What’s encouraging/discouraging about the data?
3. What helps me lead by asking questions?
4. What hinders me from leading by asking questions?
5. What will I do?

Empower others. Lead by asking questions. Today.

Ask questions to help those around you to focus, think through problems, and reach their goals. For example:

• If your co-worker wants to more effectively disciple others, ask: How do you disciple people now? What’s causing you to want to improve? What’s “more effective discipleship” look like? What can you do?
• If your team is planning an event, ask: What do we want to see happen? What will help this go well? Who’s going to do what?
• If a pastor is dealing with conflict, ask: What happened? How do you feel? How does the other person see the situation? How can you demonstrate Christ’s love?
• If a small group leader wants to help her participants be more engaged, ask: If your participants got more engaged, what might happen? What helps your participants get engaged? When are your participants not engaged? What can you do?

Janet Kunnecke of SEND Japan contributed to writing of this entry.

The following is the transcript of an interview about moving a mission toward coaching. The interviewee is a veteran missionary.

What challenges do your mission staff face? Missionaries need greater clarity on ministry goals and when enough work is enough. Life balance issues are huge. Our missionaries need more support to put into practice what they already know.

What do your missionaries know about coaching? There’s a general awareness of coaching. About 50% of our people have had some exposure to coaching. Some have received coaching, and some have been in 1-day coaching workshops.

What excites you about having your missionaries get coaching? When people get coached, they make progress. Sometimes they get clear on what their goals are. Through coaching, our staff would receive strategic encouragement.

What concerns you? Some feel that coaching is a fad, so it might be hard to move in this direction. Another thing is that there’s the danger of coaches stepping out of their role and giving direction.

If your mission members got coaching, what might happen? People would be more focused on what they came to do, what they should be about, and confident that they’re doing what they should be doing.

What helps you move your mission toward getting your missionaries involved in coaching? A network of other coaches who prod me to continue on this path.

What hinders you? Busyness. Other things. Limited authority.

What are your options? I can keep on coaching people. I can encourage people to get coach training and to get a coach.

What will you do? I’m going to talk with the person responsible for member care about coaching.

Want to help others to reduce their frustrations? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What are 5 frustrations you have?
2. How do you feel when these frustrations are present/not present?
3. How would you feel if you could reduce 1 or more of these 5 frustrations?
4. How would reducing 1 or more frustrations impact your ministry?
5. If you reduced all 5 frustrations, what might happen?
6. What helps you reduce your frustrations? What hinders you?
7. What’s 1 frustration you want to reduce?
8. What can you do to reduce that frustration?
9. What will you do?

Want to help others to get organized? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What’s your primary workspace like?
2. What tools do you use to get organized?
3. How do you feel when you’re organized/disorganized?
4. For you, what does being organized look like?
5. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how organized are you?
6. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how organized do you want to be?
7. If you were more organized, what might happen?
8. To get organized, what do you need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
9. What will you do?

Want to help others to target their strengths? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What strengths has God given you to pursue His calling? (What truths has God taught you? What relationships has He provided? What abilities, character traits, experiences, and education has He given you?)
2. What excites/frustrates you about your God-given strengths?
3. How do you feel when you can/can’t use your strengths?
4. How does targeting your strengths impact ministry?
5. If you targeted your strengths more, what might happen?
6. What helps you target your strengths? What hinders you?
7. What 2-3 strengths do you want to target?
8. What can you do to target those 2-3 God-given strengths?
9. What will you do?

Want to help others pay attention to their goals? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What are your goals?
2. What satisfies/concerns you about your progress?
3. What do you like/dislike about paying attention to your goals?
4. How does paying attention to your goals help you accomplish them?
5. If you paid more attention to your goals, what might happen?
6. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how much attention do you pay to your goals?
7. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how much attention do you want to pay to your goals?
8. What helps you pay attention on your goals?
9. What will you do?

“This coaching series has been life changing,” says Trudi, a secretary at an international Christian school in Singapore. It’s her final coaching session. She adds, “I’ve gotten a better understanding of God’s calling for me. My personal mission statement gives me something to focus on. And the 5 goals I’ve developed for carrying out my mission help me take action on my mission. I want to keep at it.”
 
Question: What can you ask Trudi?
 
Answer: How can you continue to make progress?”
 
Get Trudi to create an environment that empowers her to consistently take action on her goals. To help Trudi create an empowering environment, ask her questions like:

• What helps/hinders you in focusing on your goals?
• What helps/hinders you in designing action steps each week?
• What helps/hinders you in accomplishing your action steps?

Empower your client to pursue God’s calling. Today.

Want to help others prioritize? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What are you working on?
2. What satisfies/concerns you about your progress?
3. What do you want to accomplish in the next month?
4. Which of these things would you categorize as big priorities? Medium priorities? Small priorities?
5. What can you do to ensure that the big priorities get accomplished?
6. What do you think you’ll do?
7. Would you like to talk again about your priorities?

“One of my overall goals is to provide resources for church members that help them pursue God’s calling,” says Bill, a pastor of a 250-member congregation in London.
 
It’s Bill’s first coaching session, and for the next 30 minutes, you ask Bill questions to provoke him to reflect:

• Who are your church members?
• What is God calling them to?
• How do you see resources helping them?
• What kinds of resources would help them?
• What helps/hinders church members in using resources?

Says Bill, “This has been helpful. Your questions helped me think about the resources I want to provide. Thanks.”
 
You think, “He sounds like he thinks we’re done, and he hasn’t developed his action steps.”
 
Question: What can you ask Bill?
 
Answer: What will you do this week?
 
In other words, get Bill to develop 2 or more SMART action plans he will take to provide resources for church members. To empower Bill to develop SMART action steps, first ask him questions about his options:

• What could you do to provide church members with resources?
• What else could you do?

Then ask Bill questions about SMART action steps he will take this week to provide church members with resources:

• What will you do this week?
• What 2 or more action steps will you take?
• What do you mean by ___?
• How will you know when you’ve achieved this action step?
• How doable is this?
• How will this action step help you achieve your goal?
• By when will you do this?

Empower your client to pursue God’s calling. Today.

It's important to pursue your God-given calling. Reflecting can help. Here are 7 questions you can reflect on.

“This coaching series has helped me clarify God’s calling,” says Tomoko, a leadership developer based in Cambodia. “I like my personal mission statement: Empowering Christians to pursue God’s calling.
 
“And the 6 goals I’ve identified help me know what I need to do to carry out my mission. I especially like my goal for coaching: Providing support, encouragement, and accountability for Christian leaders. Right now, I’m coaching 5 leaders.
 
“Last session, I brainstormed things I could do to accomplish each of my goals. I like my list, but it’s general—for example, for my goal on coaching, I listed “write blogs,” but I didn’t list how many. And I can’t do everything I listed. So, I want to get more specific and make the list doable.”
 
Question: What can you ask Tomoko?
 
Answer: What will you do to achieve your goals?
 
In other words, get Tomoko to identify 2-4 sub-goals she will accomplish in the next 12 months. For example, imagine Tomoko saying, “Let’s start with my goal on coaching.”
 
You could say, “OK. Imagine that it’s 12 months from now. You feel good about coaching leaders. What have you accomplished in the past 12 months?”
 
Then Tomoko would brainstorm, you would continue to ask questions, and Tomoko might decide that she will coach 20 leaders, write a monthly coaching blog, and do three 1-day coaching workshops so Christian leaders can learn how to coach others. Then, Tomoko would move on to her next goal—consulting.
 
Empower your client to pursue God’s calling. Today.

You’re coaching Tomoko, a leadership developer based in Cambodia who wants to clarify God’s calling. She’s made good progress. She’s developed a mission statement, identified 6 goals she needs to accomplish in order to carry out her mission, and reflected on what’s already been accomplished for each of her goals. During her last coaching session, she reflected on what helps and hinders her in achieving her goals.
 
She says, “I completed my action steps. I listed 3 things that help me and 3 things that hinder me in accomplishing each of my 6 goals. Then, I talked over my list with my friend Jeannie. She gave some useful input, and I used it to revise my list. I’m more aware of each of my goals. I think I’m ready to take action on each of my goals.”
 
Question: What can you ask Tomoko?
 
Answer: What are your options for achieving your goals?
 
Get Tomoko to identify 5 or more options for each of her 6 goals. For example, 1 of Tomoko’s goals is using coaching to develop leaders. To empower Tomoko to generate options regarding this goal, ask her questions like:

• What can you do?
• What are your options?
• Could you give me 5 options?
• What do you need to keep doing, start doing, and stop doing?
• What else could you do?

Empower your client to pursue God’s calling. Today.

Tomoko, a leadership developer based in Cambodia, has been working for several weeks to clarify God’s calling. In previous coaching sessions, she’s:

• Identified 4 problems and 3 opportunities she’s passionate about & blessed by God to address.
• Developed a mission statement.
• Identified 6 goals she needs to accomplish to carry out her mission.
• Reflected on what’s already been accomplished for each of her 6 goals.

“I’m feeling good about the progress I’ve been making,” says Tomoko. “These coaching sessions have been helpful—thanks! I’m clearer on how I should be investing my energy. I’d like to move forward on my goals, you know, develop effective action steps.”
 
Question: What can you ask Tomoko?
 
Answer: What helps/hinders you in achieving your goals?
 
For example, 1 of Tomoko’s goals is to provide leaders with resources. To empower Tomoko to reflect on what helps/hinders her in providing resources, ask her questions like:

• What personal strengths help you?
• What opportunities does addressing this goal provide?
• What resources are available?
• What personal weaknesses get in your way?
• What are your roadblocks?

Empower your client to pursue God’s calling. Today.

Want to help others know where they are and where they want to go? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What’s your mission?
2. To carry out your mission, what goals do you need to achieve?
3. Where are you in terms of progress on each of your goals?
4. What satisfies/concerns you about your progress?
5. What helps you achieve your goals?
6. What hinders you?
7. How can you build on your progress/minimize your roadblocks?
8. What will you do to make progress on your goals?

Want to help others focus on the right things? Ask questions. Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What’s going on in your ministry?
2. What people/projects are you spending your time/energy on?
3. What are your goals for this next week/month?
4. Whom do you talk to about your ministry?
5. What’s been satisfying/frustrating?
6. What are the reasons for your feelings of satisfaction and frustration?
7. How can you build on your progress/minimize your roadblocks?
8. What do you think you’ll do?

1. What’s God calling you do to? 
2. What’s your goal?
3. What’s going on?
4. How does God see this?
5. How is God using this in your life?
6. How can you achieve your God-given mission?
7. What will you do?