Abintus Coaching Resources

Knowing the TGROW model, the coach can develop a range of questions to help them explore the model. This can take time and can be a frustrating finding which questions work and don’t work. Here are a range of simply but powerful questions for coaches.

TOPIC

  • Tell me what do you want to discuss today?
  • What would you like to explore in today’s session?
  • From our last conversation what would you like to focus on in our time together?
  • How do you want to use our next 90 minutes?
  • What could we discuss that would have most impact on what you want to achieve?
  • What are your reasons for wanting to explore this topic?
  • How can I support you today?
  • Thinking back to your original goal, what is the next element you want or need to discuss?

GOAL

  • By the end of our time together what do you want to have achieved?
  • What is the purpose of today’s meeting and the topic you have shared?
  • When we finish today what outcomes do you want to go away with?
  • Tell me what would good look like to you from today’s session?
  • What would be a valuable outcome for you today?
  • How will this conversation make a difference to you or your situation?
  • What do you want to achieve?
  • Given your topic, what is it around this that needs to be different / change / or improve?
  • What would make today’s session a success for you?

REALITY

  • What is the current situation in relation to your goal?
  • What is happening at the moment for you?
  • Tell me about what’s been going on for you around this situation.
  • How are you thinking / feeling about the situation?
  • How is it affecting the people around you / your team?
  • What is causing this situation?
  • When / where did this start?
  • On a scale of 1-10 how do you feel about the situation, with 10 being brilliant?
  • On the scale how do you want to feel?
  • Describe how you feel about being an X? What is working / not working for you in this place?
  • If you achieve a X, what would be different? How would you be thinking? What feedback would you be receiving?
  • How have you been approaching the situation / issue up until now?
  • What has worked / not worked for you?
  • Who have you approached about this?
  • Who else has been involved?
  • What did you learn from them?
  • Share what have you considered / not considered perhaps due to cost, time etc?
  • What has been suggested to you to do?
  • How is the situation affecting you?
  • What are others doing differently in different areas of the business?
  • Share your thoughts on what has been tried so far?
  • What else would be good for me to know about?

OPTIONS

  • What could you try?
  • Where could you look for ideas?
  • What might work?
  • Tell me about what the possibilities are around this?
  • If you could try anything here what might it be?
  • What is being tried in other areas of the business?
  • If you had an ideal wish list of possibilities what would be on it. (Examine these and look to get them to adapt to current situation)
  • What have you tried previously elsewhere, they might be useful here?
  • Who might have ideas to support you in this?
  • What might an expert in this area consider?
  • How might Google / bank / supermarket etc approach this issue?
  • What if you had no limit on resources, how would that affect your thinking or actions?
  • If you did nothing short / medium term what will happen?
  • If you knew the answer to this what would it be?
  • Ranking these options as most effective / quickest / most value adding, which would be your top three?
  • Out of all the options or approaches, what is your gut feelings about the best one(s)
  • You have identified several possibilities, which stands out best and for what reasons?
  • Which might be best fit for you / your team?
  • Which options appeal to you the most and why?
  • If you chose this approach what sort of things would you see happening if it was the best choice?
  • Should you implement this choice, what would you see happening in 6 month’s time?
  • If you went for this option what might be the implications for you / your team?
  • What are the consequences (positive and negative) of the possible options?
  • How would this approach affect the team?
  • Taking X option, let’s explore this. How would you apply it to see if it would work? Take time to ask questions around this, once done check with the coachee to see how they feel about this option. Take another option and explore.

WRAP-UP

  • Share your chosen options?
  • Tell me about your plans to bring your options to fruition.
  • What might you need to consider before doing anything else?
  • Where is the best place to start?
  • What are your first actions or steps?
  • How will you know if you have been successful with this option?
  • What will be your measures of success here?
  • How will others be measuring your success?
  • What about any obstacles to you achieving these actions?
  • Describe resistance might you experience to these.
  • Where might resistance come from?
  • How might you minimize the effect of this resistance?
  • Who can support you in this?
  • Who has the expertise to support you?
  • What do you need from me?
  • On a scale of 1-10 how confident are you with achieving your actions?

Whilst these questions centre around TGROW, all of them can be tailored to be used in other coaching models. They are also highly effective in normal informal day to day conversations with employees, peers and stakeholders.

Developing confidence in a range of questions allows the coach to confidently approach and explore their coaching conversations. Having a repertoire of helpful questions will help the coachee become self-aware and achieve change.

Found this resource useful? Contact Abintus to see how we can support you or your organisation in its coaching and leadership activities.