7 breakthrough coaching questions
BILL BAREN
7 BREAKTHROUGH COACHING QUESTIONS Help Your Clients Get Unstuck, Motivated, and Taking Action!
7 Breakthrough Coaching Questions To Help Your Clients Get Unstuck, Motivated And Taking Action! Welcome! One of the most powerful things you want in your toolbox are high-powered questions that can help your client have a real breakthrough. Your clients are coming to you because they’re stuck or need a shift out of their current perspective in order to get to the next level and find solutions to their problems. And breakthroughs lead to results…especially when they’re instant! I sat down with 2 of the top coaches on my team to come up with our favorite questions to create a breakthrough for a client right on the spot. If you use these any of them with your own clients, miraculous things can really happen for them – right there during your session!
How to get the most out of your Breakthrough Questions…
First, print the 7 Breakthrough Questions on the next page and keep this on your desk. Then, in your next session with a client, test out a few of the questions in your session.
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You don’t have to use all 7 questions with a client. Think of it as a menu of questions to choose from. You can pick a few -- or even just one -- that you love to use on a regular basis to get immediate results. When you begin to use these questions regularly, you’re going to be helping your clients achieve a new level of breakthrough results.
How soon can you apply these questions? Today? Tomorrow? The sooner the better! Warmly, ~ Bill Baren
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7 Breakthrough Questions # : What’s the breakthrough you’d like to have with this problem or concern they’ve mentioned ?
When a client is stuck in what they don’t want, this question activates your client’s imagination as to what they DO want.
# : What needs to happen for this breakthrough to occur?
This allows your client to immediately realize what they need to take action on (for example, “I need more consultations”).
# : )f you knew the answer, what would it be? Follow up question: Tell me the first thing that comes to mind
Clients will often insist they are stuck and insist they have no solutions. This question helps clients find answers from a different source within than their thinking mind.... and the first thing that comes up in their mind is often a great idea!
# : What’s in the way of you taking the next step or making a decision on this?
Often what’s holding your client back is some kind of inner resistance, but trying to fight though it makes their resistance even stronger. When you help your client identify what the resistance, you can work with then on addressing the resistance and the needs that it has.
# : What do you gain by staying stuck or not taking action?
When your client is staying stuck, it’s often because they are actually secretly gaining something by staying stuck: there’s an unconscious need being met they don’t want to give up. For example, they may want to stay confused because it keeps them safe. Asking this question creates the awareness of this unconscious need that need to be met or preserved in order for the client to move forward.
# : )f you were advising a client about this situation, what would you say?
When you get the client to step out of themselves for a moment to look at their situation through the eyes of someone else, they are suddenly free from the limitations of their own perspective.
# : What’s the next action you could take based on our discussion?
After discussing their situation with you (with help of the above questions), the client is in a different space and has some insights. They’re ready to take action. This is the time to determine what action steps to take, that will lead to an “external world” breakthrough.
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Bonus: Follow-Up Questions to Ask You can also deepen the breakthrough conversation by asking a few follow-up questions such as: • • • • •
“Tell me more about that.” “What did you just discover?” “What are you present to now?” “How would that make a difference?” “What would having this breakthrough mean to you?”
4|Page
7 BREAKTHROUGH COACHING QUESTIONS Help Your Clients Get Unstuck, Motivated, and Taking Action!
7 Breakthrough Coaching Questions To Help Your Clients Get Unstuck, Motivated And Taking Action! Welcome! One of the most powerful things you want in your toolbox are high-powered questions that can help your client have a real breakthrough. Your clients are coming to you because they’re stuck or need a shift out of their current perspective in order to get to the next level and find solutions to their problems. And breakthroughs lead to results…especially when they’re instant! I sat down with 2 of the top coaches on my team to come up with our favorite questions to create a breakthrough for a client right on the spot. If you use these any of them with your own clients, miraculous things can really happen for them – right there during your session!
How to get the most out of your Breakthrough Questions…
First, print the 7 Breakthrough Questions on the next page and keep this on your desk. Then, in your next session with a client, test out a few of the questions in your session.
1|Page
You don’t have to use all 7 questions with a client. Think of it as a menu of questions to choose from. You can pick a few -- or even just one -- that you love to use on a regular basis to get immediate results. When you begin to use these questions regularly, you’re going to be helping your clients achieve a new level of breakthrough results.
How soon can you apply these questions? Today? Tomorrow? The sooner the better! Warmly, ~ Bill Baren
2|Page
7 Breakthrough Questions # : What’s the breakthrough you’d like to have with this problem or concern they’ve mentioned ?
When a client is stuck in what they don’t want, this question activates your client’s imagination as to what they DO want.
# : What needs to happen for this breakthrough to occur?
This allows your client to immediately realize what they need to take action on (for example, “I need more consultations”).
# : )f you knew the answer, what would it be? Follow up question: Tell me the first thing that comes to mind
Clients will often insist they are stuck and insist they have no solutions. This question helps clients find answers from a different source within than their thinking mind.... and the first thing that comes up in their mind is often a great idea!
# : What’s in the way of you taking the next step or making a decision on this?
Often what’s holding your client back is some kind of inner resistance, but trying to fight though it makes their resistance even stronger. When you help your client identify what the resistance, you can work with then on addressing the resistance and the needs that it has.
# : What do you gain by staying stuck or not taking action?
When your client is staying stuck, it’s often because they are actually secretly gaining something by staying stuck: there’s an unconscious need being met they don’t want to give up. For example, they may want to stay confused because it keeps them safe. Asking this question creates the awareness of this unconscious need that need to be met or preserved in order for the client to move forward.
# : )f you were advising a client about this situation, what would you say?
When you get the client to step out of themselves for a moment to look at their situation through the eyes of someone else, they are suddenly free from the limitations of their own perspective.
# : What’s the next action you could take based on our discussion?
After discussing their situation with you (with help of the above questions), the client is in a different space and has some insights. They’re ready to take action. This is the time to determine what action steps to take, that will lead to an “external world” breakthrough.
3|Page
Bonus: Follow-Up Questions to Ask You can also deepen the breakthrough conversation by asking a few follow-up questions such as: • • • • •
“Tell me more about that.” “What did you just discover?” “What are you present to now?” “How would that make a difference?” “What would having this breakthrough mean to you?”
4|Page
