Creative questions for generating client confidence - coaching business

Building client trust is one of the priorities to be developed by every coach. During the evolution of our coaching sessions, we involve our client in a series of actions with the objective of obtaining beneficial results for their personal interests, it is here where confidence plays a key role, because it will determine the mentality with which the client will face the different situations to come. Although it is a complex task to get a client who did not trust himself to begin to do so naturally, there are a number of resources that can be used as a catalyst to achieve this goal.

The resource we will explore in this guide is creative questions. These questions are developed intentionally, with the objective of making the client notice a series of elements that will allow him/her to appreciate events and factors in his/her life that will make him/her regain self-confidence. Here are some of the creative questions you can use during your coaching sessions.

What do you consider to be your top three personal achievements and why?

Although the question does not contribute useful details to the coach at all, however, as we said earlier, the intention of the question is different. When we ask our client to list his or her top three personal achievements and explain why he or she has chosen these achievements, we provide an opportunity for the client to recall past events where he or she has felt good and his or her self-esteem has been at its best.

Reminiscing about our successes makes it clear that although we may be in an emotional slump, life moves in a cyclical fashion and it is possible to experience good times again if we can get our minds right.

Mention a problem you have dealt with before and explain how you managed to solve it.

Like the previous consultation, this inquiry serves to stimulate the client to remember that after every adverse situation in life, there is a way out and everything is solved progressively. Moving the client's mind to conflictive moments that have already been solved, will allow him/her to mentalize himself/herself towards overcoming and optimism. If he has been able to overcome difficulties in the past, there is no reason why he should not be able to overcome the present difficulties, especially now that he has your guidance and advice.

When faced with a series of challenges, we tend to forget that this is not the first time we have been in similar situations. You may even be able to get your client to think of an even bigger problem than the one he is facing right now, thus regaining confidence in his ability to cope with them.

What do you consider to be your three best qualities to overcome the current situation you are facing?

This is a crucial question, as it helps the client to remember his or her top qualities and organize his or her current tools to determine which ones are useful in overcoming the current problem he or she is facing. Being aware of our valuable qualities is a simple way to regain confidence in ourselves, as we tend to lose confidence when we undervalue ourselves or feel incapable of carrying out a certain action.

Creative questions will allow you to rekindle your clients' confidence in a more natural way, just by allowing them to remember and perceive some elements of value that had been ignored until now. Remember that the degree of confidence that the client has in himself will be a determining factor in developing successful sessions.