The meaningful questions - coaching business

Throughout this guide, we will address a crucial topic to assist our clients in defining and clarifying their objectives, goals and aspirations. We refer to "meaningful questions", a concept that encompasses a series of questions carefully posed to deepen self-knowledge and address the main challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

These questions become an extremely valuable tool for the coach, since, beyond investigating the client, they aim to make him/her reflect on the obstacles he/she must overcome to achieve personal and professional growth.

What are meaningful questions?

Meaningful questions are usually questions with a high degree of depth and complexity. Their essence lies in provoking sincere reflection in clients, helping them to formulate answers that allow them to define, with clarity and coherence, the necessary steps to move forward in their entrepreneurial journey.

Some examples of meaningful questions that could be asked in the first meetings are:

• How many hours a day would you be willing to dedicate to your business during the first few months?
• What would it mean to you if your venture failed?
• What areas do you think you need to improve before starting your project?
• What personal skills do you think will be useful in your new business?

Differences between common questions and meaningful questions

It is important not to confuse meaningful questions with common questions. While common questions seek to obtain information about the client, meaningful questions are designed to allow the client to discover something new about him/herself. Meaningful questions are aimed at promoting the analysis of issues that the client may not have considered before.

In common questions, we want to learn more about our client, in meaningful questions, we want the client to learn more about himself. These questions are especially useful in the first coaching sessions.

How to formulate a meaningful question?

The quality and effectiveness of meaningful questions depends a lot on our creativity and analysis, especially in identifying the key points on which we need to focus the client's attention. Many entrepreneurs start their business based on ideas that are not sustainable in the long term.

A typical example of this situation is when entrepreneurs believe that they will not have to work hard on their own business or that they will double their income in a few months. Given this, a possible meaningful question would be, "Are you willing to wait six months before your business starts to become profitable?"

It is crucial for the client to reflect on these questions and assess their level of commitment to the challenges that might arise along the way. Through these questions, some will discover that they are not as ready for entrepreneurship as they thought, while others will reaffirm their convictions and feel more motivated to continue.

Evaluate your client's profile and detect the areas where they have the most doubts or insecurities. Ask questions focused on these aspects and allow the client enough time to reflect on the possible answers. Always remind them to be as honest as possible for the exercise to be effective.