COACHING QUESTIONS TOOL

Use these open-ended questions with your 1-on-1 prep worksheet:

To Gauge the Team Member’s Engagement Level

Personal

• How are you feeling about your role?
• In what ways do you feel like you’re growing, or not growing, in your role? What makes you say that?
• What interests you about the project(s) you’re currently working on, and why?
• What is your favorite/least favorite thing about your work right now?
• How do you think that least favorite thing affects your overall performance?
• What’s working well for you in your current position?
• What would you like to see change?
• In what ways does your current position allow you to use your skills and talents?
• Which areas make you feel like you’re stuck or unable to reach your full potential?
• What do you think you could be doing differently?
• If you could work on anything for the next month, what would it be?
• What’s one thing that could make your work more satisfying, and why?
• Which areas would you like more feedback on?

Team

• How would you describe the personality of the team? What sort of person would work well here? What sort of person would add something we’re currently missing?
• How could we improve our teamwork?
• Is there anything you’d like to see change about the team, and if so, why?

Manager

• In what ways do you feel supported, or not supported, by me?
• What am I doing or not doing to help you succeed?
• In what ways can I clear the path for you to make your job more interesting or less complicated?

To Draw Out an Issue

• Can you share some of the details around that particular issue?
• What was that experience like for you?
• How did that affect you?
• What do you think caused that to happen?

To Coach a Team Member to Solve a Problem

• What’s your number-one problem right now?
• What have you tried so far?
• What ideas can you bring in from past successes?
• What haven’t you tried yet?

To Support Career Development

• What are some of the work projects you’re most proud of, and what do you think you might want to do next?
• What are two to three new skills you’d like to learn on the job? What about those skills interests you?
• What other roles could you see yourself playing down the line? Or what areas would you like to explore?
• If you were to create your ideal position, how would it differ from what you are currently doing?

To Learn About Challenges

• What is the biggest challenge you are currently facing? How can I help with that?
• At what point in the past week were you most frustrated with or discouraged by your work? What can I do to help you manage that?
• What are your biggest concerns about your current project(s)?

To Learn More About a Project

• What aspect of this project has been particularly interesting for you?
• What frustrates you about the project?
• What can I do to make things more manageable?
• What do you think I should know about the project, but might not?

To Check In Regarding a Change

• What concerns do you have about this change that haven’t been addressed?
• What’s going well and not so well with the new situation? Why do you think this might be happening?
• How is the new situation affecting your work? What could be getting in the way of you being effective?

To Promote Continuity Between 1-on-1s

• What progress have you made on the next steps we discussed last time?
• In our last 1-on-1, you mentioned that you’d like to grow in X. How has that been going?
• What development areas do you want to work on in the coming weeks?

To Break Out of 1-on-1s That Feel Ineffective or in a Rut

• What would you like to see change about these discussions? How could we make them more useful for you?
• I’m trying to make our 1-on-1s better and would appreciate your honest feedback. What did you like about our 1-on-1s and what can I do better?
• What is one thing I can stop, start, or continue doing to make these 1-on-1s more valuable?