Welcome

Hi there! I’m Dr. Moira. Welcome to a new episode and a new week with the Coaching Hive. If you are new, welcome, and if have been listening since the beginning or somewhere in between thank you my friend. It is always a pleasure to have you here with me.

The Coaching Hive Podcast is entering an exciting time. This is our 6th month in existence and it feels like a lovely and big milestone. Back in January when I sat down to talk with my husband about starting a podcast, we were excited and not a little unsure about where it would take us. We had no idea that 2021 would bring family challenges and loss, but stayed committed to the podcast and sharing the Coaching Hive message each week really anchored us and our mission for helping everyone to have access to health coaches by guiding you. Health coaches. We are being more intentional in celebrating each win and success so I hope that you will sit back and join me in celebration. We now have a steady following and I appreciate you. If you have gotten anything out of the previous episodes, I invite you to leave a review on your favorite podcast provider.

Now that you have indulged me in a bit of celebration and looking back, it is probably time to get to our main topic for today. For the past 22 episodes we have talked about mindset, efficiency, focus, mindfulness, motivation, change, and so much more. This month I thought we might go back to the basics of our coaching toolbox and talk about our communication skills. Not only do communication skills play a big role in our coaching conversations, they are also an integral part of our coaching business. If you are ready to dig into communication, I invite you to grab a drink, a notepad, and pen, and play this family friendly podcast through your speakers.

Introduction

Ok, you have committed to listening to this podcast so why don’t we jump in?

Often you are faced with asking the right question of a client, fellow coach, mentor, employee, or even someone in your family. You can feel frustrated that they misunderstand the question, you might feel nervous about asking the “right thing” in the “right way”, or even knowing what to ask to elicit the information you are seeking. In this episode I will share ways to minimize these concerns and maximize your ability to create “quite a question”. One without these challenges.

Crafting powerful questions can be challenging because of so many factors. One of the big challenges is that we all communicate in a slightly different way. We all have our favorite word patterns, short cuts, and terms that we use. This means that your question has the possibility of being confusing or completely misinterpreted even if it is clear as day in your mind.

Add on to that, most English words are either positively or negatively charged. One study by Garcia, Garas, and Schweitzer notes that while we tend to use more positive words, negative words have more informational value to them. So as coaches, when we use positive language, we may actually have to use more words to explain our point or to craft our questions.

Another challenge in crafting a quality question is that your experience with the language matters. If, for instance, English is your second language then you may craft a question or interpret a question differently from someone for whom English is their first language. If you have ever sat through an English grammar class, you know that the English language is highly nuanced and complex. When we add in familiarity as a component of question creation it is even more nuanced