Head: (4 of 5)
Heart: (3.5 of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (4 of 5)

This workbook-type book is short on theory and long on the practicalities of asking powerful, open-ended coaching questions for the intended purpose of guiding people you're coaching in the direction they want to go. Indeed, Stoltzfus-as well as most coaches-would say that asking powerful questions is the most important skill a coach can acquire.

Of course asking powerful questions is easier said than done. Anyone can think of provocative, open-ended questions. But a good coaching session, whether formal or informal, requires thoughtful preparation, intensive active listening skills, and the ability to think on one's feet. It also requires you to know how and when to ask which type of question. For example, in Mariposa's ITM Coaching^TM model, you need to stay in the assessment phase, asking only clarifying questions, for a much longer time than will at first feel natural. The ITM model comprises three steps: (1) getting into rapport (which should take the first 5 to 10 percent of the time you have), (2) assessing the coachee's situation (which should take up to 80 percent), and then (3) asking powerful questions to move your client or employee into action.

Stoltzfus' book expands on this type of core coaching model to include the entire coaching process. His book is divided into six sections, which can be read straight through or serve as a reference depending on what stage of the coaching relationship you are in. Section I, Getting Started, includes how to structure a coaching session and start significant conversations as well how to become a master of asking questions.  Here are what Stoltzfus believes are the top mistakes coaches make in asking questions, and how to correct them:

• Asking closed questions that can only be answered with a yes or a no. Instead, ask open-ended questions beginning with "what" or "how".
• Giving a solution in the form of the question. Instead, follow your intuition or curiosity to an open question with many possible solutions.
• Seeking the "one true question." Know that it is not the perfect question that makes the difference-trust the process and don't lose momentum trying to think of the exact right words.  Use simple queries like "tell me more" or "what else," or pick the most significant thing the person said, repeat their exact words, and ask them to expand on it.
• Rambling, for example asking the same question three different ways or trying to tie together five different nuances. Instead, think before you talk, ask it once, then stop; don't try to fill in the silence. 
• Asking Interpretive questions, which means putting your own theory of what's going on into your question. To avoid interjecting your opinion, rephrase or restate your coachee's own words.
• Asking leading questions that subtly point the coachee to your predetermined answer. Redeem the question in the act of asking it by presenting multiple options and adding "or"s.  
• Neglecting to interrupt, or interrupting too much.  It's easy to just let the coachee go on and on, but it's counter-productive, giving you too much irrelevant detail. Let your coachee tell the story but be sure to break in on key points.
• Asking "Why" questions-they make the coachee defensive.  Turn why's to what's. Instead of saying Why did you quit your job, ask What factors led you to leave.

Section II, The Coaching Process, covers different coaching and conversational models and exercises including the Grow Model, the Coaching Funnel, The Coaching Agenda, Life Wheel, and SMART Goals. He also talks about how to define the problem, how to ask probing questions, how to get the client to generate different options, and how to lead the client toward taking action steps. A key challenge at the start of any coaching relationship or question, according to Stoltzfus, is to determine the client's real need, something that may lie underneath the problem the client originally presents. This constitutes a large part of the Assessment phase in Mariposa Leadership's ITM Coaching^TM model. Here are some key questions Stoltzfus lists to get progressively deeper into the problem:

• What is the most important problem you want to solve?
• What would make a lasting difference and not just a temporary one?
• How does this connect with your overall objectives, values, dreams>
• What's behind this?
• If this change was easy, you would have done it already-what makes it so difficult?
• What obstacles to this change have you run into in the past?
• Is this a one-time issue, or something you struggle with a lot?
• What I am hearing you say is that you could do this if you were just more disciplined.  Has that worked for you in the past?
• You've mentioned what others need to change in order for this to work. Let's say they never change. What would you do then?
• What in this situation is within your control, that you can realistically change?

In using these types of questions, look for examples of patterns versus one-time problems, at external circumstances vs. attitudes, symptoms vs. cures.  Before moving into action steps, be sure to probe deep enough into the assessment by asking plenty of "short and sweet" questions such as "say more about that" and "keep going" and "what else."

It is not until Section V, Advanced Asking Skills, that Stoltzfus returns to the art of the powerful question, covering questions that move coaches toward different types of actions: affirmation, decision making, motivation/habit change, challenge, reframing/perspective change, reflection, feedback and evaluation. It is in this section that Stoltzfus discusses reframing techniques, which are a way of helping the coachee come to anything from a slightly different perspective to an outright answer. Stoltzfus lists four types of perspectives: proportion, or seeing the big picture and the real importance and true interrelationship of things; objectivity, or rational, detached thinking; viewpoint, or looking at the situation from a variety of different angles; and clarity, knowing that you know what there is to know about a situation and having the assurance to act confidentially. Methods the coach can use to reframe any of these perspectives include questions of balance, moving forward in time, pressing on passion or purpose, asking about the viewpoint of others, removing and adding obstacles to hypothetical scenarios, and questioning motives and level of confidence. Buy it.