The Power of A (Right) Question

One of the realisations I have had, over the past month and a half, since I have joined the coaching certification course is this – A pertinent question asked at the right place and at the right time has more power than a hundred answers provided to someone!

It is famously said “Provide a man with fish you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish you feed him for a lifetime.” Throughout our lives, right from our school education, to the time we grow up and join work, societal conditioning exhorts us to seek for and provide answers. The importance of finding the correct answer is so overplayed, that in the insatiable quest to find or provide the answers, we forget to ask the right questions, and in the bargain, lose out on a deeper understanding and analysis of the problem at hand.

Problem solving is one of the most highly sought after skills in almost any role we perform – be it as a professional or in our personal lives. Modern lives are complex and the sheer number of variables which are always at work ensures that we are perennially in the mode of problem solving, be it for ourselves or for our teams or our stakeholders/family members. The easiest and the most tempting thing to do, when someone reaches out with an issue, is to offer a solution, solve the problem and move on to the next problem. However, what we often overlook in the bargain is that the solution we have provided is our solution, and not necessarily one that may suit the situation the best. Our solutions are based on our learnings from similar situations we have faced, and the belief is that if it has worked for us, it could certainly work for the other person as well. Well, not necessarily!

A much better approach would be to ask questions – to try and understand the situation in greater depth, and with the purpose of helping the other person to come out with their own solutions. Their problems, their solutions! Remember, on most occasions, the person may already have the solution somewhere within, all we need to do is to help him/her arrive at that, with the right set of questions!

That is exactly where coaching fits in! Coaching is often misunderstood as providing solutions – it is anything but that! Coaching is about having a conversation with the other person and asking the right set of questions, which help that person arrive at the solution by himself/herself. Remember, the best coaches will never offer a solution, or even suggest an approach – they will just act as a guiding light that one can use to arrive at the destination, or the solution. And, it goes without saying, when one arrives at their own solution, the buy-in will be that much higher, so will the accountability to self to see it through to completion.

I invite you to proceed on this path of asking the right questions to your team/stakeholders, and enable them to catch their own fish for a lifetime!

Author Name: Sayan Bandyopadhyay
Title of the Blog: The Power of A (Right) Question
About the Author: AVP-HR-HDFC Life-Handling the HR operations for 4000+ manpower for east zone based out of Kolkata. Have completed by MBA in HR from XLRI Jamshedpur in 2007
Program Attended: Coaching Certification-ACC
Reason for taking the program: I have always had an inclination towards coaching and have found that helping people realise their potential and help them arrive at answers have always been of interest to me. This also fits in with my long term career goals
What worked for you: The small batch size, the timings and the great faculty
What benefits you got: This has helped me discover the beauty of coaching, and helped me reinforce my belief in its power and of my fitment with this profession