Questions Over Answers: Empowering Clients Through Curiosity

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Curiosity beats quick fixes—and the difference shows up in your client’s results. We dig into the real reason new coaches rush to solutions, the hidden costs of assumption-led sessions, and the simple, reliable practices that keep coaching client-centered and effective. Instead of prescribing steps, we show how to use targeted, clean questions to reveal what matters, expand options, and build genuine ownership.

We break down clean thinking, a practical method to catch your own biases in the moment and steer back to the client’s world. You’ll hear why giving answers often backfires—creating dependency and misfit plans—and how a single reframe, like “How could you excel at both?” shifts a client from either-or to both-and. We share the follow-up that multiplies momentum—“How could one make you better at the other?”—and talk through ways to keep curiosity warm, precise, and ethical without drifting into vague conversation. Expect concrete examples, language you can use today, and a structure for sessions that moves from discovery to expansion to selection and small, testable actions.

If you’re building coaching skills, leading teams, or guiding clients through change, this conversation gives you questions that open doors, not directions that close them. Listen for the moments where curiosity created a breakthrough, learn how to avoid questions that send clients down dead ends, and get a preview of the next lesson on working with client perspectives without planting limiting beliefs. If this helped sharpen your practice, follow the show, share it with a coach who’s stuck in advice mode, and leave a review so more people find these tools.

Eastern for an honest, behind-the-scenes look at the lessons we’ve learned by watching real coaches grow? Visit us at:

https://www.modernleadership.us/mastery

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
When coaches start their first practice calls, we
see them jump right intosolutions.
Why does that happen?
They're really trying to help.
Unfortunately, they assume toomuch up front.
And staying curious is whatreally helps keep the session
focused on the client instead ofthe coach's assumptions.
When we ask questions, we canactually help our clients stay
in curiosity mode and lead theirown transformations.

(00:23):
When we're giving them all ofthe answers, number one is a lot
of times those answers won'teven work for them because those
are our answers.
But number two, now it kind ofhandcuffs them to waiting for
you to give them direction andthey can't actually empower
themselves to go out and to taketheir own actions.
I've also seen that sometimes ifyou assume too much, it actually
shuts your client down becausethey don't feel connected to

(00:44):
you.
You're not getting curious.
You're just giving them steps,actions, or things for them to
do.
Remember that asking questionsopen doors that your clients
never even knew existed.
So stay in curiosity mode.
And you're going to be amazedjust what doing that can do for
your client.
That's why today's quote iscuriosity creates breakthroughs.
What does it look like when acoach makes an assumption too

(01:06):
soon?
They start to guide the clientin a direction thinking that's
the best way for them to go, butthey don't have all the
information yet.
How do you stay curious when youthink you already know what's
going on?
It would be simple just to saynever assume that you know the
answer.
But in reality, it's to be ableto coach yourself in the moment
to keep you out of your head andinto your client's situation.

(01:28):
One of the things that we teachour coaches a lot is this
process called clean thinking.
And that is anytime that youstart to bring in your
preconceived notions, ideas, oractions that you think your
client should take, the sessionis no longer about them and it's
more about you.
So being able to guide yourselfback into curiosity is huge.
Have you ever seen curiositymake a major shift in your

(01:48):
client?
Almost every single session.
I always look for a questionthat will get my client to sort
of thinking of thingsdifferently.
One of the ones that comes up alot is how could you excel at
both?
Or how could you do both?
This is something that wasactually asked of me early on
when I was trying to excel in mypolice career, but also wanted
to create a better connectionwith you and the kids.

(02:10):
And what I realized is that mybrain was focused on, well, I
can only do one or the other.
And what I didn't realize is Icould have both.
But somebody had to ask me thatquestion.
How could you excel in both?
And not just excel in both, buthow could one make you better in
the other?
And when I started to ask myselfthat question, I had so many
infinite answers and I wasexcited to do it that I went out

(02:30):
there, I took action and endedup changing my situation.
Now that's why we practicequestions over and over and over
again inside of thecertification.
Not only because we want you toget reps into practice, but
there's actually some questionsthat you can ask that will take
your client in the wrongdirection.
More on that in a few morelessons.
Now, if you missed episodenumber two, definitely grab that
one because we talked aboutjumping in the pool and how you

(02:52):
could accidentally give thatthing your client is struggling
with more power over them.
And today we talked about howcuriosity can prevent you from
rushing to judgment or makingassumptions.
And next lesson, we're gonna gopretty deep.
We're gonna be talking aboutyour client's perspective, what
you can do with it, and what youwant to 100% avoid doing so that
you don't plant any limitingbeliefs.

(03:13):
See you in episode number four.