Imagine this – you are talking with a colleague who is using the language of someone who is “stuck” or out of options for dealing with an issue or challenge. What should you do? Should you try to solve the issue or challenge for the person, or should you remain in a coach leader role and help that person move toward solution thinking? Our hunch is that you will stay in your role as a coach and offer up some powerful questions.  You may choose to use two powerful questions supported by positive psychology to help others become unstuck and move towards solution thinking. The first question is the Miracle Question followed by the Exception Question. The Miracle Question goes like this: “Suppose that you go to bed tonight and sleep well. Sometime, in the middle of the night, while you are sleeping, a miracle happens and all the troubles or the challenges you were having are resolved. When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first small sign you would see that would make you think, “Well, something must have happened—the problem is gone!” The Miracle Question doesn’t ask someone to describe the miracle, instead it asks the person to identify the tangible signs that the miracle happened. It focuses on the first hints of the miracle.

Next comes the Exception Question: “When was the last time you saw a little bit of the miracle, even just for a short time?” You ask this question to help the person build their confidence in being able to solve the challenge. If he or she has experienced success before in a similar area, they can do it again, as the song says – ‘If I make it in New York, I can make it anywhere!” Both the Miracle and Exceptions Questions are powerful questions that help others offer up their own proof that they can solve the current dilemma because they have already solved it in the past, in some way or another.

How do you see these questions helping you as a coach leader and in what ways do you plan to begin to imbed them into your conversations?

By Vicky Dearing, PCC
Coaching For Results Global