Coaching is a powerful partnership that is hugely impactful in leadership development. Professional coaches are specifically trained to ask questions that stretch their client's perspectives and give light to their blind spots. Let's break down some of the top thought-provoking leadership and coaching questions that will help you grow your leadership skills personally and professionally.
Leadership is a journey. Some of us have it in our bones where others become leaders later in life as they face situations where they have to learn and practice. Whether you are a natural-born leader or learned to become one later in life, one thing is for sure that you need to keep developing yourself. The only constant in life is change - and as someone who wants to become a leader, you need to accept that you will have to constantly change to become a better version of yourself.
Who are you as a leader?
Who do you want to be as a leader? Once you have internalized and found answers to these questions, it will help you and your team to embody and to bring improved leadership qualities into your personal/professional life.
Authentic leaders have a habit of self-reflection as staying true to who they really are. Leaders who care also pay a lot of attention to who they are becoming because they are always focused on growth. They know that when you come to the same office every day, there is a tendency to become mediocre without notice.
Therefore they keep asking themselves self-reflective questions or they hire coaches who will ask them these questions! Self-awareness is a core value for them. The following self-reflective questions exercise may offer a new perspective on how you see your leadership contributing to your life and work.
And as you answer the questions below, take a moment to notice how your own answers resonate with you.
P/s: You know what; these questions make fabulous leadership journal prompts - so grab your journal and write a few sentences!
Our top coaching questions that will help you develop your leadership skills:
- What are your top three strengths that you practice the most as a leader?
- What are your bottom three strengths that you haven’t been able to practice?
- What is your leadership vision?
- Who do you want to become when you are the best version of yourself?
- What is your leadership philosophy?
- What kind of a leader do you need to become?
- What do you need to adjust to create the impact that you want to see?
- What do you need to change in yourself and leave behind?
- If you were one of your team members that were led by your current self, would you be satisfied?
- If we ask your future self about the lessons that are learned, what would your future self tell us?
- What are you noticing as you answer these questions?
- With this new awareness, what are you willing to do differently as of today?
After you've done this exercise, write them down and add a date to these answers. We also suggest that you should do this exercise at least 2-3 times a year. We all change every day, and sometimes you might not notice it because daily changes are negligible. But, if you go back and answer the same questions over a large period of time then your changes will be a lot more noticeable.
What are some of the top leadership qualities you believe a leader should have? And how did you realize how important they were? I'd love to know!
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