Getting To Know You Questions
For Life Coaching Clients

Those "Getting to know you questions" with a new client can take up a lot of time. Put them in a simple questionnaire like the one I've devised for my intake package, and your coaching is off to a flying start.

They will give you a head start on knowing what makes the client tick and can save so much time in the initial session.

Of course you don’t have to stick to the questions I ask but they will give you a starting point.

You may find my guidelines on how present and frame up these questions to the client, I've added after the questionnaire, useful too.

I also invite you to contribute any questions you would add at the bottom of this page.

Sample Getting To Know You Questions

1. Energy and passion: Where do you get your energy – what motivates and turns you on? What are your passionate about?

2. Emotion: What moves you to tears of joy/sorrow?
3. Pleasure: How do you enjoy yourself? What do you enjoy doing?
4. Stress release: What do you find works for you to release stress?
5. Responsibility: Where are you most irresponsible?
6. Control: What emotion makes you feel most out of control?

7. Sabotage: How might you sabotage our professional relationship?
8. Results: How will you know how effective our coaching has been? When you get to the end of the coaching series you'll find this Coaching Evaluation Questionaire will help you and your client quantify this.
9. Coaching preference: How can I best coach you? With lots of structure or informally?
10. Learning style: Do you learn best predominantly by listening, seeing or doing or an equal combination of all three?
11. Goals: Do you understand that I support YOU, not just your goals? Find lots of information and useful distinctions on Setting and Achieving Goals that will really help your clients.
12. Values: What are your values – the things in life that are really important to you?
13. Business opportunities: What business/career opportunities you are currently not making the most/anything of?
14. Personal Needs: What are three personal desires you are currently not pursuing?
15. Poor relationships: Is there anyone in your life who is constantly putting you down, making you feel inadequate or whom you feel you have to tread carefully around?
16. Challenges:What is the biggest challenge you have in your life right now?
17. Priority: What is your most urgent problem?
18. Control: What emotion makes you feel most out of control?(submitted by coach Barry Kay, Manchester, UK)

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How to Use the 'Getting to Know You Questions'
for Life Coaching Clients

I suggest you send this as a Word (or similar) document and ask them to save this document, type in their answers under each question email back to you, preferably before their first official session.

You can add any changes you need to, to make the questions apply to your particular specialty or niche.

Here's what you could say to your new client when asking them to complete the questions: (I write it as an introduction to the questions)

"I'd like you to reflect on the following questions about yourself to tell me a little about yourself.

Answer the best you can. Even if you find some of these thought-provoking questions challenging, try and answer them anyway.

The answers will allow me to get to quickly know you better and enable me to coach you more powerfully. The answers may also give you some insights.

There are no rights or wrongs. Your answers to can be as long or short as you like. The purpose is to give us an overview of where you are at in your life/business/profession and to get you thinking."

You can send out the getting to know you coaching questions with your “welcome as a client” email or letter. Include an explanation as to why the 'getting to know you' is so important to complete.

When you get the answers, highlight anything that you feel needs discussing as part of the first session or requiring more depth as the coaching proceeds.

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