Hello Friends,

I was telling a client about this yesterday, so I thought I would share it with you. It's a little bit of coaching wizardry.

One of the main uses of coaching is that it holds a mirror up to people. It helps them to look at themselves, their challenges and their opportunities in a fresh way.

Because, as coaches, we know that people have the answers to their questions within them. Our job is to help them express that.

Which means, part of the service we provide is simply to help people to talk. And you can do that too.

So here's what you are going to do. Next time you are having a conversation with someone who is wrestling with something, find an opportunity to use these two phrases:

• Go on...
• And so...?

They are what we call listening prompts.

Go on simply encourages people to keep talking. It's an invitation and it implies the other person has your attention and can take their time.

And so...? is a question that isn't a question. It's an invitation to make a decision, but it is much more subtle than what are you going to do? We use this to help someone move forward to action, instead of getting stuck in rumination.

I hope you find this useful. Let me know how you go, Stephen

If you like this sort of thing, you should try my free email sequence Ask Better. Lead Better.

This helps you to learn lots of coaching tricks that you can apply to everyday life. It's pretty cool.