For coaches, a question to ask ourselves when people seek answers from us: Is this a coaching moment or a learning moment?
When a person asks a question, it usually falls into one of these three: confidence questions that arise from struggling to trust oneself; skill questions that happen when people haven’t learned at least one way to solve a specific problem; or awareness questions that people don't know what a good class entails, what a particular form of art should look like, or what a piece of music should sound like.
Asking questions can be a powerful way to remind, validate, and assure, or a total waste of attention and time if people haven’t learned enough information, skills to solve a problem, or a perspective to see the real challenge.
Before deciding which moment this is, asking questions to learn helps everyone.
