Learning Autonomy – Part III
April 15, 2025
Conversational Competence (Coaching) in Leadership
April 15, 2025
By Arnoldo Arana
In coaching, listening is essential because this practice activates a transformative conversation. Active listening is indispensable in coaching because without it, a coach would lack the feedback needed to ask focused questions at the right time. If the coach doesn’t listen well, they can’t ask good questions; but active listening allows for adequate feedback on what the client has expressed, allowing them to continue moving forward in an extraordinary conversation.
In coaching, listening and questioning are mutually involved. Together, they form the cycle for an effective coaching session. Listening combines with curious questioning to provide feedback—to serve as a mirror—to foster self-exploration by the client; this involves challenging the coachee’s assertions. To this end, the coach provides feedback not through interpretations, but through questions—feedquestioning—that invite the client to examine other points of view, focus on meaning, examine the relevance of assertions, and generate reflection.
Feedquestioning is a word derived from two English words: feedback, which means “feedback,” and questioning, which means “asking.” Hence, feedquestioning means giving feedback by asking questions.
Feedback through feedquestioning involves providing feedback through questions that allow the client to observe themselves and draw their own conclusions. This promotes self-feedback, encouraging self-reflection, self-learning, and personal accountability.
Some examples of feedquestioning-type questions include: How do you evaluate your performance? On what results do you base your opinion of your performance? What results do the performance indicators that serve as the basis for your evaluation yield? What actions or steps do you need to commit to and take to improve your performance?
Differences between feedback and feedquestioning
| Feedback | Feedquestioning | |
| Result | · Advice, instruction | · Insight. Reflection. |
| Solution or proposal | · Comes from the coach | · It comes from the person (coachee) himself/herself |
| Responsibility | · It’s up to the coach | · What is given to the coachee |
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