How to deal with vague responses in coaching

Precision questions in coaching

When working with a coachee, I often find that they blame others or cast aspersions by being vague in describing their issue. They say something like, "Communication is rubbish round here". There are so many possible interpretations for this statement and we have to get a shared understanding of what is meant, this is where precision questions come in.

Precision questions are really useful for raising self-awareness, and gaining ownership and commitment and are helpful when the coachee uses imprecise and generalised language. Being vague or generalising or distorting information is often an avoidance tactic and precision questions reconnect the coachee and make them face up to the situation. It is also important that the coach doesn’t assume they know what the coachee means, but checks this out.

Precision questions may come across as a little aggressive so should be used sparingly and only when there is a high degree of trust. Starting with something like, “I was wondering ..”, helps to soften them.

Let's deal with one group of vagueness - when the coachee deletes information.

Deletion:
If the coachee uses a vague noun such as ‘management’ the coach can help them clarify who and what is meant by asking, “Who specifically do you mean?” or “Is that all management or some of management?” The coach questions to ensure the coachee sees clearly what lies behind the statement.

When the verb is imprecise or the action vague, for example ‘to improve my communication’, to ask “What precisely do you mean by that?”, forces the coachee to think this through in detail and talk about actions that can be identified and measured. In this example, “To respond to emails briefly, concisely and to the point.”

If the coachee uses terms such as ‘more’, ‘better’, ‘less’ without a comparator the sentence is meaningless. Here the coach will ask, “More than what/who?” to invite specific comparison.

In the next blog I'll cover Generalisations such as 'always', then Distortions such as 'he made me fail in that task'.

If you have any questions or comments, please do post them here.