Module 6 : Code of Ethics and

Regulatory Standards in Life

Coaching Practices; Powerful
Questioning Skills (I)

Objectives
Code of ethics and standards, as recommended by the ICF
Coaching style and presence
How to create improved awareness
How to formulate effective plans of action
Powerful questioning skills in life coaching

Code of Ethics and Regulatory Standards

in Life Coaching Practices; Powerful
Questioning Skills (I) – 06m 20s

6.1 Introduction
Coaching is an interactive and empowering
process that is aimed at helping people
maximise their potential and live more
meaningful lives.

While the coaching industry is not fully regulated in the UK,

insomuch as life coaches do not have to possess mandatory
qualifications, the ICF (International Coach Federation) does
recommend certain codes of ethics and standards, in order to
ensure quality and standardisation of practices. As an
aspiring life coach, it is a good idea to be familiar with the
code of ethics and standards, before you embark on your
career.

Life coaches must maintain confidentiality with regards to

client information.
They must formulate proper agreements, whereby the roles and
responsibilities of each party are clearly described. You must
explain what life coaching can and cannot do and the
limitations and boundaries in relation to your professional
relationship with the client. You should be able to
distinguish between perspectives and actual fact, while being
able to identify interpretation and opinion.

Transformational and successful life coaching depends on

certain important processes that are learnt over time. These
include creating awareness, the style of coaching and your
presence, as well as formulating action plans and setting
goals with the client. Your main role should be supportive and
unobtrusive, while at the same time, encouraging the client to
take positive steps towards achieving their goals.

One of the most powerful techniques to promote self-

exploration and awareness is questioning. Life coaching
depends upon your ability to ask the right questions, in order
to trigger fresh thinking. Then the client thinks about the
answers and responds to each question, thus, slowly gaining
self-awareness and progressing towards where they want to be.
This module discusses the different types of questions that
you can ask your clients.

The most empowering type of questions that helps elicit

detailed and well-thought out answers is open-ended questions.
When compared with closed questions, open-ended questions help
encourage thinking about the answer and allow you to identify
misinterpretation and misunderstanding. This module describes
different open-ended questions that help establish goals,
formulate action plans and enhance clarification.

Fact

Considering the fact that it does

not require formal qualifications, life coaching is one job
whereby earning potential is at its highest. Some of the
wealthiest life coaches in the UK earn around £500,000 per
year.
Source: telegraph.co.uk

6.2 Code of Ethics and Standards in

Life Coaching
In general, the person being coached is
referred to as the ‘client’. As a life
coach, you must pledge to practice in a way
that reflects positively on the coaching
profession in general.

As a life coach, you must not make any misleading statements

regarding your credentials or about what life coaching can do
to help individuals. It is important to stay within the
framework of honesty and transparency.

Before coaching clients, truthfully communicate your

experience and any credentials.
At times, our personal experiences and events in our personal
lives may impact our ability to coach others. Emotionally
challenging experiences, such as the death of a loved one and
divorce may impair your ability to coach your clients. At
times like this, it is a good idea to step back from your job,
until you are able to provide standard life coaching services
again. If required, you may also consider seeking professional
assistance, in order to move forward from certain transitional
points in your personal life.

If you are involved in researching activities related to life

coaching, make sure that you are aware of any laws applicable
in the UK regarding life coaching research.
Life coaches practicing in the UK must ensure that they
promote the security and privacy of client information, by
ensuring the safe storage of personal information. Client
confidentiality must be paramount in your practice as a life
coach and must be upheld in accordance with UK law.

If you encounter a situation that represents a conflict of

interest, endeavour to be honest and upfront about it, and
step back from the client. This is because your actions may
not always be in their best interests, even if
unintentionally.

You must avoid taking monetary or material advantage of your

coaching relationship with the client. The relationship must
be professional and adhere to strict codes of conduct. You
must only accept money in your capacity as a coach.

Professional Conduct with Clients

The life coach must refrain from making any false statements
or promises regarding what the client will receive from the
coaching process or from the coach. You must not intentionally
provide any misleading or falsified information to your
clients.

Life coaches should always provide clear legal agreements or

contracts with clients – you can choose to utilise the
services of a local lawyer, in order to have one drawn one up
for you. You must make a point of following the points
stipulated in the agreement or contract.

Prior to the commencement of life coaching sessions, you must

strive to clearly explain to the client the nature of the
coaching relationship, its limits, confidentiality clauses and
financial considerations.

The ICF recommends clearly explaining any appropriate physical

contact with clients, such as hand-shaking or patting them on
the shoulder, and you should also take into account cultural
sensitivity. Please note that sexual intimacy or inappropriate
physical contact should be completely avoided, as part of your
code of ethics.

Any violation of the client may bring about legal action and
consequent punishment.
If applicable, the code of ethics should also cover
appropriate physical contact between your staff members and
their clients and amongst themselves.

The client has the right to terminate the contract at any

time, as long as they have met the necessary costs. There
should be no coercion or forced obligation.

If you feel that the client would benefit from another coach,
please ensure that you make the appropriate recommendation
that serves the client’s best interests. If necessary, you may
also suggest additional therapy or counselling for the client.

Facts, Opinions and Belief

As you listen to your client, learn to distinguish between
fact, opinions, feelings, thoughts and perceptions. This
enhances your ability to understand the client and can help
them interpret their own behaviours better.

This may take practice at first but as your business gains

traction, you’ll become more adept at being able to pick out
these nuances of speech. In most cases, the client is likely
to subconsciously communicate with a mix of facts, opinions
and beliefs.

Here’s a closer look at how to differentiate between the

three.

Facts
Facts are realities and do not allow for doubt or personal
bias.

These are examples of facts:

I work as an accountant at XYZ firml

I am a widowerl
My son studies at ABC school

Opinion
An opinion is a judgement or view of something which is not
necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

Examples of opinions include the following:

Single men can never cook

Foreigners who can’t speak English are not to be trusted
Successful women don’t know how to balance work and
family

Belief
Beliefs are closely allied with opinions with a slight
difference. A belief is something you believe to be true.

These are examples of beliefs (both positive and negative):

 I can never be good at working with numbers
I am very good at developing a rapport with my customer
I cannot speak in a meeting
I can never cook properly on my own

Confidentiality and Privacy

As a life coach, it is your duty to maintain the strictest
possible confidentiality with regards to the client’s
information, and you should only divulge information to a
third party if required by law.

You should consider having a clear agreement that describes

the mode of exchange of information between the coach and the
client. The agreement should describe the roles and
responsibilities of all parties involved in the coaching
process.

It is very important to adhere to a code of ethics, so that

your role as a life coach is well-defined and follows UK
regulations. Violations of client-coach agreements may have
legal repercussions.
You must dispose of old records/information in accordance with
government rules.

Establishing Trust with a Client

A life coach should demonstrate genuine interest in the
client’s development and welfare; the client’s needs should
come first.

All your actions and words should indicate personal integrity,

honesty and sincerity.

The life coach must always show respect for the client’s
perceptions, learning pace and individuality. This could also
include cultural differences.

With an increasingly culturally mixed population in the UK, it

is very important to be able to effectively communicate
amongst different cultures, in order to maintain a healthy,
sustainable life coaching practice.
It is a good idea to offer ongoing support to the client, as
they enter into new territory in terms of goals and action
plans. You may wish to ask formal permission from the client,
if you wish to coach them in new and sensitive areas.

Continuing Development
As a life coach, you should consider continuing ongoing
development of your skills, by attending seminars or taking
further training courses.

Activity
Estimated time: 5-10 minutes

When you deal with clients and help them progress

towards their goals, what special precautions would you
like to take with regards to preserving client
confidentiality?
How can you ensure that your clients understand the
limits and boundaries of a coaching relationship?
Do you think that you would prefer to utilise the
services of a solicitor, in order to prepare an
agreement?

6.3 Key Steps in Life Coaching: How

to Incorporate Effective Practices
/ Coaching Style and Presence
You should be fully present and mindful
during your interaction with clients, and
your coaching should ideally demonstrate
flexibility, openness and confidence.

Life coaches should also be open to the idea of not knowing

something and taking risks within the limits of reason and
safety.

In addition, you should be able to demonstrate confidence in

handling strong emotions, without getting involved in the
client’s situation. Humour is also an excellent aid, to add
some lightness and positive energy; however, the humour used
should not be sarcastic or rude.

Your entire attention should be focused on what the client is

saying, and not saying, and your support – by means of words
and silence – should help the client to express their
feelings, without embarrassment.

The client’s agenda should come before yours, and you must
make a point of allowing the client to express or vent their
feelings, without prejudice.
By listening carefully, you should be able to understand the
essence or the core of the client’s communication and help
formulate goals based on that.

6.4 How to Create Improved

Awareness
One of the most important skills of a life
coach is their ability to evaluate and
integrate information regarding the client’s
communication from multiple sources.

You should also be able to make interpretations that help the

clients gain self-awareness in regards to their current
challenges and the best ways in which to move forward.

This step is aimed at helping the client clarify what they

really want. Often, this may not be clear straightaway, as
many of us are sometimes confused about what we want. Our
thoughts are coloured by societal and family expectations.

By taking the client through a coaching assessment, a life

coach is able to help clarify both their short-term and long-
term goals. Life coaching sessions should be created in order
to be purpose and goal-orientated, right from the start.

An effective life coach looks beyond words and perceptions and

is able to understand the way in which the client thinks about
him or herself and the world. Incisive questioning techniques
should be able to awaken a sense of self-enquiry, creating
greater clarity.

Life coaches should be able to distinguish between facts,

opinions, perception and interpretation and identify feelings
and thoughts. Your skills help your clients to discover their
own thoughts, actions, moods, perceptions, emotions and
behaviour that can reinforce their ability to take action and
achieve the goals that are important to them.

Coaching Assessment
A coaching assessment is a form that helps map out the
client’s short and long-term goals, current situation and
future vision for their life. This acts as a sounding board,
when the life coach works with a client.

For example
If one of your client’s challenges is feeling stress from
having too many things to do, you may wish to request that
your client fills out a time management and priorities
assessment sheet, in order to understand the current
situation.
Life coaching assessments help pinpoint and identify
challenges and obstacles, as well as opportunities.

Coaching Plan
Similarly, coaching plans help keep the session focused and
are a great resource for documenting your success and
progress.

While coaching plans can vary in content and type, the three
main aspects to include are:

The client’s accomplishments and achievements since the

last session

Any challenges or obstacles that prevented the client

from potential achievements or accomplishments
Priorities and goals for the upcoming session

A well-structured coaching plan helps your clients to keep

motivated and moving towards their goals while, at the same
time, keeping the bigger picture in mind.

As a life coach, your support is instrumental in helping your

clients understand broader and fresher perspectives that
inspire higher levels of commitment and motivate them to take
action.

Life coaching helps clients identify major areas for growth

and learning, as well as differentiate between what is being
said and what is being done. Life coaches also help their
clients to distinguish between situational and recurring
patterns of behaviour and identify thoughts and feelings that
impact their actions.

Most of the interaction between a life coach and a client

takes place in the form of powerful conversations that include
important questions aimed at encouraging self-enquiry.

6.5 Powerful Questioning Skills

‘A question works because, unlike a
statement which requires you to obey, a
question requires you to think.’ Nancy Kline

Life coaching sessions are conducted through the means of

deep, thought-provoking and insightful questions. By asking
your client questions, you are able to gain useful insights
regarding the client’s perspectives, values and challenges.
The questioning process is unique to each client and helps
determine the right action plans that will promote goal
achievement and fulfilment.

Life coaching questions need to be specific and definite, as

opposed to general and opinionated. The questions need to help
your client look into an unbiased, realistic mirror that
reflects the current scenario. The answers will help identify
external and internal resources, including the thought
processes which hamper progress. The ultimate goal is to
initiate an open, objective and fact-based life coaching
process.

Questions are much more of a useful communication tool than

answers because the answer that you can provide for your
client may not be the answer that is right for them. By asking
powerful, incisive and non-judgmental questions, you are
creating space in which your clients can verbalise their
thoughts and gain greater clarity. Your questions can help
your clients answer for themselves, after thinking about what
is important to them. Your clients develop best when they
discover their own answers.

Fact

In the US, Europe and Asia, many

life coaches either charge monthly fees, for a series of
sessions, or by the hour, which is more common in the case of
corporate coaching situations.
Source: lifecoachingprofessionally.com

6.6 How to Ask Good Questions

We use questions all the time in our
everyday lives, in order to obtain
information or clarification.
The purpose of asking a question in a coaching session is to
elicit an answer from the client, after they have had an
opportunity to observe the issue under discussion.

The following points will help you to understand how to ask

strong, effective questions that help empower the coaching
sessions:

Keep the questions simple and succinct, and only ask one
question at a time. Remember that it is not your aim to rush
the session or pressurise the client into answering the
question.

Give the client time in which to reflect on and ponder the

question and then answer it. Your questions may elicit
multiple thoughts and ideas, and the client may wish to
consider these carefully, before answering. Many questions may
challenge the client’s beliefs or turn their thoughts towards
new directions.

If the client has not fully comprehended the meaning of the

question, you may need to paraphrase it or repeat it, for
clarification.

Use open-ended questions that can prompt and encourage

thinking, instead of closed questions that require one-word
answers. Once the client has answered, their thinking process
comes to an end.

The best part about life coaching is that there are no wrong
answers – there is only feedback. All you need to do is ask a
different question, in order to set in motion a different
thinking process.

Questions can be constructed in different ways, in order to

draw out different responses, and they can be of different
types, as outlined below:

Closed questions
 Open questions
Predictive questions
Diagnostic questions
Information gathering questions
Critical questions
Generalisation questions
Priority and sequence questions
Action questions
Challenging/testing questions

We will examine some of these types of questions in turn and

understand their relevance to life coaching. You may wish to
remember that bad questions lead to bad answers, while good
questions can evoke informative responses.

Closed Questions
Closed questions elicit a very simple answer – very often, it
is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. These questions are not normally
useful for life coaching sessions, as they do not allow the
client the space they need in which to think and answer the
questions. As a result, they do not provide a deeper
understanding of the issue.

Misinterpretation or misunderstanding of the question can

escape notice because, in most cases, the question involves
monosyllabic answers. Also, closed questions tend to allow for
simplistic answers to questions that require in-depth
thinking.

Open-ended Questions
As the name suggests, open-ended questions involve answers
that involve thinking, and they are subjective in nature. They
usually begin with ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘how’, etc. If you
want to transform the tone of the conversation to a friendlier
one, consider prefacing each question with ‘could you…’,
‘perhaps you’d like to tell me…’, etc. This helps avoid the
question sounding like a formal interrogation.
Open-ended questions provide the space and opportunity to
answer in detail, in the way in which the client wishes, and
the life coach is able to elicit adequate answers. Answers to
open-ended questions also reveal any misinterpretation of the
question, while allowing for creativity of expression and
self-exploration.

Findings tend to be detailed, informative and insightful, as

you can also help the client think about complex issues. In
general, open-ended questions include attitudes, preferences,
opinions and, most importantly, allow improved access to the
client’s true feelings on the particular subject.

As a life coach, open-ended questions allow your client

freedom and space, while providing detailed responses that
reveal insights that you can use to their benefit. Answers to
open-ended questions also provide unique perspectives and new
information that help explore fresh approaches to a challenge.
As a life coach, you are able to gain access to the client’s
frame of thinking by obtaining an improved understanding of
their thoughts.

To follow are some very useful examples of open-ended

questions that are likely to serve as strong life coaching
tools and help drill down to specifics:

1. Establishing a topic for the current life coaching session.

‘Hi, how have you been since our last coaching session?’
‘What’s been working/not working for you since the last
session?’
‘Any highlights or low points that you’d like to tell me
about?’
‘In what way can I help you this session?’

2. Background/history. Please note that, although life

coaching does not involve actively exploring the past,
you do need some insight into the background to the
client’s current situation.
 ‘What caused it/led up to it?’
‘What do you think about what happened?’

3. Establishing goals for the session.

‘What would make you very happy, if you finished it this

week?’
‘What do you want to happen by the end of today’s
session?’
‘What would be the most helpful thing to happen in our
session today?’
‘What would you like me to work on that would help you
the most over the next few days/next week?’
‘What would make you smile right now?’
‘What are the three most important aspects that would
help make the most difference in your life?’
‘What do you really want’/‘What would you love to do?’
‘How would you feel, if we stretched the goal?’

4. Open-ended questions that help drill into the psychology

of goal setting.

‘How serious are you about this goal?’/‘Why is this goal

important to you?’
‘Are you able to describe your desired goal outcome to
me?’
‘Why did you choose this goal?’
‘How would you feel, if this goal is not achieved?’
‘How will reaching this goal benefit other areas of your
life?’
‘What is your gut feeling about this goal?/‘Is this goal
aligned with who you are as a person?’

5. Open-ended questions that help enhance clarity.

‘How do you feel about it?’

‘What do you mean?’/‘How do you feel about it?’
‘Can you tell me more?’/‘Which part is not yet clear to
you?’
 ‘Any other ideas/thoughts/feelings that you’d like to
tell me about?’

6. Open-ended questions, to encourage exploration.

‘What is it about the situation/relationship/experience

that you want to explore?’
‘Are there other options that you could consider
exploring?’
‘If you could do it again, could you do it differently?’
‘If you think about it now, could you have made it more
fun?’

7. Action plan.

‘What do you have to do, in order to achieve this goal?’

(This could refer to the session goal, the weekly goal
or the overarching goal?’
‘What exactly do you need to do?’
‘When will you do it?’ (The timeframe is important.)
‘What else do you need, to get this done?’
‘What will happen, when you do this?/‘What will happen,
if you don’t do this?’
‘Are there other things that you could do, to achieve
this goal?’

Activity
Estimated time: 5 minutes

When you meet a client for the first time, how do you
make them feel welcome and comfortable?
What are the questions that you would like to ask during
the first session?
Do you think that you may prefer to request that the
client completes a coaching assessment form before the
session?
Take a Quick Recap Test

Assignment
Code of Ethics and Regulatory Standards in Life Coaching
Practices

Time: 30+ minutes

Hopefully, you took in as much of the information in this

module as possible. To find out how well you have done,
complete the following worksheet.

Download the worksheet below and complete.

Download Worksheet (PDF)

Module Summary
Although life coaching is not a regulated profession in the
UK, for a long and lasting career as a successful life coach,
you should follow the code of ethics and standards that are
recommended by the ICF (International Coach Federation). The
most important aspects to bear in mind are the boundaries with
regards to your relationship with your clients and client
confidentiality.

Life coaches help clients gain improved self-awareness through

intensive and powerful questioning techniques that promote
self-inquiry. Asking the right questions and giving the client
the space in which to answer allows them to reflect and ponder
the answer. If you ask a different question, you can set in
motion a new thinking process.

Open-ended questions serve as an effective communication tool

in the life coaching process and facilitate expanded learning.
They can be used in order to facilitate goal setting, action
implementation and to allow the client to obtain perspective
on their own values and fears.

You can rephrase questions, to sound more informal and

friendly, in order to prevent the client from feeling
intimidated.

Correct questioning can help provide useful insights and help

with the process of self-development. The set of questions for
each client will be unique and geared towards helping the
individual overcome their challenges.

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