apply-coaching-habit

Apply Coaching Habit

Replace the default impulse to give advice with a habit of asking questions first — so employees bring better-formed problems, develop their own solutions, and become more capable rather than more dependent.

Why This Is Best Practice

Adopted by: Bungay Stanier's "The Coaching Habit" is the best-selling coaching book of the last decade with 1M+ copies sold and trained over 15,000 managers via Box of Crayons programs; Google Project Oxygen (2008–ongoing) consistently identifies "is a good coach" as the #1 behavior distinguishing great managers from average managers, with coaching operationally defined as asking questions and facilitating answers rather than providing answers; the International Coach Federation (ICF) — which certifies 50,000+ coaches globally — identifies "asking powerful questions" as one of eight core coaching competencies Impact: Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan) research confirms that autonomy support — managers asking rather than telling — increases intrinsic motivation, self-reported wellbeing, and performance in organizational settings; Bungay Stanier's pre/post data from 15,000+ managers trained in the 7 questions shows an average shift of 40% reduction in "manager gives direct advice in first 3 minutes" behavior; Google's Project Oxygen analysis found managers who coach (ask) rather than direct (tell) have teams with 15% higher job satisfaction and 10% higher performance ratings Why best: The advice-giving impulse is nearly universal in managers — they got promoted for their expertise, so sharing expertise feels valuable; the failure mode is "create over-reliance": employees bring problems to the manager because the manager solves them faster, the manager's calendar fills with problems that belong to the team, and the team's problem-solving capability atrophies; the coaching habit breaks this cycle not by eliminating advice (sometimes advice is the right answer) but by defaulting to questions first, which forces the employee to engage their own thinking before receiving input

Sources: Bungay Stanier "The Coaching Habit" (Box of Crayons Press, 2016); Google Project Oxygen research; Deci & Ryan "Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being" (American Psychologist, 2000)

Steps

1. Recognize the advice monster before it fires

The advice monster is the automatic reflex to give an answer, a suggestion, or a recommendation the moment someone brings you a problem. It fires within seconds and feels helpful. It is often unhelpful.

Signals that the advice monster is active:

• Someone says "I have a problem" and your immediate thought is the solution
• You find yourself suggesting an approach before you've heard the full situation
• Your response starts with "You should...", "Have you tried...", or "What I would do is..."
• Employees come back with the same type of problem repeatedly

Before speaking, notice the impulse. Pause. Ask instead.

2. Use the AWE question to extend the conversation before solving

The single most powerful question in the coaching habit:

"And what else?"

This question:

• Surfaces more information the employee has but didn't share initially
• Delays your advice reflex until you've heard the full picture
• Signals that you believe the employee has more to contribute
• Often produces the real issue, which is not the first thing they said

Employee: "I'm having trouble getting the marketing team to engage with 
our project timeline."
Manager reflex: "Have you tried setting up a weekly sync?"
Coaching habit: "Tell me more about that. And what else is making this hard?"
[Employee continues...]
Manager: "And what else?"
[Employee: "Actually, I think the real issue is I don't know who the 
decision-maker is — I keep talking to the wrong people."]

The real problem (wrong stakeholder) only surfaced after the AWE question. The reflex would have produced advice about a symptom.

3. Use the seven questions as situational tools

Bungay Stanier's seven essential coaching questions, each for a different moment:

Question	When to use
"What's on your mind?"	Opening any meaningful conversation — wider than "how are you?"
"And what else?"	After any answer — surface more before solving
"What's the real challenge here for you?"	When the stated problem feels like a symptom
"What do you want?"	When the conversation is long but unclear what they need from you
"How can I help?"	When you're ready to provide something — but let them define what
"If you're saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?"	When they're overcommitting
"What was most useful for you?"	Closing — extracts the learning they're taking forward

These are not scripts to run sequentially. They are tools for specific situations. "What's the real challenge here for you?" is the question that cuts through a long, unfocused problem description. "What do you want?" is the question to use when someone is venting but hasn't named what they actually need.

4. When you do give advice, give it deliberately

The coaching habit is not "never give advice." It is "ask before advising." Once you've asked enough to understand the situation and confirmed the employee's own thinking isn't sufficient, advice is often appropriate.

Signal the shift explicitly:

"I have a perspective on this — do you want to hear it?"

This brief request does two things: it makes the employee an active recipient (not a passive one), and it signals that you've been listening rather than waiting to speak.

After giving advice: "Does that match what you were thinking, or does it cut against it?" — returns agency to the employee.

5. Build the habit structurally

A habit is not built through intention. It is built through cue-routine-reward cycles (Duhigg "The Power of Habit"). To install the coaching habit:

Cue: any time an employee arrives with a problem Routine: ask "What's on your mind?" — let them talk for at least 2 full minutes before you say anything directive Reward: notice when the employee generates their own solution

Practice specifically: in your next 5 one-on-ones, set a personal constraint — "I will ask at least two questions before offering any advice." Track internally when you break it. Noticing the failure is the mechanism for improving.

Debrief after: "What did I do in that conversation that was most useful? What did I do that was least useful?" (Use this question on yourself, not aloud — unless you have a coach yourself.)

6. Don't coach problems that need decisions

The coaching habit is right for problems where the employee has the capability to solve it themselves but hasn't yet engaged their full thinking. It is wrong when:

• A decision must be made quickly and the employee genuinely cannot make it
• The employee has already generated options and is asking for the manager's input — this is not avoidance, it's appropriate escalation
• The problem requires specific expertise or information the employee doesn't have access to

Coaching for its own sake — asking questions when a direct answer would serve better — is not discipline, it's performance. Read the situation.

Rules

• Ask before advising — the advice reflex fires first; deliberately pause and ask at least once before offering a recommendation
• "And what else?" is the default follow-up — it delays advice and surfaces more information in almost every situation where the problem is complex or emotionally loaded
• Signal advice explicitly — "I have a perspective on this — want to hear it?" transfers agency back to the employee rather than making advice feel imposed
• Build through constraints, not intentions — "I will ask two questions before giving advice" is a behavioral constraint that builds the habit; "I'll try to coach more" is an intention that doesn't
• Don't coach under time pressure — if there are 5 minutes to make a decision, make it; coaching is for when there is enough time for the employee's thinking to be useful

Common Mistakes

• "What are your options?" as the first question: jumping to options before fully understanding the problem produces shallow thinking; use "What's on your mind?" and "What's the real challenge for you?" before "What are your options?"
• Asking questions rhetorically: "Have you thought about X?" is advice dressed as a question; genuine coaching questions do not contain the answer
• Coaching every interaction: not every conversation needs coaching; status updates, tactical decisions, and time-sensitive problems do not benefit from the coaching habit; apply it to development conversations and complex problems
• Confusing coaching with not deciding: some situations require the manager to make a call; using coaching questions as avoidance of a decision frustrates employees and produces drift
• Forgetting "What was most useful for you?": this closing question is the one that extracts and reinforces the employee's own learning; managers who skip it produce conversations that help but don't build capability

When NOT to Use

• When an employee is in crisis (personal or professional emergency) — coaching questions during a crisis signal detachment; direct support and clear guidance are needed first.
• For newly onboarded employees who genuinely don't yet have the knowledge to generate their own solutions — coaching without knowledge produces floundering; teach first, coach when capability exists.
• When the problem is your decision to make — if it falls within your authority and the employee is escalating appropriately, decide; coaching them through your own decision is abdication of management responsibility.