How to Follow the Coachee

In a courtroom scene in a movie, an inexperienced prosecuting attorney asked the witness a spontaneous question. The witness' answer opened up huge doubt in the attorney's carefully crafted case. Afterwards, the attorney's old mentor told him, "Never ask a question that you don't know the answer to. Otherwise, you risk exactly what happened today in court."


Many coaches follow the old attorney's advice, never asking a question that you don't know where it will lead. They use questions to co...