Communication and Active Listening Skills
This domain tests engaged listening: hearing content, emotion, values, and what is not said, then responding so the client hears themselves more clearly.
Listening and responding
- Track the client's words, metaphors, energy shifts, and omissions.
- Reflect and summarize briefly, then check: 'Is that it?'
- Ask short, open questions that serve the client's agenda.
- Use silence deliberately; the client's next sentence often matters most.
- Clarify vagueness ('What does supportive look like?') before moving on.
Question quality
Avoid leading questions ('Don't you think...?'), stacked questions, and 'why' questions that sound like prosecution. Ask one question at a time. Advice disguised as a question ('Have you considered...?') is still advice.
Worked example
Client: 'I have to keep saying yes or they'll think I'm not committed.' Coach: 'You said have to - what would change if it were a choice?' The client pauses and identifies fear of being seen as disloyal. Reasoning: the coach reflected a specific phrase, asked one open question, and let the client find the meaning instead of naming it. The insight belongs to the client.
Traps
Interrupting to show understanding; paraphrasing every sentence; filling silence with another question; chasing your own curiosity; taking notes so heavily you stop listening; giving advice and calling it a powerful question.
Practice
With consent, review a recording and count how often you speak versus the client; notice your first three questions.