The Transformational Power of Great Questions
In “Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching,” Tom Camacho offers a guidebook to his leadership development theory, a theory that integrates key life coaching skills and scripturally informed leadership practices and perspectives. He writes, “We must get a new lens on leadership. We need to develop the skills of Coaching Leadership.”[1] His book is as much about leadership development as it is about discerning one’s call to develop leaders using his methodology. God’s commitment to refining leaders like a goldsmith refines gold (Malachi 3:3) compels Camacho in his work. “Thriving kingdom leaders are like pure gold. They are very valuable and they are quite scarce. Loving, fruitful and multiplying leaders are works of art, masterpieces fashioned by the hands of God himself.”[2] The metaphor of refining gold runs throughout his book.
Classified as a manual on leadership development, Camacho’s book falls under the larger umbrella of social sciences and more specifically under the category of social psychology. He outlines his book in his introduction, giving the reader a clear roadmap for the themes he will be developing. Camacho then divides his book into two parts: God’s mining process—discovering gold and God’s refining process—six principles that lead to thriving. His leadership development theory rests on four key concepts:[3]
- “Gold is everywhere. Potential leaders are all around you…We need to see leadership development from an abundance mentality.”
- “Open your eyes to see it…pray…To identify the true potential God has placed in leaders, we need to see them through the eyes of the Spirit.”
- “Learn the skills to draw it out. The skills…are practical and learnable…put in the hard work to learn the skills of Coaching Leadership.”
- “Develop others continuously…We need intentionality and focus to continuously develop the leaders around us. Thriving kingdom leaders are not a coincidence.”
These four concepts are then operationalized through six principles that guide the practice of leadership coaching:[4]
- “The Holy Spirit does the work of refining…learn to work in dynamic cooperation with [the Holy Spirit].”
- “Our true identity is the foundation of thriving. We are beloved [children] of a perfect Father and King.”
- “We thrive when we cooperate with our God-given design. Something powerful happens when we align our time and efforts with how God wired us.”
- “Each of us has a sweet spot—a place where we naturally bear the most fruit.”
- “The cross is God’s great refining tool. There is no escaping this painful reality.”
- “All true thriving in relational. There is nothing more central than to love God and love others well.”
Camacho then closes his book with an epilogue overflowing with suggested next steps for thriving developed around the above six principals. He also includes actions steps for further developing one’s Coaching Leadership skills at a personal and church level. This section, combined with the deeper-level questions and potential action steps at the conclusion of each chapter transform this book into a coaching experience.
I do wish he had included an index as well as notes that document the sources that have been influential in the development of his leadership theory. He does give credit in his acknowledgement to some key people, including Bob Logan, a professional leadership coach who has also been instrumental in my growth as a leader, along with one of Bob’s early associates, the Rev. Jeannette Buller Slater. Camacho also shares many different experiences throughout his book that have been significant to shaping this approach in his heart, mind, and spirit.
Many of the themes in “Mining for Gold” resonate with themes that have emerged in our previous readings. They include:
- The idea of being refined and the role of the cross/suffering in this work of developing tempered resilience.[5] This calls to mind Tod Bolsinger’s “Tempered Resilience.”[6]
- Camacho notes the central role that boundaries play in nourishing thriving relationships as well as addressing what Friedman[7] would call, the dangers of empathy.[8]
- The coaching work of accompanying a leader as they discover and develop their “sweet spot”[9] brought to mind the research and insights of Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey described in “An Everyone Culture.”[10]
The piece that I am most sitting with from “Mining for Gold” is Camacho’s quote: “Great Coaching Leadership is marked by asking great questions.”[11] It called to mind the coaching skills training I received from Rev. Dr. Laurie Ferguson from 2007 – 2009. She wrote in her workshop outline: “Questions – powerful questions – are the number tool in the coach’s toolkit.”[12] Her influence in my leadership development rooted these practices in my way of showing up in conversations and relationships:
- Curiosity is key and is a muscle that can be developed. Curiosity creates exploration space.
- Have a beginner’s mind—be willing not to know. This models learning as a life posture.
- What and how questions offer another person more options (and the chance to break out of binary thinking), broadens thinking, invites deeper reflection, invites imagining or allowing other perspectives, cultivates creativity and flexibility.
- “I’m curious…” and “I wonder…” statements also encourage the above.
I experienced this again over the past week and a half as I hosted and facilitated a visiting US-based seminary team to Lebanon. This group came to meet with local partners in Lebanon who are responding to moral injury and its resulting trauma. As the team encountered a whole spectrum of ministry paradigms utilized by the partners I have come to know, the team ran smack into the reality of difference and the tension that difference creates. This seminary also utilizes the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) that the DLGP program offered to us in preparation for our time in South Africa last term. It was so much fun to watch the ‘ahas’ percolate as I asked the team what tools for working with difference from the IDI did they find themselves utilizing as a frame for unpacking their encounters with partners? This syntopical reflection and integration work opened up a new way for them engage their own learning from this trip and its impact on their leadership and ministry posture upon returning to their home contexts and the challenges they face there. What Camacho has added to my coaching skills is his biblical framework for approaching listening and mining for the gold in the person or group before me. It is a bit different from the biblical framework utilized by Ferguson. Widening the biblical texts and metaphors I access in my work is a gift I am grateful to receive.
Camacho’s approach to discussing coaching skills in the context of leadership development is to offer the reader an experience of coaching and the power of sitting with the questions he asks at the end of each chapter. His approach to nuts and bolts comes across as more implicit in nature.[13] Ferguson’s approach to teaching coaching skills was to explicitly delve into the nuts and bolts of both the biblical framework supporting coaching in the context of ministry/church/mission settings and the praxis framework for the skills themselves. We also engaged case studies, experienced coaching under Ferguson, and practiced coaching skills with one another. Since I experienced one through a book and the other live, it will be interesting and helpful to meet Camacho during our zoom call to experience even more of the nuance and texture he brings to this work.
[1] Camacho, Tom. 2019. Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching. First published. Nottingham: IVP, 19.
[2] Ibid., 1.
[3] Ibid., 5-6.
[4] Ibid., 6.
[5] Ibid., 144ff.
[6] Bolsinger, Tod E. 2020. Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
[7] Friedman, Edwin H., Margaret M. Treadwell, and Edward W. Beal. 2017. A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. 10th anniversary revised edition. New York: Church Publishing.
[8] Camacho, 160-164.
[9] Ibid., 133ff.
[10] Kegan, Robert, and Lisa Laskow Lahey. 2016. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.
[11] Camacho., 27.
[12] LJF Coaching and Consulting 2006, https://lauriejferguson.com/index.html.
[13] Polanyi, Michael, and Amartya Sen. 1966. The Tacit Dimension. Chicago ; London: University of Chicago Press.
About the Author
Elmarie Parker
12 responses to “The Transformational Power of Great Questions”
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One of the most challenging aspects of mining for gold and refinement is the painstaking process. In turn, coaching also requires individuals to be honest with themselves. Do you think most people are accustomed to this type of leadership and are they open enough to be real?
Andy to add on to your question, do people in the context of faith push back against questions more so than if they were in “secular” context?
Hi Nicole…thank you for adding to Andy’s question. Here is what I wrote to Andy:
“Hi Andy…thank you for engaging with my post and for your thought-provoking question: “Do you think most people are accustomed to this type of leadership and are they open enough to be real?” I agree that coaching in the context of leadership development (or any aspect of life) is challenging and requires courage and honesty to engage. At least in my small corner of the church/ministry world, coaching is still a relatively new practice/experience for pastors, leadership teams, and colleagues. I think the first hurdle is working through using a different ministry paradigm/lens than most of the folks around me were/are used to. I found with the sessions and pastors I worked with prior to my current call that they experienced being engaged with coaching questions as a breath of fresh air. The biggest hurdle was the action-oriented nature of utilizing a coaching model…especially on issues that had been stymied for a long time. I found it interesting to use a question like, “If you could imagine this issue changing, what would be different?” And then going from there.
In my current role, I encounter the startled effect with those I supervise. So much of their previous experience with supervision in our organization focused on filling out the correct paperwork at the correct time. It’s been a new experience to use that same document as a launch point to explore the next steps they feel pulled to by the Spirit and how that might interact with/contribute to the work of our organization (or perhaps the Spirit is moving them in a different direction or moving them to offer a challenge to our organization…all great discernment work and then action work).”
Your question: “do people in the context of faith push back against questions more so than if they were in “secular” context?” I find this a very interesting question and I’m curious to learn more of what leads you to ask this out of what you have experienced in ministry and life? My sense is that it very much depends on the people and communities involved and where they are in their journeys…their threshold for exploration versus staying with what they know (Jordan Peterson and Friedman both come to mind).
How would you respond to the question you asked from your experience with ministry and life?
Hi Andy…thank you for engaging with my post and for your thought-provoking question: “Do you think most people are accustomed to this type of leadership and are they open enough to be real?” I agree that coaching in the context of leadership development (or any aspect of life) is challenging and requires courage and honesty to engage. At least in my small corner of the church/ministry world, coaching is still a relatively new practice/experience for pastors, leadership teams, and colleagues. I think the first hurdle is working through using a different ministry paradigm/lens than most of the folks around me were/are used to. I found with the sessions and pastors I worked with prior to my current call that they experienced being engaged with coaching questions as a breath of fresh air. The biggest hurdle was the action-oriented nature of utilizing a coaching model…especially on issues that had been stymied for a long time. I found it interesting to use a question like, “If you could imagine this issue changing, what would be different?” And then going from there.
In my current role, I encounter the startled effect with those I supervise. So much of their previous experience with supervision in our organization focused on filling out the correct paperwork at the correct time. It’s been a new experience to use that same document as a launch point to explore the next steps they feel pulled to by the Spirit and how that might interact with/contribute to the work of our organization (or perhaps the Spirit is moving them in a different direction or moving them to offer a challenge to our organization…all great discernment work and then action work).
How would you respond to the question you asked from your experience with coaching?
Elmarie, thanks for such an insightful review of the book and applications to your ministry context. Also, thank you for sharing Dr. Ferguson’s four insights – that’s some “gold” right there! You mention the seminary-based team coming to your context recently. You’ve mentioned American guests visiting Lebanon in the past as well. Is there one or two “blind spots” carried by people from American culture that need self-awareness to create more openness to new ideas at home or abroad?
Hi Roy. Thank you for engaging with my post and for your very interesting question: “Is there one or two “blind spots” carried by people from American culture that need self-awareness to create more openness to new ideas at home or abroad?” I mostly work with teams of Christian Presbyterians coming to learn and develop relationship with partners in Iraq, Syria, and/or Lebanon. I think the most significant ‘ahas’ for these teams over the years has been more deeply recognizing the influence on their faith and discipleship of individualism, a relatively stable economic context over multiple decades, capitalism/consumerism/commodification, American-styled democracy, and being part of the majority Protestant culture that has shaped so much of USA culture. Spending time with partners in Iraq, Syria, and/or Lebanon offers them an opportunity to experience entirely different understandings of faith and discipleship that have been influenced by a more communal culture, an unpredictable economic environment, and being part of the minority culture. None of us think about the air we breathe until something in the air changes. That’s part of what I love about hosting and facilitating these visits. Plus, I learn so much from the groups and from our partners as they interact.
What have you experienced in your missional work about ‘blindspots’ your teams have had or you have had as you step into another context?
Elmarie, I can relate to the issues you referenced so well. I also see a “blind spot” in American culture regarding the desire and/or need for control. I think that might be due to holding a lot of resources in developing cultures leads one to think that control belongs to the one with the resources. Subconciously, I also believe that many Americans believe they know better than nationals. I remember a trip with pastors to Haiti and the ideas of how to fix complex issues came fast and furious. There had been very little listening to that point. What would lead us to think we know what it is like to serve in a place so different than our own? I hope we can work toward trusted relationships that empower national leadership.
Hi Roy…thank you for sharing your experiences and insights with me. I agree that this is another blind spot for us as Americans. I may encounter it less frequently because I emphasize that these are learning/listening encounter trips and different from what has been more typical of American church short-term mission travel. I remain curious how our relatively stable and secure environment in the USA combined with our Protestant work ethic/capitalistic world view contributes to this quick-problem solving posture we so often embody. What connections, if any, do you see between these different influences?
Elmarie – I enjoyed hearing about the team you had with you this week and what emerged. When you talk about the importance of asking questions, I jumped back to your previous blogs in which you share about your larger organizational challenges and changes. Have you had a chance to try out the “I’m curious…” or “I wonder…” on any leaders in your context?
Hi Kayli. Thank you so very much for your thoughtful question. I have asked these questions on different issues over the past years since 2016 when so much of the shifts in leadership began. I think the big challenge is that I’m ‘out of sight, out of mind’ the vast majority of the time since I’m not in country and I’m not in these decision-making meetings. So, while I can tell my questions open up a different space for conversation/discernment, the pull of the organizational culture is pretty profound and closes up that space pretty quickly (or fills it with other more immediate and pressing things as perceived by our leadership). My hope is that by asking the questions, and for the brief time that it opens a different space for thinking, that somehow the Holy Spirit will take up what is needed from those threads of conversations and weave them into the larger tapestry of what is emerging for our national offices. It may only be one thread that can be seen only periodically, but maybe it is making a helpful contribution to the whole. This lower/middle management position stuff is a different place to stand. I have “Leading from the Middle: A Playbook for Managers to Influence Up, Down, and Across the Organization” on my list but I haven’t dived into it yet. I’m curious what I’ll learn that can better guide me in this role.
Elmarie, I enjoyed reading your post, especially the emphasis on questions. As a South African and American who’s working in the Middle East, do you see culture playing a role in how great questions should be asked?
Hi Henry. Thank you so very much for interacting with my blog and for your fascinating question! “…do you see culture playing a role in how great questions should be asked?” Yes, absolutely culture plays a role in how questions are best asked! I think some of Erin Meyer’s insights are helpful here, particularly her insights on high and low context communication, the role of ‘why’ versus ‘how’ in coaching, how decisions are made, how trust is developed, and how perceptions of power influence the space that is created through asking questions. I really appreciate your question…it is inviting me to be more explicitly thoughtful about this work of asking questions (I so often rely on my intuition).
What is your experience and how would your respond to the question you asked me?