How to Mentor Like a Coach: The Power of Powerful Questions

Dr Jane Tuomola is a clinical psychologist, executive coach, leadership and mental wellness speaker, corporate trainer and author with more than 25 years’ experience. Originally from the UK, Jane has lived and worked across four countries and three continents and has been based in Singapore for more than 13 years. Her international and cross-cultural experience has given her a particular interest in how assumptions, perspectives and cultural contexts influence how people communicate, learn and develop others.Jane has been coaching for more than 15 years and has coached leaders at all levels, including C-suite executives, across healthcare, finance, technology, education, law and social services. She is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the International Coaching Federation and leads the ICF Singapore Coaching Supervision Community of Practice. She has extensive experience in coach education, supervision and professional training, including five years as a university lecturer and training coaches and helping professionals internationally across Asia, Europe and beyond. Through her teaching and supervision, she regularly helps professionals explore the boundaries between mentoring and coaching, and how to draw on the strengths of both approaches while remaining within the ethical boundaries of each role.

Jane’s work is strongly influenced by the Solution Focused approach, with its emphasis on curiosity, listening, strengths, possibilities and helping people develop their own solutions. She brings this perspective to her work with experienced coaches, mentors and other professionals, helping them develop greater awareness of how they use questions, listen and create space for others to think, reflect and find their own way forward.

As experienced mentors, you already know the importance of listening, curiosity and helping mentees develop their awareness and capabilities. But what makes a question genuinely powerful? And how can mentors balance the value of their own experience and expertise with creating space for the mentee to think, discover and take ownership?In this webinar, Jane Tuomola will explore how a coaching stance can deepen mentoring conversations without turning mentors into coaches or diminishing the value of their expertise. Drawing on coaching practice and a Solution-Focused approach, the session will look beyond lists of “powerful questions” to explore the intention behind our questions, how we listen for opportunities to create new thinking, and when a question is more useful than an answer — or when sharing our experience is the better intervention. Through polls, chat reflection and practical examples, participants will be invited to consider how small shifts in the questions they ask can create greater insight, choice and ownership for their mentees.