Dear Prime Minister: Seven Questions I’d Ask in Your First Coaching Session
Dear Prime Minister: Seven Questions I’d Ask in Your First Coaching Session
Dear Prime Minister: Seven Questions I’d Ask in Your First Coaching Session
As Andy Burnham steps into Number 10, Becci Martin shares seven leadership coaching questions she would ask in his first coaching session as Prime Minister. Thought-provoking questions that every leader, whatever their role, can use to reflect, grow and lead with greater purpose.
Congratulations, Prime Minister.
Stepping into Number 10 must be unlike taking on any other leadership role. The decisions are bigger, the pressure is greater and the scrutiny is relentless.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside Andy Burnham through the Greater Manchester Living Wage Action Group.
Our roles within the group have, of course, been very different, but I’ve seen the importance he places on bringing employers, public services and communities together around a shared ambition. In our case, that ambition has been making Greater Manchester a place where more people receive a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.
His move into Number 10 has me thinking about what must be happening behind the scenes.
As someone who has spent the past 14 years coaching leaders, developing managers and helping organisations create happier, healthier workplaces, what would I ask Andy in his first coaching session as Prime Minister?
Not what advice would I give him.
Good coaching isn’t about telling leaders what to do or pretending that someone else has all the answers. It is about creating the space to think, reflect, challenge assumptions and find greater clarity.
So, Prime Minister, here are the seven questions I would ask.
1. What kind of leader do you want people to say you were?
Not simply what do you want to achieve, which policies do you want to introduce or how long do you hope to remain in office.
- How do you want people to describe your leadership?
- What do you want them to say about the way you treated people, the culture you created and how you responded when things became difficult?
- Achievements matter, but people often remember how a leader made them feel long after they have forgotten the detail of a strategy or announcement.
2. Who are you listening to, and whose voices might you be missing?
Leadership can become an echo chamber surprisingly quickly. The more senior the role, the easier it becomes to be surrounded by people who share similar experiences, assumptions and perspectives.
- Who will help you understand what life really feels like for people across the country?
- Whose voices are not normally heard in the rooms where decisions are made?
- How will you stay connected to people who will experience the consequences of those decisions?
The strongest leaders don’t only listen to the loudest, most powerful or most familiar voices. They actively seek out perspectives that might challenge their own.
3. What will you choose not to do?
Every new leader arrives with ambitions, commitments and a long list of problems demanding attention. The temptation is to try to address everything at once. But leadership is as much about choosing what not to do as it is about deciding what to prioritise.
- What will make the greatest difference?
- Where can your leadership have the most meaningful impact?
- What activity might create headlines without creating lasting change?
Being busy is not the same as making progress. Clarity requires choices, and meaningful choices usually require the courage to say no.
4. How will people know they can trust you?
Trust cannot be demanded through authority or created through a speech. It is earned through everyday behaviour.
- People will be watching what you do when plans go wrong, when criticism arrives and when keeping a commitment becomes inconvenient.
- How will you demonstrate honesty and consistency?
- How will you respond when you make a mistake?
- What promises are you prepared to make, and how will people know whether you have kept them?
Trust is built slowly through actions and can be lost very quickly through inconsistency.
5. Who has permission to tell you that you’re wrong?
The higher people climb in leadership, the fewer people are willing to challenge them. That makes it even more important to surround yourself with people who will question your assumptions, offer different perspectives and tell you something you may not want to hear.
- Who in your team has genuine permission to disagree with you?
- What will you do to make respectful challenge safe?
- How will you know whether people are telling you the truth or simply telling you what they think you want to hear?
Strong leadership teams are not those that agree about everything. They are teams that can disagree well and use that challenge to make better decisions.
6. How will you protect the space you need to think?
Leadership has a habit of filling every available minute. There will always be another meeting, briefing, crisis, interview or decision demanding your attention. But when every moment becomes reactive, clear thinking can disappear.
- Where will you create the space to pause and reflect?
- Who will help you challenge your own thinking?
- How will you protect your wellbeing while carrying the responsibility of leading a country?
Reflection isn’t an indulgence. It is part of responsible leadership. You cannot consistently make good decisions if you are exhausted, overwhelmed and constantly responding to the latest emergency.
7. If your time as Prime Minister created one meaningful difference, what would you want it to be?
Not the longest list of announcements. Not the largest number of initiatives. Not the most favourable headlines.
- What is the one meaningful difference you would want people to experience because you held this role?
- What would improve in their everyday lives?
- What would make communities stronger?
- What would give people greater hope for the future?
A clear sense of purpose can help leaders navigate difficult choices and remain grounded when pressure begins to pull them in different directions.
These Questions Aren’t Only for Prime Ministers
You don’t need to lead a country to reflect on these questions. They are just as relevant for a chief executive, NHS leader, charity trustee, business owner, headteacher or first-time manager. Leadership may operate at different levels, but many of the challenges remain remarkably similar.
- How do I want to lead?
- Who am I listening to?
- What really matters?
- Who will challenge me?
- How will I look after myself?
- What difference am I here to make?
At Boo, we believe coaching isn’t about giving leaders better answers. It is about helping them ask better questions.
Better questions create better thinking. Better thinking supports better decisions. And better decisions can create happier, healthier workplaces, stronger communities and better lives.
So, Prime Minister, congratulations once again.
And here is one final question:
What do you need to hear now that the people around you may be too afraid to say?
A Question for You
If you were invited to ask the new Prime Minister one coaching question, what would it be?
Share your question in the comments. I’d genuinely love to hear it.
