A few weeks ago a client of mine, a CEO who is a rock star and thought leader in her field, walked the chair of her board of directors through a brand-new strategy for pursuing a pretty innovative idea for her company. It was a strategy that she figured out how to capture and convey during our very first coaching session. The moment represented tremendous forward progress for the client in a very short amount of time. When she was done with her walk through, the chairperson both affirmed her boldness and underscored the power of the coaching process. She asked, “You came up with this after only one session with this coach? That’s really, really impressive.”

Analysis paralysis

Executive-level leaders fall victim to analysis paralysis more often than one might think, even ones who are notably action-oriented. This particular CEO suffered from a severe case, grappling with complex questions about whether or not to pursue a major opportunity that would most certainly alter the direction of her company. Analysis paralysis is a mental state I’ve encountered frequently among senior-exec clients in recent months.

Build scaffolding

The fail-safe way for a thinker to get themselves out of analysis paralysis is to “build scaffolding,” a fun metaphor for organizing complicated business matters into more manageable component parts. And then figuring out which parts, if addressed, would make the others easier to assemble. 

Building scaffolding is a process that a good executive coach can easily facilitate. Here are four killer questions that can be extraordinarily useful in getting a high-thinking senior executive to channel their inner construction foreman:

• Killer question 1: What’s one question on this topic that, if it were answered immediately, would boost your confidence that you’ll figure this out?
• Killer question 2: Who, if you put them in a room and got them to focus, would make assessing this opportunity much easier, or even more fun?
• Killer question 3: Imagine someone you know who’s stellar at figuring out really complicated stuff. What tool would they be using right now in your shoes?
• Killer question 4: What’s one piece of this challenge on which all the others depend?

Our clients make better forward progress if we hold our tongue and let the solutions be theirs. So, listen for signs of analysis paralysis. Then have fun with all of the killer questions at your disposal – the ones above, and the countless more like them – to help them move through the overwhelm by building scaffolding.