Focusing the Telescope of Neuroscience on Coaching

Richard Bolstad

Around 1514 AD, Nicolaus Copernicus first published his calculations showing that the heliocentric model of the solar system enabled more accurate predictions than any other previous theory, and modern astronomy was born. Less than a century later, Galileo Galilei showed with the telescope that Copernicus’ system matched reality, and the intricate older models of planetary movement were simply wrong. Imagine what it was like for those early scientists as they tried to explain what they were actually seeing through their telescopes, to people who thought that their outdated books were all they needed to know!

In coaching, the discovery of the Neuroscience basis of personal change is a similar story. In the 1970s, the developers of Neuro Linguistic Programming proposed a brain-based model of personal change, and 50 years later, brain scanning technology is proving many of their original predictions. In August 2023, Anthony Jack and colleagues at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom used fMRI brain scanning to observe the effect of several different models of coaching, both in terms of life results and in terms of brain activation. Their results are stunning confirmation that much coaching has been going in the wrong direction!

For years, many coaches had guided their clients to think about their problems in detail, using complex questions to help people focus on what was stopping them from achieving success. Jack and his team showed that this type of coaching focus actually drains brain energy, as it activates areas of the brain that are self-critical and pay attention to failures. Instead, they found that coaching was more effective when people started from identifying their ideal self and desired results, and frame their challenges in terms of that ideal. Coaching is also more effective when it involves empathic listening, and when it focuses on strengths rather than on weaknesses. All these strategies reduce activation of internal self-criticism, and help the brain mobilize its energy for action.

The researchers conclude that this solid research should be used to explain coaching to managers and to coaching trainers alike. Managers frequently want coaching to focus on their employee’s failures and challenges, and many coaching trainings have accepted this task. The brain scans show that this is simply an error. As it burns energy in the client’s brain, it burns managers’ coaching funds, with little effect. Cost-effective, scientific coaching needs to start with your vision of the future, however heretical that may seem to managers.

The client’s “ideal self” and their desired future are at the centre of successful change in the brain, and once we understand that, coaching enters a new era. This positive focus is like Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the solar system, and these fMRI brain scans are the telescope that confirms it. “Coaches will have greater success at engendering the positive change sought by organizations by accepting that the coaching process must be framed purely in terms of the individual’s personal vision of an ideal future, rather than framing the coaching process in terms of presenting problems. Coaching certification processes would also want to be changed to reflect this shift in emphasis early in the coaching process and in the rubric used to code recorded coaching sessions for determining certification levels.”  (Jack, Passarelli and Boyatzi, 2023, p. 15)

Richard Boyatzis emphasises: “This work applies to all helping roles and professionals, from therapists, physicians, nurses, clerics, managers, teachers, faculty, social workers, dental professionals, and, yes, even parents.” My background spans most of these fields. As a Registered Nurse, New Zealand Certified Teacher, member of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists, and Master Trainer of Coaches with ICI, I discovered the neuroscience basis of coaching first in my training over 30 years ago, when fMRI brain imaging was first invented. Suddenly we could test what actually works in human brains, in real time. My RESOLVE model of coaching begins with establishing the belief that the client can change, listens to them empathically, helps them set a desired outcome in positive brain activating terms, and then helps create the belief that change is possible. All this needs to happen before planning how to deal with any challenges.

One of my friends in the coaching community, Joseph O’Connor, author of “Coaching With The Brain” says in his introduction to my book “RESOLVE” “RESOLVE is a book that will leave you with a broader and deeper knowledge of NLP and therapy whether you are already familiar with the field or not…. [coaches] are not magicians and need not pretend to be. They are real people working with love from a grounded methodology to help the client mobilize their powers to heal.” (in Bolstad, 2002, p. v,vii).

As you can see, the research I am quoting above was published in August 2023. That’s how fresh these ideas are. To be able to explain them to the managers who hire you, and to your clients who trust your guidance, it helps to understand how the brain actually works. For example, telling you the theory of neuroscience causing a revolution in coaching wouldn’t convince people. Stories are more effective than facts in persuading others. Greg Stephens, Lauren Silbert and Uri Hasson at Princeton University (2010) first demonstrated that when one person tells a story and another person listens, the two people show synchronised brain activity. This synchronization, or “rapport” does not occur where mere facts are transmitted, and is due to the speaker and the listener imagining the same images, sounds and sensations of the story. And that’s why I began this article with the story of Copernicus. If you need to persuade managers, or explain new ideas to clients, this simple neuroscience fact is crucial. Of course, Jesus said the same thing about the power of stories in persuading people (Matthew, 13.13-15), but neuroscience gives us a fresh new way of introducing these crucial understandings to modern managers.

References:

• Richard Bolstad. 2002. RESOLVE: A New Model of Therapy. Crown Publishing, Bancyfelin, Wales
• Anthony Ian Jack, Angela M. Passarelli, Richard Eleftherios Boyatzis. 2023. When fixing problems kills personal development: fMRI reveals conflict between Real and Ideal selves. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2023; 17 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1128209
• Greg Stephens, Lauren Silbert, and Uri Hasson. 2010. Speaker–listener neural coupling underlies successful communication,  in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 18, 2010; ; 107(32): 14425–14430. Published online 2010 Jul 26. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1008662107