Cathy Liska 
Participating in the International Coaching Federation’s Advance conference, the Science of Coaching, was an amazing, affirming, and humbling experience, so this week the blogs are dedicated to sharing insights.
Key points from Dr. Ben Palmer, an expert on Emotional Intelligence (EI), include, “Emotions influence decisions, behavior, and performance.” and “There’s a direct link between an organization’s financial performance and the way people feel in the workplace.” CEO and Founder of Genos, he has an assessment tool for EI. During the conference, one of his certified practitioners did a live demonstration of coaching a client on their results from the assessment. The significant coaching techniques modeled included being very positive, supportive, accepting, and encouraging of the client. The coach asked the client what was desired from the session, and then at the end verified the client had the result – in this case a specific skill with an actionable focus to improve.
An illustration shared by Josh Allan Dykstra, who spoke on Energy Intelligence, says it all. The illustration is two over-lapping circles with one of the circles described as areas of competence and the other as areas that energize. The overlapping area is where you find peak performance.
Bottom line, sometimes we get so focused on our strengths that we forget to hone it further and focus on the strengths that we like, that energize us, for the peak performance.
Ann Betz, BEabove Leadership, spoke on How Coaching Can Use Neuroscience to Grow as a Profession – because “if it works there will be a brain explanation as to why.” She gave the “Big 4 for Coaching:
- Neuroplasticity – the more we use a neural pathway the more developed it becomes
- Ask Don’t Tell – asking enhances cognitive and perceptual openness
- Stress and the Higher Brain – stress impairs functioning and coaching reduces stress
- Integration – lower brain with higher brain, left with right hemispheres, and front to back”
She then shared “four things you can say about coaching and neuroscience:
1. Coaching helps create positive new neural pathways, which leads to lasting, sustainable change.
2. Coaching and being “coach-like” tends to put people in a state where their brains are more open to learning, visioning, and growth.
3. The tools of professional coaching have been scientifically proven to reduce stress, which leads to more sophisticated thinking, emotional intelligence, empathy and creativity.
4. Coaching helps build crucial connections between various parts of the brain. A more well-integrated brain is correlated with more success in leadership and life.”
“Coaching is a way of creating self-directed neuroplasticity” ~Jeffrey Schwartz, neuroscientist
