The Science

The Science behind coaching

A recent study, published in Social Neuroscience collected data from undergraduates using two types of coaching.  Forward looking, positive, wholistic coaching (my type of coaching) asking questions like. “What are you when you are your most powerful and productive?”
 And one more traditional performance-based coaching approach asking questions like “What are the challenges you face?”

Students indicated that the positive interviewer inspired them and fostered feelings of hope far more effectively than the negative interviewer. Perhaps the more intriguing results, though, concerned the areas of the brain that were activated by the two different approaches.

During the encouraging interactions with the positive interviewer, students showed patterns of brain activity that prior research has associated with the following qualities:

Visual processing and perceptual imagery—these are the regions that kick into gear when we imagine some future event.

Global processing—the ability to see the big picture before small details, a skill that has been linked to positive emotions and pleasurable engagement with the world

Feelings of empathy and emotional safety—like those experienced when someone feels secure enough to open up socially and emotionally

The motivation to pro-actively pursue lofty goals—rather than act defensively to avoid harm or loss.

These differences in brain activity led the researchers to conclude that positive coaching effectively activates important neural circuits and stress-reduction systems in the body by encouraging coachees to envision a desired future for themselves.