Coaching with the Brain in Mind

CHAPTER 9

Neuroscience Platform—Cognition

The agents at Roberto’s real estate agency were dissatisfied. One or another complained to him almost daily that they weren’t getting the support they needed, that his portion of commissions was too high, that he simply wasn’t a good manager. Who was behind this unrest, he wondered, and why did they do what they did? They certainly were not being loyal to the firm. He talked to each agent individually, identified the three ringleaders, and fired them. Instead of improving the situation, however, morale and sales deteriorated, other agents quit, and the agency was on the verge of bankruptcy. In desperation, Roberto took the suggestion of a colleague and set up an appointment with a coach.

After introducing coaching and listening to his concerns, the coach surprised Roberto by focusing not on the impending bankruptcy or the misbehavior of the agents but on that all-important question Roberto had asked himself when he became aware of the difficulties: “Who is behind this, and why did they do what they did?”

At the end of a series of sessions that explored this and other questions he typically asked himself, Roberto realized that by asking that question, he had assumed that a person or people were causing the problem. If the problem had to do with his business model or with events outside the agency, he would never identify the cause by asking that question. By asking that initial question, he had gone down a path of prejudging his troubles ...