The Neuroscience of Coaching

One of many things that excites me about coaching is that, unlike some holistic and energy based modalities, science easily and directly supports it, and even helps explain its intuitive benefits.  Perhaps your nature is skeptical when you hear about things like coaching, or meditation, or anything  promising phrases like "break limiting beliefs," or "achieve goals faster than ever before!"  I can't blame you. 

The truth is that skepticism is warranted and anybody should proceed with caution when determining what strategies may or may not work for their specific goals.  Nothing wrong with that!

So let's talk about the research surrounding neuroscience and coaching.  Many books and articles have been written on the subject.  A quick Amazon search will leave you with plenty of reading options with 5 star reviews!  Personally my favorite article is The Nueroscience of Leadership where David Rock, author of Coaching with the Brain in Mind and Jeffrey Shwartz, an expert in neuroplasticity (https://www.britannica.com/science/neuroplasticity), collaborate to explain exactly why it is SO difficult for organizations and individuals to change, the potential for change, and why coaching, as a strategy and tool, scientifically supports change.

Before I begin sharing some of this research, I do need to issue a disclaimer.  My objective is to relay, in layman's terms, my understanding of the neuroscience and my interpretations from various resources.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, I am not a neuroscientist.  However, I am an educated individual who embraces lifelong learning, is committed to growth mindset, and values the neuroplastic capabilities of every human being.  I hope that, like me, you will find nuggets of research that help explain this work, the validity and the enormous potential to help us make long term, meaningful change while achieving higher states of positivity and satisfaction.  Want to double check my research or, better yet, interpret it for yourself?  I will include a list of my resources at the end of this blog.  Feel free to share with me where I get it right and where I get it wrong.  Few things in life are certain, but I know this: being committed to growth means considering new perspectives all the time.  I hope to learn as much from you as I did from my research.

Imaging technology, brain wave analysis, and advanced computer analysis "has helped researches develop an increasing body of theoretical work linking the brain (the physical organ) with the mind (the human consciousness that things, feels, acts, and perceives) (Rock & Schwartz, 3)."   In layman's terms, the brain and mind are deeply connected, working together, but also separate in their purposes and functions.  The research, then, around the way these entities interact, have major implications for the way individual humans and organizations create and sustain changes in behavior.  Humankind has been changing and evolving for thousands of years.  Obviously, executive coaching wasn't a thing in 10,000 BC and we still got through it.  Why does this matter now?  In a world obsessed with productivity, efficiency, and technology, this research empowers people to develop faster and with more success.  It is good for a company's bottom line, but it's also good with regards to how a person experiences their unique willpower, choices, and personal fulfillment.  Coaching is good for business, but more importantly, changing through coaching techniques is good for people's wellbeing.

Rock & Schwarz in The Neuroscience of Leadership prove that we are physically wired to resist change.  When people attempt to formulate a new habit or implement a new idea, they usually first compare it to the information they already have in their brain about the subject or things they perceive as related to the subject.  This activates the prefrontal cortex, "an energy-intensive part of the brain," that "fatigues easily and can hold only a limited amount of information 'on line' at any one time (Rock & Schwartz, 4)."  When learning something new, has your brain ever felt straight up tired?  That's because your working memory, which resides in the prefrontal cortex, literally is fatigued.  There is, however, a very nifty part of the brain, deep in the center, called the basal ganglia that can guide us through routine activities without conscious thought very efficiently.  The basal ganglia doesn't require the same amount of attention or energy as the prefrontal cortex and we all prefer using it as our default setting.  I'm happy to go about my day with my basal ganglia driving on autopilot.  Rock & Schwartz compare the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia parts of the brain to a manual v. automatic transmission on a car.  Using the prefrontal cortex feels like regressing to a manual transmission, that you may never have learned to drive smoothly in the first place, while you've got a sweet automatic transmission (the basal ganglia) parked in the garage.  That's uncomfortable.  Ain't nobody got time for that!  So, we happily pull our basal ganglia out of the garage when that prefrontal cortex runs out of gas...or something like that.  In addition, the human brain can emit error messages from the orbital frontal cortex located right next to the amygdala, considered the fear center of the brain.  No one enjoys walking around with the fear center of their brain lit up like the 4th of July just because they are learning or confronting something new.  It doesn't feel good and there are obvious basic survival reasons why the brain helps keep us safe in this way.  These error messages draw "metabolic energy away from the prefrontal region, which promotes and supports higher intellectual functions...thus push people to become emotional and to act more impulsively (Rock & Schwartz, 4-5)."  Again, ain't nobody got time for that!  It simply isn't efficient to work through change when we are hyperemotional or impulsive.  So, we resist it.  We allow the basal ganglia to drive.  We sit on the couch and wish we were in better shape.  We set our alarm for 1 hour earlier, but easily convince ourselves we need the "extra" sleep, and don't actually bother to get up at that earlier time.  We start the day with a positive food choice, but "give in" to old habits after a stressful meeting at work.  So, how can we ever hope to change?  Our brains are wired against it...

THERE IS HOPE!  Our brains are actually quantum environments..."therefore subject to all the surprising laws of quantum mechanics (Rock & Schwartz, 6)"  Rock & Schwarz deeply explore the Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE), also known as the observer effect.  In this effect, "when any system is observed in a sufficiently rapid, repetitive fashion, the rate at which that system changes is reduced (6)."  Despite the brain's basic hard wired resistance to change, "QZE states that the mental act of focusing attention [attention density] stabilizes the associated brain circuits...Over time, paying enough attention to any specific brain connection keeps the relevant circuitry open and dynamically alive.  These circuits can then eventually become not just chemical links but stable, physical changes in the brain's structure (Rock & Schwartz, 7)."  Amen!  Even though resistant, we can change our brains.  We can, given the right strategies and awareness, overcome resistance. It just takes a whole lotta "attention density" beyond simple willpower and discipline.  For example, Rock and Schwarz suggest that, "For chronically late people, habits like carrying two timepieces--one fast and the other accurate--or routinely trying to arrive 20 minutes early to meetings may be effective precisely because they focus conscious attention on the improved result (8-9)."  See, it is not the specific habit that matters, it is the "mental act of focusing attention," along with shifting the focus away from the problem and towards an "improved result," that is ultimately responsible for changing the brain.

In addition to QZE, attention density, and shifting focus from the problem to the solution, the research around "cultivating moments of insight (Rock & Schwartz, 8)" through mental mapping is also clear and supports coaching.  fMRI and EEG technologies reveal "sudden bursts of high frequency 40Hz (gamma waves) in the brain appearing just prior to moments of insight...The findings suggest that at a moment of insight, a complex set of new connections is being created.  These connections have the potential to enhance our mental resources and overcome the brain's resistance to change (Rock & Schwarz, 8)."  The key, however, is that insight comes from within a person, it is not told, taught or given.  Insight is a personal experience: "...people will experience the adrenaline-like rush of insight only if they go through the process of making connections themselves (Rock & Schwartz, 8)."  Coaching techniques, specifically asking questions to facilitate a person's insight, become a powerful means to actively facilitate attention density and QZE so that a person can leave "problem behaviors in the past," and "focus on identifying and creating new behaviors (Rock & Schwarz, 9)" for the future. In summary, attention density, QZE  and insight, working together, are what create changes in the brain, a necessary step in actually changing human behavior.  

So, if you want to actually create lasting change, you have to leverage a technique that allows dedicated space and time for attention density, self observation, processing in the prefrontal cortex across both brain hemispheres, and an opportunity to envision solutions through self directed insight.  Traditional methods of motivation like offering incentives, critiques, peer pressure, even punishment just don't cut it at the end of the day.  None of those things can fulfill all the requirements of the brain to successfully create a a change.  Thankfully, coaching as a technique has evolved, and when used intentionally, checks all the brain's boxes for producing lasting results.

In a Forbes article, Seven Ways Neuroscience-Based Coaching Can Give You the Edge in 2021 by Arthi Rabikrisson, he states "...neuroscience-based coaching can redirect your brain to minimize (and eventually negate) the pathways that block your potential by forming fresh and productive ones that override it...(par. 5)"  When coaches say things like, "break limiting beliefs," or "fulfill your potential," they actually mean it.  The proof is in the neuroscience pudding!  If you can recognize the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs behind a "bad habit," you can also reprogram them.  Suddenly, "that's just the way it is," becomes "I have the power to change the way this is in my future."  You can move from stuck to actively creating your positive reality.  You manifest the neurological pathways necessary to change behavior which results in better outcomes in a much shorter amount of time.

Think you don't need coaching?   The neuroscience supports the fact that we can all benefit from it.  Change can, of course, happen on its own.  But, the chances of overriding the brain's circuitry without sliding back into the ease and comfort of the basal ganglia, certainly lessens in the face of traditional methodologies.  When you are ready to give a change a try, once and for all, reach out.  I'd be honored to witness your prefrontal cortex forge new neural pathways that form out of the insights already within you.  

 

Man, peace, love , and science get me every time!

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Resources

McKay,Sarah. "7 Principles of Neuroscience Every Coach and Therapost Should Know." 29 July 2018, https://drsarahmckay.com/7-principles-neuroscience-every-coach-know/.

Rabikrroson, Arthi. "Seven Ways Neuroscience-Based Coaching Can Give You The Edge in 2021."

Forbes, 17 Feb 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2021/02/17/sevenways-neuroscience-based-coaching-can-give-you-the-edge-in-2021/?sh=72937d58242e.

Rock, David. Schwartz, Jeffrey.  "The Neuroscience of Leadership." Strategy + Business, Issue 43, 2006, pp. 2-10.

Whitmore, John. "Neuroscience and Coaching: What's the Connection?" Coaching for Peformance,    Level 3 Advanced Coaching Manual, 2011, https://www.performanceconsultants.com/neuroscience-and-coaching.