Susan Britton MCCICF Award-Winning Coach Educator, Neuroscience-Informed ICF/SHRM Coach Training, INSEAD Executive Masters in Change, Advocate for Evolutionary Shift from “Red Zone” to “Blue Zone” for Leaders, Coaches & Fellow Humans

Neuro Coaching Tip - Give Clients CHOICES

Name: Neuro Coaching Tip - Give Clients CHOICES
Uploaded: 2025-03-21T05:00:07+00:00
Duration: 59 s
Channel: Susan Britton MCC
Description: In this brief coaching tip, Susan Britton MCC explains that the brain naturally seeks choices; when choices are absent, people may feel cornered and…

21 Mar 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

In this brief coaching tip, Susan Britton MCC explains that the brain naturally seeks choices; when choices are absent, people may feel cornered and trigger a fight‑or‑flight response. She advises coaches to deliberately embed client choice throughout a coaching conversation—at the start (e.g., how to approach the topic), in the middle (e.g., which direction to explore), and at the end (e.g., what to focus on). She recommends proactively offering at least three distinct choice points per session. This practice supports ICF Marker 5 (maintaining presence) and aligns with PCC competencies that emphasize partnering with the client in deciding the conversation’s direction.

Chapters

Susan here with a coaching tip around choice. So the brain loves to have choices. When we don't have choices, we can feel like we're backed into a corner and the fight-flight response kicks in. And so when you're coaching, make sure that you are offering your client choice about how they want to navigate the conversation. So it can be at the beginning, like, how would you like to approach this? It could be in the middle of the conversation, do you want to go here or here with this? It can be at the end of the conversation, what would you like to choose to focus on? And from the insights from today. So as you're thinking about your coaching conversations, try to bring in at least 3 points where you very proactively offer the client some choice in where they're going to go in the conversation. That's going to hit ICF Marker 5, which is maintains presence, and one of the PCC markers around that has to do with giving the client choice, the ability to, to partner with deciding where they're going to go in your coaching conversation.