There are numerous brain states—each with its own ideal application in our daily lives. Most of these are used in
preparation for and during a coaching session. On the following pages, we highlight 12 brain states (in addition to a
13th, not-yet-mapped state) that we’re likely to draw on before, during and after a coaching session.
Four strategies can be used in concert to cultivate an organized mind. The first strategy is to use your attention in an
intentional way and choose the brain state that’s appropriate for the next task, a key strategy of an organized mind.
A second strategy is to go deep and invest all of your brain’s resources in one brain state only—to dive deep to
where the treasures can be found. Beyond intention and depth, a third strategy is agility; i.e., making a quick and
complete jump from one state to the next and moving all of your attentional resources instead of leaving part of
your attention on the last task or worrying about the next tasks.
The fourth strategy is diversity—making use of the many, diverse brain states outlined here.
Meta-Awareness
The meta-awareness state is unique,
although similar to strategic thinking
(see page 28). It’s the state also defined
as mindfulness, where we dial down
the brain activity that is task-oriented or
experience-oriented in order to dial up the brain region
that is responsible for self-awareness, observation
and reflection. It’s a place worth visiting frequently in
order to pause and notice yourself in action and to get
a strategic perspective on yourself, how the session is
going, what you’re feeling, how much time is left and
whether you need to adjust anything.
Reasoning/Thinking
As you prepare for a coaching session,
you engage your brain’s executive control.
Maybe you’re reviewing your notes. You’re
making sure that you remember what
happened in the last session. You’re
looking at your client’s pre-work for the session. You
have a tight focus, not a creative, somewhat defocused
state. This kind of detailed, executive work stocks up your
working memory with important pieces of information to
draw on during the session.
Open Awareness
The ICF Core Competencies call on you
to be open and present during your
coaching sessions. The beginning of the
session is the time to move into an open
awareness state. You empty out the
prefrontal cortex, where consciously directed thinking
lives. As a result, your attentional resources are
sitting in your senses. You’re here to fully experience,
to breathe in and take in the moment. The open
awareness state is the equivalent of shifting a car’s
transmission into neutral: It’s an effective way to get out
of our last brain state by getting into the present and
pausing before moving intentionally into the next step
of the session.
Narrow Awareness
Now you direct your awareness to the
client’s presence, experiencing—rather
than thinking about or analyzing—his
mood and energy. This is the narrow
awareness state where the left PFC
gently focuses your senses and experiencing on
another person, rather than the whole room and a full
sensory experience.
Imagine
In Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to
Maximize Imagination, Productivity and
Innovation in Your Life (Jossey-Bass,
2010), Shelley describes the imagining or
envisioning brain state as critical to the
creative process. The graphic indicates reduced PFC
activity associated with this state, but that doesn’t mean
nothing is happening. The action is in the visual areas
at the back of the brain. Imagining the outcome of a
coaching session, imagining the outcome of the change
process, and visualizi