Engaging the Whole Brain
Teri-E Belf, MCC
Teri-E has been a purposeful coaching
leader since 1987, offering personal and
professional coaching, coach training, and
mentoring on five continents. She is the
founder and director for Success Unlimited
Network®, which offers ICF-approved
coach-specific training rooted in life
purpose and spirituality. She is the author
of Coaching With Spirit (Pfeiffer, 2007)
and Facilitating Life Purpose (Purposeful
Press, 2005) and coauthor, with Charlotte
Ward, of Simply Live it Up (revised edition,
Purposeful Press, 1997). Teri-E initiated
and chaired the first ICF Accreditation,
Credentialing and Continuing Education
Committee, which established the
foundation for the coaching profession.
Contact Teri-E at [email protected] and learn
more at www.belfcoach.com and
www.wrinklewisdom.com.
Michael Marx, Ed.D., PCC
As professional coaches, we should
ask ourselves whether giving a client
advice comes from a motivation
to serve the best interests of the
client or to satisfy our own ego.
Everyone likes to feel respected for
having given a worthwhile opinion,
and nothing in the ICF Code of
Ethics specifically says you may not
give advice to clients. However, the
ICF Code of Ethics does ask you
to check for relationship conflicts
that result from dual roles. It is
inappropriate, confusing and may
even be unethical to switch roles
during a coaching conversation.
People in dual roles need to pay
more attention to the partnership
to ensure clear boundaries.
Dilemma: Frank
Frank works as an internal coach
practitioner and human resources
manager. He has just been
informed that his company is
planning to lay off some people in a
few months and some of the layoffs
include his clients. Does Frank wear
his coach’s hat or his HR hat? Does
he have to withdraw as the coach?
What is his company’s protocol
for this conflict? Even though you,
as the coach, are clear about your
two roles, it may be confusing to
the client. The role you are playing
should always be clear to the client.
If your client asks for your
recommendations, remember
to thank him or her for being
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As a professional you might
function as a coach, an individual
person or an expert. When you
have expertise in a particular area,
and are asked for your opinion,
you can make general comments
without giving specific advice to
the client. For example, Dalia
Nakar, PCC, a Retirement Coach,
tells her clients, “This is how I have
seen this done before,” “I have
heard it happen that people can
… and the result was positive,”
or, “I am aware that sometimes
people do it (this way) and others
(that way).” Continue to make it a
learning experience in which the
client can gain awareness and take
Navigating Dual Roles
Coaching World
Michael specializes in Executive, Business
and Life Coaching, and has devoted
himself to the advancement of the
coaching industry, with an emphasis on
the ethics of the coaching practice. His
enthusiasm for the subject brought him
to write the forthcoming Ethics and Risk
Management for Christian Coaches
(Christian Coach Media Group). He also
leads ICF’s Ethics Community of Practice.
Michael is a Certified Professional Life
Coach through the Professional Christian
Coaching Institute, where he now teaches
ethics. He is a Certified Professional
Christian Coach through the Christian
Coaches Network International, and is
currently president of that organization.
Michael earned a doctorate in adult
education from Regent University and an
MBA from the University of Louisiana at
Monroe. Learn more at
www.blazingnewtrailscoaching.com.
As coaches, we believe that clients
have their own answers and the
role of the coach is to create a
space for the client’s wisdom to
emerge. Giving advice detracts
from the client’s autonomy. When
a coach gives advice, the client
owns less of the solution. Without
this ownership there is less
accountability. As 2009 research on
the relationship between financial
advice and decision-making by Jan
B. Engelmann, C. Monica Capra,
Charles Noussair and Gregory S.
Berns illustrates, the brain ”offloads”
while it is taking in advice. The brain
goes into neutral and the actual
advice does not embed in the
neocortex while the advice is being
given. As a consequence, ownership
might happen later or not happen
at all. As coaches, we want our
clients’ brains to be fully engaged!
By giving advice, we appeal mostly
to the rational parts of the brain.
However, to fully engage the client,
the emotive and sensory parts of the
brain should also be involved in the
decision-making process. Without
a fully engaged brain, the likelihood
that the client will make an unethical
decision increases dramatically.
ownership. For example, you might
ask, “What does this reveal to you
that you were not aware of before?”
or, “How is this information (or
perspective) useful to you?”