5 Neuro-Tips:

Practical Insights and

Coaching Questions
That Create Instant,
Transformative Shifts

Welcome!
In this guide, you will discover 5 powerful Neuro-Tips on how to have more effective conversa-
tions with your clients, based on over 40 years of neuroscientific research and practice.
You will gain fundamental insights into what happens in our brains when we interact as human
beings and how you can use this knowledge to shift from conversations that miss the mark, to
conversations that trigger trust, growth and innovation.
If you want to take your learning deeper, I would also love to invite you to take part in my LIVE
90-minute no-cost Immersion Experience where I will reveal how you can start implementing
these neuroscientific principles to revolutionize the way you communicate with your clients.
For now, let’s get started!

Kind Regards,

Judith E. Glaser

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NEURO - TIP #1
Co-Creating Conversations
Changes Neural Chemistry.

Learn how co-creating conversations change our

mindset and our neural chemistry.

Neuro-Tip:
If we want to be able to think new innovative thoughts, elevate empathy toward others, and
co-create a shared sense of reality, we need to “turn off” the fear-based neuro-messages from
the amygdala and “turn on” the brain connections that feed into the Prefrontal Cortex.

The Prefrontal Cortex, or Executive Brain, lets us engage with the outer world and the future,
helping us grasp inner and outer truths. This part of the brain also activates more WE-Centric or
partnering behaviors.

By translating current information, impulses, and biochemistry, the Prefrontal Cortex helps us
make judgment calls, have empathy, and anticipate the future. Foresight is the power to success-
fully predict what will unfold, based on understanding the patterns in front of you and being able
to synthesize the meaning of them.

Why Is This Important?

When we engage in Co-creating Conversations® with others, we activate our trust networks and
also simultaneously activate our strategic thinking, our ability to empathize with others, and our
ability to see into the future – or foresight. These incredible competences are activated only when
trust is present.

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When we are in Co-Creating Conversations with others, we are jointly activating our ability to
share and discover at such a rapid and deep level that we are producing a view of reality called
foresight. Our predictive power elevates, and we have greater levels of instinct for how to navi-
gate the future.

Coaching Questions:
• In what areas of your work would you like to turn on WE-Centric or partnering behaviors?
• What situations are you dealing with in your work that need more empathy?
• How could you engage your team in Co-Creating Conversations?

NEURO - TIP #2
Elevate partnering at
the moment of contact

Learn how creating a mindset built for trust enables

positive relationships from the moment you meet.

Neuro-Tip:
Trust, the feeling that “I am safe and I know you have my back,” is associated with the brain’s
reward, prediction, and uncertainty areas – the Prefrontal Cortex or Executive Brain. While
distrust, the feeling that “I am not safe,” is associated with the brain’s intense emotions such as
fear, fear of loss, fear of threat areas - the Amygdala or Primitive Brain. At the moment of contact,
one or both of these areas in the brain are activated at the same time, creating uncertainty.

Through a process called Priming we can intentionally create a flow of positive neurochemicals in
our brains, prior to a meeting or conversation. When you prime for trust, for example, you can
create a mindset that is more open to look for “trust,” instead of looking for “fear.”

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Why Is This Important?
Whatever neurochemical state is activated right before you do something has an influence on
what happens. If you are in a high state of fear before you take an exam, you will worry that you
might get things wrong, and you will actually create “self-doubt” and create mistakes.

Being open to connect will enable you to think more clearly and process questions thoughtfully.

Coaching Questions:
• How could you prime your team by elevating partnering prior to a moment of contact or
meeting?
• What are you willing to do to listen to connect with your team?
• What are you hoping to discover?

NEURO - TIP #3
Gut-Instinct Rules

Learn how our gut instincts impact our conversations.

Neuro-Tip:
When we are having a good conversation, even if it’s a difficult one, we feel good. We feel
connected to the other person in a deep way and we feel we can trust them. In good conversa-
tions, we know where we stand with one another; we feel safe.

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Constantin von Economo discovered a neural network allowing us to connect with other human
beings; a network is imbedded in our brain and in our gut. This network is what gives us our gut
instincts. This network consists of long neurons originating in both the anterior cingulated cortex
and the frontoinsular cortex of the executive brain; it actually extends and connects straight into
the gut.

This connection allows us to keep track of our social environment and tells us to alter our behav-
ior according to various socially- relevant cues, such as a frowning face or someone’s wide-open
arms when offering a hug.

Why Is This Important?

When we are in conversations with others, perhaps even before we open our mouths, we size
them up and determine whether we trust or distrust them. Our gut instinct tells us whether the
interaction is safe, so that we may open up our prefrontal cortex (where our executive brain and
trust live), or if we should shut down our executive-trust brain, in order to protect ourselves.
Our gut instincts respond faster than we can think and are hard-wired into us. When we are
aware of this we can use this knowledge to more consciously create an environment of trust with
our clients.

Coaching Questions:
• What picture, symbol or metaphor would you pick to prime yourself for trust?
• What about your team?
• What gut instincts have you experienced this past week?

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NEURO - TIP #4
Addicted to Being Right

Learn how being addicted to being right impacts you

point of view and how you can overcome it.

Neuro-Tip:
Once we make up our minds about someone, we set out to prove we are right.
When we are addicted to being right, we are mastered by our amygdala. We exhibit flight, fight,
freeze, or appease behaviors. When we are addicted to being right, we are activating our “ fight”
behaviors, and we see the world through an I-Centric point of view.

We are unable to see that others have valid points of view, and we move into more aggressive
behaviors to sustain our “power-over” others. Those who are on the receiving end of a person
who is addicted to being right will feel attacked and likely react back, and this relationship will
become highly unproductive.

Try to build a movie in your mind about an interaction. You are the star and producer of that
movie, and, as the star, you can change the script. When you realize you are at the fight stage,
change the storyline. Take a step back to analyze what you are doing and interrupt the pattern.
Imagine what would happen if this person really wanted to help you and you wanted to help
them. Imagine that they needed to be valued and to build a valuable relationship with you.

Why Is This Important?

Working on seeing this addiction before it gets the best of you – and your relationships – is vital
to your success. Once you start to see the signs and signals that you are addicted, and have
stopped listening without judgment, you can reverse the pattern by “listening to connect.”

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To do this you don’t have to give up your point of view. All you need to do is to make space for
others to have and share theirs.

Coaching Questions:
• When was the last time you were addicted to being right? What was happening?
• What would you do differently next time you find yourself in a similar situation?
• What can we do as a team when we identify that someone is addicted to being right

NEURO - TIP #5
Overcome Uncertainty

Learn how oxytocin helps overcome

uncertainty and energizes action.

Neuro-Tip:
When we are uncertain, we are unable to take action. We stall; we avoid doing things. We wait
for others to take action and we follow. All of these responses lower our engagement with
others. When we are uncertain about whether we can trust others – we are in a “wait and see”
mode. We watch; we wait.

Oxytocin helps us overcome their natural aversion to uncertainty and activates our willingness
to take risks in social situations.

Research done in Switzerland showed that subjects dosed with oxytocin through a nasal spray

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were willing to trust people, even after they had been explicitly told that those people had
behaved in untrustworthy ways in the past. People who had not been dosed did not trust the
“untrustworthy” people.

Why Is This Important?

Once someone takes an action that feels like “we need to distrust them,” it’s often hard to get
beyond the fear that it will happen again. In response, we label others as distrustful, and we
avoid them. It’s worth doing an experiment with that person to see if, in fact, your distrust of
them was only a one-time experience. We need to learn how to “test our assumptions, reach out
again to rebuild the relationship, and see if it is worth the effort.

Coaching Questions:
• What initiatives are creating uncertainty?
• Who might be feeling left out or isolated?
• What opportunities exist to create a state of trust?

We hope that these neuroscientific insights will add

value to your coaching conversations. They are a tiny
part of the full Conversational Intelligence© for Coach-
es suite and we would love to invite you to explore this
powerful body of work LIVE with us at one of the
upcoming Immersion Experiences in February 2018 —
at no cost.

Be sure to book your place now before the slots fill up, last year
all sessions reached capacity with over 10,000 professional
coaches in attendance with nothing but exceptional feedback.

 You can check availability and book your FREE place on our
registration page by clicking the button below:

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