Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, Nobel winner and author of the groundbreaking bestseller “Thinking Fast and Slow”, reveals how human beings have two kinds of minds operating in one brain.

“System 1” or Thinking Fast is largely involuntary, automatic and unconscious. When System 1 is operating we limit our attention to information readily available. We go with our first pass when we hear a problem and quickly begin to think about solutions.

For example, when you operate from System 1 thinking, if you  are coaching others you are likely to accept what the person says about a goal (or a problem they want to get rid of) without much challenge or validation of what is the actual goal or problem.

Many coaches today sell themselves on giving the client ‘exactly what they say they want’, which can be a huge mistake. When they operate in System 1 mode, they quickly move their attention to what resources and ideas they know that help solve their client’s presenting goal/problem.

“System 2” or Thinking Slow is far slower and deliberate than System 1. It enables you to see things that System 1 doesn’t.

It requires far more effort and conscious deliberation. When you are operating in this mode, you probe, question and challenge the frame of reference the client is presenting. You look beyond the surface and unpack the outcome behind the outcome, and think through the solution far more deeply.

Done well, clients will love you for your penetrating coaching style.

This is a much more intensive approach to working with clients.

However as coaches, managers and people helpers – System 2 isn’t the norm because it goes against the grain of how the brain works, which for most people, unless trained, is to gravitate toward the law of least effort.

Many people helpers accept the presenting request or issue by the client at face value.

And immediately get to work.

Resulting in solving the wrong problem, or worse, helping a client get what they say they want but it actually does not solve their actual problem.

So how do you mitigate the tendency for System 1 style coaching and create really valuable results for others?

By learning to trigger System 2 first, which Master Coach Michael Breen reveals as the first principle of great coaching in today's video.

It’s the Big Magic Trick of Coaching…