Nicole asked a simple question. Why is everyone uncomfortable?
What a Coaching Scenario is
Not quiz style. This is judgement practice — you're put inside a real situation from human-services work and asked what you would actually do. It draws on the knowledge you use on the job, not the kind you can look up.
Every choice changes what happens next, and every choice gets a coaching beat straight after it: what drew you toward that option, and how it played out. What's held back is the verdict on your path, so you stay with what you'd genuinely do rather than working out what you're supposed to say.
- 4 decisions
- Each one shaped by the one before it. No two paths through are the same.
- Coaching as you go
- A beat after every decision, naming the pull behind your choice and where it led.
- A full debrief
- Your whole path replayed at the end, with the reasoning behind each decision you made.
- Evidence you can keep
- A completed scenario is recorded in your PracticeLab and appears in your downloadable ProofKit.
Scenarios are made to be talked about. Most people finish one still turning it over, which makes them a ready-made prompt for supervision, a team meeting or a conversation with a colleague — everyone walks the same situation, and comparing where you each landed is often where the real learning happens.
This one ends with
When a question in the boardroom reveals a gap, the Chair's job is to keep the room productive — name what's real, protect the relationships, and get a proper answer on the record without turning one honest question into a performance review.
The situation
You are the Chair of a mid-sized community services organisation. Tonight is the third board meeting attended by Nicole, a recently appointed director who comes from a financial audit background. The board has been collegial and stable for several years, with a trusted CEO, Brendan, who has led the organisation through significant growth.
Halfway through the agenda, while the board is reviewing the quarterly operations report, Nicole asks a question that sounds simple: "I notice we receive government contract funding across four programmes — where do we see the acquittal sign-off for each of those contracts, and who reviews whether we've met the performance milestones?" A brief silence follows. Brendan glances at the CFO. Two other directors shift in their seats. You realise, with a cold clarity, that you cannot remember the board ever formally reviewing contract acquittals. You check your mental model of the last two years of agendas. Nothing comes to mind.
Nicole is not being provocative — she is genuinely trying to understand the governance structure. But her question has just surfaced what looks like a significant gap: the board may have been receiving summary financials without ever directly sighting the acquittal reports or performance milestone sign-offs for the organisation's largest funding streams. Brendan begins to say something about the management team handling acquittals, and that he can get the board a summary if helpful.
As Chair, you are now holding several things at once: a new director who has asked a legitimate question, a CEO who may be about to inadvertently confirm a governance gap, a room of directors who are looking to you to manage the moment, and the real possibility that this is not a crisis — or the possibility that it is.
What you're practising
Before you start, notice
Real-world decisions in scenarios like this are shaped as much by feeling as by reasoning. People often notice one of these pulls — naming what you feel before you decide is half the skill.
- The urge to smooth it over quickly — so the awkwardness in the room doesn't harden into something worse
- Protectiveness toward Brendan — not wanting a trusted CEO to feel ambushed by a new director's question
- Anxiety about what the answer might actually be — and whether finding out will create problems you can't manage
- The pull to look decisive by escalating — treating a gap as a crisis signals leadership, even when it's premature
Policies this draws on
- AICD Good Governance Principles and Guidance
- Institute of Directors (IoD) Four Pillars of Governance Best Practice
- Your organisation's board charter and delegation of authority policy
- Your own organisation's policies take precedence — check them where they apply.
Heads up — coaching scenarios work differently. You'll make a sequence of decisions as the situation unfolds, and after each one you'll get a coaching beat: what drew you toward that choice, and how it played out. The one thing held back is the verdict on the path you took — that lands in the debrief at the end, with your whole walk replayed alongside it.
New to Good Practice Hub? Coaching Scenarios come with PracticeLab Pro, or browse the practice library to see what else is there.
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