Whose call is it anyway?
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 decision lands on the board table, ask yourself: is the board being asked to set direction and hold accountability, or to do the manager's job for them?
The situation
You joined the board of a mid-sized community services organisation eight months ago. You came with a background in social work management and were excited to contribute at a governance level. The board meets monthly and there are currently six members including yourself and the Chair, Beverley.
Over the past few months you've noticed a pattern that's started to bother you. At board meetings, the discussion regularly drifts into operational territory — which staff member should coordinate the upcoming community event, whether a particular client group should be prioritised in the new intake process, what format the quarterly newsletter should use. The Executive Manager, Koa, presents detailed operational reports and often waits for the board to endorse specific actions before proceeding. Other board members seem comfortable with this arrangement and engage enthusiastically in these discussions.
At last month's meeting Beverley spent twenty minutes directing Koa on the exact wording of a funding report. Koa took notes and thanked her. You said nothing but left the meeting feeling uneasy. You couldn't put your finger on whether you were missing something about how this board works, or whether what you're observing is genuinely a governance problem.
This month's agenda lands in your inbox. Item 4 is: "Approval of staff roster structure for new program." You read it twice. You're almost certain this is a management decision — but three other board members have already replied-all to say they're looking forward to discussing it.
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.
- Imposter syndrome — the worry that everyone else seems comfortable, so maybe you're the one who's got it wrong
- Conflict aversion — not wanting to look difficult or disruptive as a newer member
- Loyalty to Koa — sensing that micromanagement isn't good for him but not wanting to make it worse by speaking up awkwardly
- The pull of competence — your management background makes you genuinely good at operational decisions, which makes it tempting to just engage
Policies this draws on
- Your organisation's constitution or rules
- Your organisation's delegations framework or policy
- Institute of Directors – Four Pillars of Governance Best Practice
- Charities Act 2005 (NZ) / Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012 (AU)
- 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.
More Coaching Scenarios
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