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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 new information arrives between meetings, the question is never just 'do I have enough to act?' — it's 'what does my duty require before this goes any further?'
The situation
You are the Chair of a mid-sized not-for-profit that provides community mental health services. Three weeks ago, at the last board meeting, the board voted six to one to award a significant service delivery contract — worth roughly $480,000 over two years — to Brightpath Community Services. The decision was made after a competitive tender process managed by the CEO, and the board was satisfied it represented good value and mission alignment.
Yesterday, at a community event, a long-standing sector colleague pulls you aside. She tells you, matter-of-factly, that Brightpath's founder and majority shareholder is the brother-in-law of your CEO. She assumes you knew. You did not. Neither did the board, as far as you are aware — the CEO's conflict of interest declaration at the start of that meeting listed a minor volunteer role and nothing else. The CEO ran the tender process, prepared the board paper recommending Brightpath, and participated in the board discussion.
You drive home turning it over. Maybe there is an innocent explanation — a family estrangement, a relationship so distant it didn't register as a conflict. Maybe the CEO genuinely didn't think it rose to the level of disclosure. Or maybe it does, and a $480,000 decision was just made on a compromised basis. You have not yet spoken to the CEO.
You arrive home. It is Thursday evening. The next scheduled board meeting is six weeks away. The contract has not yet been signed — the CEO told the board the paperwork would be finalised within the next fortnight.
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.
- Loyalty to the CEO — and the urge to give them the chance to explain before involving anyone else
- Discomfort with escalating something that might turn out to be nothing
- The pull toward decisive action that can blur the line between Chair authority and board authority
- Anxiety about damaging an important service relationship and what that would mean for clients
Policies this draws on
- Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) — director duties (ss 180–184; companies not registered with the ACNC)
- ACNC Act 2012 (Cth) and Governance Standard 5 — duties of responsible people
- Companies Act 1993 (NZ) — director duties (ss 131–138)
- Charities Act 2005 (NZ)
- Your organisation's constitution and board charter
- Your organisation's conflict of interest 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.
More Coaching Scenarios
See the whole library
Coaching ScenarioWhen she made it specially for you.
You are a family worker at a community health and social services organisation. You have been working with the Anderson family for several months — mostly around parenting support and connecting them to community resources. Today's session ran a little over time, and as the family is leaving, Julie Anderson reaches into her bag and hands you a carefully wrapped parcel. Inside is a handwoven basket she has made herself. She tells you that the whole family wanted you to have it — that your support has made a real difference, and that in her family, giving a gift is the proper way to say thank you.
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Coaching ScenarioWhen good intentions go too far
You manage a small women's refuge. The organisation runs on a lean budget, a tight staff team, and a group of volunteers who genuinely care about the women you support. One of those volunteers — Robyn — has been with you for nearly three years. She's warm, dependable, and the kind of person who remembers birthdays and notices when someone is having a bad day. The staff trust her. The clients trust her. You trust her. Then you discover a dynamic that is difficult to sustain and hard to exit safely if things go wrong.
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Coaching ScenarioThe kid really wants me to come. Can I go just this once?
You work as a youth support worker at a community social group for young people. One of the young people you support, 12-year-old Jason, has been attending the group for several months. He started out guarded and disengaged, but over time he has really opened up — and a lot of that is because of the consistent, warm relationship he has built with you. Staff and family have both noticed the positive shift.
Client Services · ~12 minutes