A perfect book for coaching practitioners.
346341
Perfect book for these times. The most comprehensive approach to dealing with leadership and their psychological issues. Kudos to the authors and editors.
778978
This book is outstanding. Sometimes as I read books that cite other books I've already read I begin to question their value, but Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness have combined the science and writing behind some of the most useful performance psychology, infused it with their own experience and wisdom, and delivered it in a concise easy to understand way. The writing is engaging and easy to understand and the book is formatted to maximize learning and retention. This book is recommended for people who read a lot of self-help books because the authors do a great job of connecting some of the best ideas in a practical way. It's also highly recommended for people who haven't read many other books in this genre because it contains key ideas from some of the best. I'd love to give this book to every coach, parent, boss or anyone who wants to achieve more.
628815
Excellent, insightful, educational, inspirational, motivational. If you want to get away from the hourly therapy type model of offering single sessions or if you are already offering coaching packages, this book is a must read. It addresses the reasons why most coaches don't succeed at the level they dream of. Fear, insecurity, and not knowing how to talk to potential clients, get clients, etc. The book offers scripts and empowering perspectives that help you step into a win-win with potential clients.
2389185
In today's world of "a coach on every corner", if you will, what I like most about this book is that its a workbook. The pages I actually filled-out with what matters to me helps me focus on the topic in that chapter. This alone elevates it from just another how-to book to a purposeful self exploratory journal-like life planner that I can revisit to stay on course with my real needs. I highly recommend it.
2669833
This product is great for coaching!  Each topic can easily be turned into assignments for use with my coaching clients - which gives them concise content advice and also helps keep them focused between sessions.  There are over a dozen titles, each with practical suggestions that really mirror the kind of discussions that come up during executive coaching engagements or in management situations in general. This is a 'must-have' for all coaches, from seasoned veterans to early career professionals.
1190109
A tasteful selection from the coaching literature that is readable and coherent.
1539654
The Coach's Coach is a book for professional coaches.  The authors set out to achieve two aims - firstly to help coaches coach better and secondly to help people find more and better coaching for themselves.  The first goal is highly relevant and achievable.  The second is more problematic.

I liked the structure of The Coach's Coach.  It is logical and easy to follow.  Divided into five parts, it starts with the relationship between coach and coachee moving onto tools and techniques and concludes with the coaching context.  Each chapter commences with a brief, yet instructive overview enabling the reader to quickly gain a sense of what they can achieve.  The main author, Alison Hardingham, is a very experienced and knowledgeable personal coach and her expertise is evident throughout the book. Even for people with loads of coaching experience, there is still something to learn in The Coach's Coach.  For example, the chapter on Mapping Tools provides a range of tools that can be adopted and adapted to suit the style of any coach.

As an informative resource on coaching, The Coach's Coach should be added to every coach's library.  My only criticism is that when I first read the title "The Coach's Coach", I expected to be coached through the book in a modelling way. This was not the case as it is more informative than instructive.  I'm not sure if the authors achieved their second goal of helping people find more and better coaching, although if a potential coachee first read this book, they would certainly be very well educated about the role and purpose of coaching.

Bob Selden, author of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/What-To-Do-When-You-Become-The-Boss-How-new-managers-become-successful-managers/dp/1432714287/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers</a>
4202277
Great book about executive coaching from one of the top Master Coaches practicing today.  It did take me a while to 'get into it', but after the first 100 pages it became very clear this is an outstanding book for anyone thinking about getting into coaching, or who is a coach professionally, or a leader who coaches others on his/her team.
114812
This is a great addition to the coaching literature for coaches and clients alike. The author skilfully uses evidence without making it academic to outline clear processes for success using a wide range of psychological theory. I was really impressed with the work on basic personality types and also the goal planning sections. Very clear and very useful and I will be recommending it to clients as well as using it myself.
764757
Marshall Goldsmith's readings triggered by journey towards Coaching. I'm a Certified Coach now and this book provided me great learning o how to be a better Coach and how to Coach better. Being the founder of Peer Coaching India, I recommend this book to all Coaches and Mentors.
3086520
Amazing book that takes the abstract principles behind effective coaching and breaks them down into personal stories you can related to and practical techniques you can use.
3461652
This book is about how effective coaching can help leaders to better motivate and engage their teams.  Following an introduction that serves to explain what coaching is and is not, the book comprises two main sections.

The first part of this book is focused on four key principles of coaching; building trust, tapping into potential, creating commitment, and executing goals. These are the foundations of good coaching, and form the basis for the seven skills described in part two. The second (and considerable longer) part of the book is dedicated to exploring seven coaching skills:

* Build Trust
* Challenge Paradigms
* Seek Strategic Clarity
* Execute Flawlessly
* Give Effective Feedback
* Tap Into Talent
* Move the Middle

There is some natural overlap between the four principles and seven skills, but I think that's to be expected, given the subject matter. For example, the importance of trust between a coach and the people he or she is coaching can't be overemphasized. All the best coaching skills in the world are next to useless without the foundation of trust.

The author of this book, Michael K. Simpson, has spent more than 25 years training executives to be more effective coaches, and draws on this considerable experience in providing examples of several of the principles covered in the book. The author was mentored by Dr. Steven R. Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," and readers will recognize several of the key themes from Dr. Covey's work in this book.

I generally enjoy books like this, and this one was certainly no exception. One of the things I especially liked about this book is that it provides lots of practical advice for leaders in the form of questions they can use to identify issues, resolve challenges, and bring out the best of the people whom they lead.

Of the seven skills outlined in this book, my favorite chapters were challenging paradigms and "moving the middle." We all get caught up in paradigms that no longer serve us, and I think that tools for identifying and breaking free of those are useful to everyone. The idea of "moving the middle" is one that caught my eye because it represents what I refer to as "common sense but not common practice." All too often emphasis is put on performance improvements of high level performers, but focusing on the middle can yield much more effective results.

That said, I do have some minor quibbles with this book. The first is that it's somewhat even in places. Some chapters are fairly short, high-level, and largely conceptual/theoretical, while others are more in-depth and offer more practical advice to readers. I think part of the reason for this is that some of the concepts discussed in this book are quite large in and of themselves (building trust and challenging paradigms for example) and could easily be the subject of their own books. The author had to draw a line at some point in terms of how in-depth he could go on each of the topics he addresses, and overall I agree with his choices, but there were times when I felt that the text wasn't going deep enough into some areas.

Another minor issue I had is related to editing. I spotted a number of spelling and grammatical errors that distracted me and pulled me out of the text. Normally I wouldn't point something like out, but in this case it was a bit more frequent that I would have expected. These were only a minor annoyance, but still something I couldn't ignore.

Overall I strongly recommend this book to managers and leaders looking to improve and sharpen their coaching skills. It offers lots of great insight and practical advice for effective coaching and deserves a spot in every coach's success library.

Note: I won a free copy of this book from the "12 Books" (GoodReads) group as part of its monthly book discussion program.
4814816
This book is a valuable read that has quite a lot to offer in the areas of understanding the processes of coaching and mentoring and much more.  I felt that it gave tangible information that can be applied easily even for the beginning coach.  In fact, it would be an exceptional start for those whom are considering coaching as a career but aren't quite sure what niche to go into or what the career entails.  There are a lot of programs out there designed to certify a coach, however this is designed in my mind to aide a potential coach and also to give some great insight for a seasons coach.  With important information like different types of coaching, the processes and even giving tools such as GROW and the Wheel of Life (which I have used myself), this one is a real winner.  I was fortunate enough to receive this book for free in exchange for my honest review.  This one easily garners 5 stars from me.
3507709
Amongst the myriad of disappointing business books on coaching, The Coaching Habit stands out for its pragmatic and simple approach. It is a fantastic how to guide for both new and experienced manager who want to reap the benefits of proper coaching- to free up their time, improve performance and become more efficient.
1493968
At less than 150 pages, theres not a lot of room for fluff and Simpson does a fine job balancing straightforward organization with a clear,  engaging, readable style well-suited to his advice.

He got my attention right away by identifying what coaching is NOT  ordering people about, trying to fix them, engaging in open-ended therapy.

So what is it about? Four basic coaching principles:
Trust, Potential, Commitment, Execution

-expressed as seven coaching skills that each gets their own chapter:
Building Trust
Challenge Paradigms
Seek Strategic Clarity
Execute Flawlessly
Give Effective Feedback
Tap into Talent
Move the Middle

But this isn't some PowerPoint-in-the-form-of-a-book. Simpson writes with compassion  and a genuine passion  for communicating these ideas. Theres plenty about what it really means to empathize, to listen, a lot of common-sense psychology (without the babble), about motivation and the value of trust and providing a safe harbor to share confidences. In fact, theres a lot in the book about trust  building and maintaining it - because Simpson identifies it as the non-negotiable bedrock for anyone who hopes to be successfully in a coaching capacity.

I found his advice on reading non-verbal body language surprisingly on-target and without the usual pop-psych embroidery.

While the book clearly addresses corporate context, Simpson does something far more valuable: he writes in a way that invites the reader to internalize these ideas and in essence coach themselves. In fact Simpson uses the example of his own relationship with his wife to illustrate just how universally applicable many of these soft skills are in our lives.

There are not a lot of contrived scenarios and composite individuals, which I found refreshing.

Simpson speaks conversationally yet professionally to the reader looking for practical guidance  not theory or formulaic scripts to follow. I mentioned the books length and part of the appeal is I felt adequate time to reflect and absorb ideas  without the intimidation factor of another 200-300 pages under your thumb to get through.

I found the extended epilogue on coaching the organization where Simpson extrapolates his ideas outward and up the corporate chain the least applicable part of the book (way above my pay grade). Im a senior member of a small IT team and the first to admit I wasn't drawn to this field because of my people skills, though Im hopefully smart enough to realize it and willing to improve - which is half the game.

Theres no shortage of management-on-the-fly books out there, going back at least to The One-Minute Manager.  But Unlocking Potential really hit home for me, in terms I can relate to and make sense of in my current situation. In my very first status meeting and team member one-on-one since finishing it I found myself drawing on specific points  thats my definition of a worthwhile read.
3355038
The book is written very clearly and makes the practices easy to use and adapt.  I used it in my courses to get certified in transpersonal nurse coaching.  I highly recommend it for anyone working with individuals and groups with guided imagery or for self use to seeking to explore their inner wisdom.
4386656
This book outlines coaching, motivation, delegation, goal setting and feedback to improve your performance and behavior. It contains diagrams and presents ideas and insights in bullet points. It elaborates on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It offers lots of tools and techniques on motivation and shares secrets and strategies on goal setting. The book is written in a conversational tone. The author uses humor and wit in her examples to make her points. This book is useful for learners, leaders and coaches. You can gift this book to your friends to inspire them to grow as leaders. Enjoy reading this book!