[.uk] Coaching for Performance, Third Edition (People Skills ... (ISBN 1857883039)

Valuable coaching classic:
Whitmore has provided a very good secular overview and guide to coaching in Coaching for Performance (I am a Christian coach). It is easy to read and gives lots of examples of using coaching technique in everyday life and work. It appeals to me as a classic as Whitmore came in at the early days of coaching and writes with clarity and enthusiasm. In this edition outlines its development. I purchased this book as it was often quoted in the Life Caoching couse I studied as part of a theology degree. As someone with a sporting background I find his many references to sports coaching quite natural, however I can see this as an irritation to anyone who has never experienced coaching in the sporting arena. These references however do add to the readers' understanding of coaching technique and practice. I would recommend this book to anyone new to coaching, but would suggest further study and supervised practice if you want to do more than simply use a few coaching techniques in your worlplace and everyday life.

Foundations of Business Coaching:
This book is an excellent expose of one of the primary sources, and the development of principles and techniques of business coaching from that starting point. He refers frequently to the work of Tim Gallwey and his inner game books. I was familiar with Gallwey's work, and appreciated the excellent organization, content and style of the book. I found the book also to be of significant value to anyone who wishes to contribute to other people's success, be it in family, social, or other relationships. Parents should find the content valuable in moving from the control stage of parenting to the empowering stage of parenting.

Great book:
This book is a coaching guide written in a coaching style. It persuades you that coaching is a skill that all people who teach or manage others would do well to acquire. It argues for: 1) using effective questions rather than instructions or commands to raise awareness and responsibility, with extensive examples; 2) following the GROW sequence - Goals, Reality, Options, Will - to generate prompt action and peak performance; 3) the growing need to relate to the individual's sense of meaning and purpose. The book also examines why coaches now need an enhanced skill level and why coaching is the essential team leadership skill. "Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them" (Gallwey in Whitmore, 2000: 8). Hence people are thought of in terms of their potential, not their performance. Coaching provokes proactive, focused thought, attention and observation. Coaching questions compel attention for an answer, focus attention for precision and create a feedback of hope. Developing people with the context of awareness and responsibility and the skill of questioning to generate them is invaluable. Self-belief, self motivation, choice, clarity, commitment, awareness, responsibility and action are the products of coaching. Ways to set goals; four stages of learning; the inextricably intertwine-ness of performance, learning and enjoyment were shared. Traditionally, the carrot and the stick were used as motivators. But if you treat people like donkeys, they will perform like donkeys. While job security and the quality of life in the workplace have a high priority to a lot of people, one's highest state was the self-actualizing person who emerges when both the esteem needs are satisfied and the individual is no longer driven by the need to prove themselves (according to Maslow's hierarchy of human needs). As employees, especially younger ones, show signs of possessing the needs of self-actualizers, companies are being obliged to consider more carefully their ethics and values and the needs of all their stakeholders, employees, customers, the community and the environment. The benefits of coaching include: improved performance and productivity; staff development; improved learning; improved relationships; improved quality of life for individuals; more time for the manager; more creative ideas; better use of people, skills and resources; faster and more effective emergency response; greater flexibility and adaptability to change; more motivated staff; culture change; and a life skill. The personal benefits to those who manage or coach are: learning to think for themselves, greater awareness in all things that enhances performance, learning and enjoyment, more choice, greater sense of responsibility, enhanced self-belief, possible promotion, learning to self-coach and to coach others in and out of the workplace. I am not only more confident of the future of coaching, enthusiastic about the positivity and empowerment coaching brings, but also inspired to deploy the coaching principles to impact and influence lives.

Beware - The $1 Kindle edition is a book summary:
When I saw that I could get one of my favorite books for only $1 on my Kindle, I was *so* excited. Until I read the download, and found that it is NOT the text of the book, but a summary of the book. It's a very good summary, and when you've read it, you're sure to want the book. But it is NOT the book.

A must for every leader:
A great addition for a leader's repertoire of leadership competencies. This an easy read, very practical and the greatest need for today's leader that gets the least attention.