Adaptive Coaching: The Art and Practice of a Client-Centered Approach to Performance Improvement [Hardcover]

Terry R. Bacon (Author), Karen I. Spear (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0891061878 | ISBN-13: 978-0891061878 | Publication Date: September 3, 2003

This book fills the huge gap between what companies and clients expect from coaching and what it actually does for them. Zeroing in on this popular technique to develop today's leaders, improve performance, and facilitate change, the book shows how to deliver coaching that helps anyone achieve extraordinary results.

Editorial Reviews

Review

2004 Best2Buy winner. Has value for anyone engaged in coaching activities. Has potential to positively impact any organization. -- Training Media Review, January 2005

Coaches learn how to unearth the real issues underlying clients' immediate workplace problems. Helps coaches determine their natural style. -- HR Magazine, May 2004

Every once in a while a book comes along that puts it all together. This is the book. -- Peer Resources Top Coaching Books, July 2004

Has value for anyone engaged in coaching activities. Information is immediately useable; has the potential to positively impact any organization. -- Training Media Review, May-June 2004

Of several books on executive coaching that I have read, ADAPTIVE COACHING would stand at the top of the list. -- businessjournals.com, March 1, 2004

From the Author

We wrote ADAPTIVE COACHING because so many books on coaching presented "the one right way" to coach, and our research with thousands of people who had received coaching told us that people preferred to be coached in different ways. We discovered that the most effective coaches varied their approach to coaching depending on what their clients wanted. Moreover, they often adapted their coaching style during sessions if clients wanted or needed something different.

Taking a client-centered approach to coaching is not difficult if coaches are open to using different methods (directive vs. nondirective, programmatic vs. circumstantial, specific vs. holistic). However, most people coach the way they were coached themselves, and they often don't see the alternatives. So we wrote this book to explore the different styles of coaching and when coaches should use them.

We intended it to be a practical and useful guide, so we included numerous coaching dialogues taken from actual sessions. We also described how effective coaches listen, ask insightful questions, give clients feedback, reflect on their observations of clients' behavior, offer advice, and confront clients. Finally, we offer a human change model that gives coaches a practical way to help their clients make lasting behavioral changes.

We close by discussing how to adapt your coaching style to diverse clients: cross-cultural, cross-generational, women and minorities, and C-level executives. We show that no matter what your own makeup as a coach, you must be adaptive when you coach people who differ from you in some important ways.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (September 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891061878
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061878
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Terry R. Bacon (1947) is the scholar-in-residence for the Korn/Ferry Institute and has been a writer, speaker, business leader, coach, and consultant for more than thirty years. He has also written poetry, developed educational programs,and written screenplays--and he is now president of a summer classical music festival and chairman of the Fort Lewis College Foundation. Before Korn/Ferry, he was a founder and CEO of Lore International Institute and for the past four years has been named one of the top leadership thinkers in the world by Leadership Excellence magazine. He lives and works in Colorado and Hawaii. His latest book, The Elements of Power, was named one of the 11 Top Business Books in 2011 by CIO Insight.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Research-Based Approach Raises Coaching to a New Level, October 12, 2003

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adaptive Coaching: The Art and Practice of a Client-Centered Approach to Performance Improvement (Hardcover)

Over the past decade, the concept of coaching in the business world has become so ingrained that it's part of the landscape. A wide range of conversations, methods of feedback delivery, and relationships have been accepted as coaching in a rather loose collection of techniques...and results. As we move into an increasingly challenging period for employers, leaders must become substantially more effective at this process we describe as coaching. A whole new generation of leaders must be taught, coached, and brought to a higher level of performance.

Bacon and Spears, experienced in coaching more than 2,000 individual clients in Fortune 500 companies, share their knowledge and experience. Their researched-based approach emphasizes the skills needed by coaches and that coaching styles must be adapted to what the client needs. The eight styles they identify are directive (teacher, parent, manager, philosopher) and non-directive (facilitator, counselor, colleague, mentor). This model alone will expand, deepen, and enrich the work done by the vast majority of coaches in the corporate world.

The book offers even more, delivering checklists, assessment tools, tips and tools, and a wealth of sample coach-client dialogues. Recognizing the special opportunities the future will hold, the authors include insights into coaching across cultures, across generations, as well as coaching women, minorities, and C-level executives.

An epilogue with even more perspectives adds value to this volume, as do the reference section and comprehensive index. This is not a book for readers who simply want to gain a few insights into improving their coaching effectiveness. You'll learn, but you'll be overwhelmed. Adaptive Coaching is like a college textbook on the topic. It's a heavy, deep, and thorough treatment with relatively small type. The $39.95 price suggests that this is more than the average airplane reading management book...and it is. If you're serious about the critical and fine art of coaching in the complicated corporate environment, you'll gain considerable knowledge, insight, and growth from this book.

Side note: I am the author of Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People. As a workforce futurist, I see what's coming... including a dangerous dearth of leadership. Application of the principles in this book will help today's leaders strengthen each other and the next generation of leaders.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Coaching Book I've Read, August 3, 2005

By 

Susan L. Sandler "SuePhilly" (Philly) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adaptive Coaching: The Art and Practice of a Client-Centered Approach to Performance Improvement (Hardcover)

What I like about this book are the concrete examples they give of "almost" coaching and best coaching. The best coaching book I've read. Recommended it to all laypeople looking to be better coaches.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great insights for effective coaching, January 18, 2010

By 

Aneil K. Mishra "Trust Dr." (Durham, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adaptive Coaching: The Art and Practice of a Client-Centered Approach to Performance Improvement (Hardcover)

As someone who seeks to improve their coaching skills, Bacon & Spear provide great advice on how to be a great coach, but from the client's perspective. If we want to be successful as a coach, we need to deliver value to our client and provide them the tools they need in the way they want them to be delivered. Bacon & Spear remind us that our clients need to drive this process in terms of making sure we coach in the style they prefer so that they are most open to our suggestions and advice.

This book is full of valuable tools, helpful scenarios, and useful suggestions on what to do in several different types of situations with different types of clients. It is obvious that they have a wealth of experience that can be ours to tap in order to be the most effective executive coach for our clients.

Author, "Trust is Everything"