Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life [Hardcover]

Laura Whitworth (Author), Henry Kinsey-House (Author), Phil Sandahl (Author), John Whitmore (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 1998

For professional coaches who want to increase their proficiency as well as those interested in integrating coaching skills into their consulting practice.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A book coaches will find worth having on their bookshelf as a reference and place to go to find ideas. -- Peer Resources Top Coaching Books, July 2004

Techniques for achieving one's goals from pioneers in the booming field of career coaching. -- New Age Journal, November/December 1998

The Co-Active Coaching model can (and does) provide interesting tools and tips to assist with coaching in a professional capacity. -- Personnel Psychology, Spring 2000

This book proposes a new kind of coaching, which involves the active participation of both the coach and the client. -- HR Magazine, February 1999

Whether you're training coaches, instituting a mentoring program, or evaluating a coach for your own use, the authors' model will come in handy. -- Training & Development, May 1999

From the Publisher

A selection of the Doubleday Executive Program book club. Foreword by John Whitmore, author of Coaching for Performance.

Discover the technqiues needed to transform your consulting skills into those required for professional and personal coaching--the hottest new profession in organizational consulting!

"Capture the wisdom of co-active coaching with this fine book...a must-read if you want your practice to thrive into the next century."--Richard J. Leider, Founder of The Inventure Group; author of The Power of Purpose and Repacking Your Bags

"Co-Active Coaching changes who people are at work. This book describes the pragmatic skills needed to create value alignment and high performance around workplace satisfaction and personalized customer service."--Don Semmler, Market General Manager, Marriott International, Inc.

"Co-Active Coaching breaks new and important ground in the field of coaching. It penetrates to the heart of the coaching process, enabling readers to discover how they can tap into the true power of coaching."--David B. Peterson, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Individual Coaching Services, Personnel Decisions International; coauthor of Leader as Coach

"I am a better manager, a more powerful leader, and a more understanding person as a result of co-active coaching. This book is a desperately needed prescription for those who want to play a bigger game."--David Balser, Ph.D., Director, Corporate Environment, British Columbia Hydro

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Davies-Black Publishing; 1st edition (November 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891061231
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061236
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

258 of 261 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Model for Coaching Success in Others, November 13, 2000

By 

Les Lauber (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life (Hardcover)

"Co-Active Coaching" is written for the coach or prospective coach. The authors, Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phil Sandahl, share their model and ideas for coaching others in three parts. They then provide a toolkit for coaches.

Part I is "Coaching Fundamentals." Here they outline the model which places the client squarely in the center. The model focuses on the coach using his or her skills to focus on the client's fulfillment, balance, and process. The intake session is discussed here sufficiently to create the context of the later coaching sessions.

Part II is "Co-Active Coaching Skills." The authors detail in this section five skills key to the coach's success: listening, use of intuition, exploration of curiosity, action and learning, and self-management. There are activities to practice each skill at the end of each chapter--anyone wanting to coach should not skip these exercises, which are carefully designed to get to the heart of the skill described.

Part III is "Co-Active Coaching Processes." This section explains "the three core principles of coaching:" fulfillment, balance, and process. Especially helpful here is Chapter 11, "Tips and Traps," a valuable addition that warns and prepares the coach for things that may not go quite right....

The last section is "The Coach's Toolkit," and this alone is worth the price of the book. It includes Action Plans, Client Activities and Worksheets, Intake Checklists--everything a coach needs to begin a successful coaching program. A wise coach will undertake the exercises and worksheets for himself or herself, and thus will better understand what the client is asked to do.

125 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whole-person coaching...a powerful approach., February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life (Hardcover)

Co-coaching is distinctive in that it involves both the coach and the client; it is also referred to as personal/professional coaching because it addresses the whole person (the whole of their life).

Many books we have reviewed on this subject, while of value within the workplace, do not strive to address the multidimensional nature of the individual. In contrast, the approach presented here is distinctly holistic.

The authors' offer a model plus a set of skills and techniques. The book is filled with specifics and excellent insights, and gives extensive guidance about how to be highly effective in coaching. About 75 pages are devoted to "The Coach's Toolkit," consisting of forms, checklists, exercises, resources and a glossary. This book offers a potentially powerful approach to coaching. It is, in our view, requisite reading for anyone involved in, or considering, coaching. Highly recommended.

84 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent resource!, March 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life (Hardcover)

As a professor of Organizational Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology, I've seen a lot of interest expressed by psychologists in the process of personal and executive coaching. Conventional training in psychology is not necessarily a very good preparation for this work. Rather, what is needed is the sort of empathetic and careful relationship building, informed by but not restricted to psychological approaches, that comes through in this book. I heartily recommend it to all who are interested in developing a greater sensitivity to the coaching process!