Customer Reviews

Coaching for Leadership: The Practice of Leadership Coaching from the World's Greatest Coaches (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)

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As it states in the foreword by Beverly L. Kaye this book "is the collective thinking of the very best thought leaders in executive coaching". Beverly is absolutely right. If your in the business as an executive coach you will find the tools of the trade in this book. Marshall Goldsmith is one of the editors of this book, so you know you won't get disappointed. Seasoned coaches will be able to learn about subjects like E-coaching, coaching and culture and situational leadership to name a few. But also the novices in executive coaching will learn a lot from the experts. Not only about being a top coach but also tips and tricks on how to set up a thriving practice. The book also addresses the transition from line manager to executive coach which I haven't read before. I can highly recommend this book to both seasoned and fresh executives coaches and those who are thinking about becoming one. Good reading!

Perhaps these are the world's greatest executive coaches, but I struggle with the suspicion that they are, more precisely, friends and associates of the editors. All but one or two of the contributors are Americans, so that I'm reminded of John Cleese's comment, when asked to compare Britons and Americans, that "when we Brits have a World Championship, we invite teams from other countries." Perhaps there are no excellent executive coaches from outside the United States. More likely, "world's greatest" was the publisher's idea.

But marketing hyperbole aside, this is a nice volume on an important and potentially lucrative topic. Executive coaching is definitely hot in the corporate world; a recent Harvard Business Review article (Sherman & Freas, 2004) puts estimated annual spending on executive coaching in the U.S. alone at $1 billion. Those who perform executive coaching include consultants and practitioners of various educational backgrounds, retired executives looking to share their career experience, a bevy of corporate training professionals looking to expand their talents past the classroom, and an assortment of others. It is my "unbiased" opinion that psychologists make the most effective executive coaches. Few non-psychologists have training in human dynamics, personality, learning, motivation, group cohesion, assessment, counseling skills, and other proficiencies necessary to fully effect insight and behavior change in organizational leaders. In another excellent HBR article, Berglas (2002), a psychotherapist, warned that untrained executive coaches have the potential for causing a great deal of damage to individuals and their companies by failing to recognize, or blatantly ignoring, personality disorders or even severe psychopathology that may exist in some they coach. Berglas recommended that, at the very least, executives designated for coaching receive a thorough psychological evaluation before coaching begins. While some business experience in a coach is also nice, I, as one who has both formal graduate training in business and experience working as an employee of two Fortune 100 companies, don't find it the sine qua non that non-psychologist coaches would have us and their potential clients believe.

In my view, one of the major shortcomings of this book is that only 1 of the 30 contributors has (or admits to having!) graduate training in psychology. Had the editors included excellent and well-known executive coaches who are also psychologists, rather than professionals described at the end of each chapter as "a world authority," "a frequent speaker," or (my favorite) "co-author of the most successful organizational behavior textbook of all time," their topic would have been better served.

As it is, the book is worth getting if you are thinking of going into executive coaching. The brief chapter by Edgar Schein (Chapter 2) is in my opinion worth the cost of the book. Schein argues that a distinction must be made between when a client defines the (coaching) situation as "one in which he or she wants individual help to work on a personal issue" and when "a manager asks someone to take on a coaching role to work with an individual to improve job performance or to overcome some developmental deficiencies" (p. 17). In the former instance, "the resulting process can be likened to counseling or therapy," whereas the latter is more analogous to "indoctrination or coercive persuasion" (p. 17). "If an organization `imposes' a coach and a predetermined direction of learning," Schein reminds us, "then by definition we are dealing with indoctrination, not coaching" (p. 18). Schein, a psychologist, states unequivocally the importance of this demarcation. I fear that many non-psychologist coaches would not understand the difference or would not be bothered by it.

Several chapters stand out as highlights. I have mentioned Schein's and would add the chapter by R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. (Chapter 25). Thomas provides a well laid out discussion of the dynamics of effective coaching relationships in general and also offers insights on "coaching in the context of teams as opposed to individual efforts" (p. 229). Brian Tracy (Chapter 12) constructs a how-to for retired executives considering coaching as a second career. Finally, the case studies in Part Four (Applications) are clarifying and enlightening and add a great deal to the book.

Besides original work, several of the chapters are a repackaging of previously published material, such as Paul Hersey and Roger Chevalier's chapter on "Situational Leadership and Executive Coaching" (Chapter 3) and James Kouzes and Barry Posner's chapter "When Leaders Are Coaches" (Chapter 16), which is an excerpt from their 2003 book. Marshall Goldsmith (one of the editors) contributes five chapters. Personally, I view these as resume-building for the publish-or-perish crowd, but if a reader buys the book, these can be considered a bonus.

Overall, the book serves as a fine primer for those thinking of going into executive coaching, and for those of us already there, it never hurts to benchmark against the "world's greatest."

*This is a condensed version of my review of the book in PsycCRITIQUES--Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 52 (17), 2007.

It is an excellent book for the formation of leadership coaching.
An important aspect for me is now understood that the organizational coaching is a sub-set of Consultation, as I understand that a coach working organizational leadership in organizations, must have organizational experience.
An excellent book for coaches who work in leadership!

This is the Second Edition of an anthology first published in 2000. Marshall Goldsmith and Laurence Lyons selected, organized, and contributed to the material that is divided into four Parts: Foundations of Coaching (Chapters 1-4, Pages 3-42), Building Blocks (Chapters 5-10, Paged 45-82), Leading Change (Chapters 11-18, Pages 87-159), and Applications (Chapters 19-26, Pages 163-243). As Goldsmith and Lyons explain in the Preface, this edition "expounds a well-accepted practice, not a rapidly emerging bright idea. This book contains fourteen brand new chapters; another ten chapters have been significantly revised. We include new detailed case studies, which we know are highly valued by our leaders."

Presumably this book will be of substantial value to those who are preparing to begin a career in leadership coaching or have recently embarked on one. I also think it will be of great value to most C-level executives and other supervisors who are determined to help develop effective leaders at all levels and in all areas of their organization. For at least some people are full-time executive coaches, much of the material in this book will probably serve as a reminder of what they already know. However, there is always room for increased knowledge as well as improved capabilities (especially information retrieval, diagnostic, and communication skills). For other readers who are primarily responsible for the performance of their direct reports, the material in Parts One and Two will probably be of greatest interest and value. In my opinion, most of the material is relevant to leadership development within any organization, regardless of its size or nature.

Here is a representative selection of brief excerpts from three articles.

"Coaching is a sub-set of consultation. If coaching is to be successful, the coach must be able, like a consultant, to create a helping relationship with his or her client. To create such a helping relationship, it is necessary to start in the process mode, which involves the learner/client, which identifies what the real problems are that need to be worked on, which builds team in 2which both the coach and th4 client take responsibility for the outcomes." "Coaching and Consutation Revisited: Are They the Same?," Edgar H. Schein (Page 24)

"The first thing is to ask yourself the question, `Why?' Why do you want to be an executive coach? What is your aim? What is your mission? What is your purpose? What are your goals? Why would you choose to be an executive coach rather than to do something else with your time and your life?...Identify the most important things that you have learned in your career that would be helpful to other people. You must be absolutely clear about what you are going to bring to your coaching clients based on your own knowledge and experience." "Making the Transition from Executive to Executive Coach," Brian Tracy (Page 101 & Page 102). Tracy also identifies "four key principles in strategic marketing" of executive coaching services: specialize in a particular area, "set yourself apart" (i.e. differentiate yourself from the competition), find your niche market, and focus your efforts. Tracy recommends clearly defining (in writing) the value offering, how much to charge for services, how to market those services, where services will be provided, and positioning (i.e. determining the words that describe you").

"The coaching process we use is fairly standard. It generally consists of five phases: contracting, assessment, goal setting, development training and evaluation. Although all five steps are important, we try to guard against moving too quickly through the "set-up," the preliminary assessment and planning phase that identifies the issues and sets the foundation for the success or failure of the engagement. In fact, the set-up may occupy the first two to three months of meetings. The questioning abilities (along with the patience) of the coach are key. The success or failure of the entire engagement is often dependent on the coach's willingness to gather the pieces of the emerging puzzle, help assemble a clear picture of the goals and challenges at hand, and partner with the client to lay a foundation for success." "Coaching Business Leaders," Richard Gautier and David Giber (Page 117).

Obviously, a C-level executive or supervisor needs to modify the advice to full-time executive coaches (such as provided in the last excerpt from Gautier and Giber's article) but even so, as indicated previously, I think almost any C-level executive or supervisor can learn a great deal from the same advice that can be applied during opportunities each day to help direct reports to strengthen their own leadership and management skills, improve their performance, and in countless other ways add value to an organization.

The book is the best published book about coaching that I read. It is proper to several interests such as company leaders, consultants, academic faculty members and all those who wants to construct a better life and be recognized as a better person.It expands the concepts of the first edition and add value to the coaching literature.

Coaching for Leadership is a valuable collection of essays from some of the most experienced management educators. The book provides research, methods and application stories from different perspectives on leadership coaching, development and effectiveness. The book has depth and is very useful.

I echo the previous reviewer' comments. This is a great book on coaching and gets the guts of subject. Randall Ponder, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.