The Coaching Organization: A Strategy for Developing Leaders [Paperback]

James M. Hunt (Author), Joseph R. Weintraub (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1412905761 | ISBN-13: 978-1412905763 | Publication Date: August 3, 2006

The Coaching Organization: A Strategy for Developing Leaders is the only book to provide practical advice on how a company can strategically manage coaching initiatives that strengthen organizations and enhance employee engagement and growth. Authors James M. Hunt and Joseph R. Weintraub offer best practices to help organizations deploy developmental coaching that drives leadership and employee effectiveness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this era of the search for low-cost, high-impact organizational improvement, The Coaching Organization is a real godsend. In one well-written reference you have everything you and your organization need to know about creating learning through on of the most available resources: relationships. This is an excellent source for helping people master the skills of coaching, so that your organization can be a place where leaders grow leaders. If you're serious about improving organizational effectiveness, you and many of your colleagues need to read this book." (Douglas T. Hall )

About the Author

Dr. James M. Hunt is Assistant Professor of Management and the Charles E. McCarthy Family Trust Term Chair, at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He teaches management, strategic human resource management and leadership. James is also a faculty member of the Leadership and Influence Program at Babson's School of Executive Education. Previously, James served on the faculty of Clark University’s Graduate School of Management.

James is a Faculty Co-Director of the Coaching for Leadership at Babson. The Babson Coaching Program provides developmental coaching for Babson Students working toward enhancing their competencies in leadership and teamwork. Each year, the faculty train over five hundred Babson Alumni and MBA students in coaching techniques and development planning. His recent paper on coaching (with Dr. Joseph Weintraub) was awarded the "Best Management Development Paper" by the Academy of Management, the largest professional association of business school professors in the world.

James is also a founder of Hunt Associates, a career and leadership development firm that provides executive coaching, career counseling, employee assistance programs and strategic human resource consulting. (www.HuntAssociates.com) Since 1990, Hunt Associates has worked with companies such as the Bose Corporation, 3Com, Genzyme, and Stratus Computer.

James graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B. Sc. Degree and received the doctorate in business administration from Boston University’s Graduate School of Management, where he studied career and leadership development and work/life balance.

 

Dr. Joseph R. Weintraub is Faculty Co-Director of the Coaching for Leadership Program at Babson College where he is also an Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior. At Babson, he developed the Human Resource Management and Leadership Courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs in business. He is also President and Founder of Organizational Dimensions, a human resources consulting firm based in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Dr. Weintraub’s work has appeared in many publications including Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. He has also appeared on several syndicated television programs such as Evening Magazine and The Bottom Line. His recent paper on coaching (with Dr. James Hunt) was awarded the "Best Management Development Paper" by the Academy of Management, the largest professional association of business school professors in the world. He is also one of the developers of Star-Teams Insights ™ a web-based assessment report providing developmental feedback on leadership, teamwork and work style.

Dr. Weintraub has worked with many organizations including Fidelity Investments, Dunkin’ Donuts, Bose, AT&T, Duke Energy and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Much of his recent activity has been focused in the areas of leadership and coaching. He is currently working with companies in both Japan and the U.S. to combine the teaching of leadership, coaching, and teamwork with the playing of baseball.

Dr. Weintraub received his B.S. degree from the University of Pittsburgh and both his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Bowling Green State University. He is also the past president of the Human Resources Council, a Boston-based HR professional association.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc (August 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1412905761
• ISBN-13: 978-1412905763
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating a Coaching Culture in an Organization, August 10, 2007

By 

Keith E. Webb "Cross-Cultural Leadership Coac... (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coaching Organization: A Strategy for Developing Leaders (Paperback)

Until recently, there were no books on how to implement a coaching style of leadership throughout an organization. Now we have The Coaching Organization. This book provides leaders with a thoughtful strategy for introducing developmental coaching throughout an organization.

The Coaching Organization is straightforward, mixing helpful instruction with actual case studies. The authors also wrote Coaching Manager: Developing Top Talent in Business and have obvious expertise in this area.

After reviewing what developmental coaching is, the authors provide an organization assessment of readiness to implement a coaching culture. The assessment has four sections: 1) the cultural context; 2) the business context; 3) the human resource management context; and 4) organizational experiences with coaching. The last assessment section leads into one of the more innovative (and therefore worth reading) chapters, that of A Strategic Approach to Coaching.

Here the authors go beyond the obvious of "linking coaching to business outcomes" and go deeper to the systemic level. The goal is to create a coaching initiative that promotes a sustainable coaching capacity. Here's where the book pays off: the authors show how some "common sense" initiatives to introduce coaching actually work against the long-term sustainability of coaching. For example, if a coach is assigned to a poorly performing manager, what is communicated is that coaching is for those not doing well, thus, managers resist the coaching initiative so they won't be labeled a "poor performer."

Two other especially useful chapters are about how to build and lead a coaching capacity, and how to raise up qualified Internal coaches. These two processes are at the heart of creating a coaching organization. In my view, it will still take partnership with a coaching provider or trainer to do it, but the chapters serve as a guide for the overall process.

The Coaching Organization is one of only a few books on organization-wide implementation of coaching.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strategic Thinking about how to create a Coaching Organization, September 5, 2007

By 

John Aboud "Management Consultant" (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coaching Organization: A Strategy for Developing Leaders (Hardcover)

I liked their first book, The Coaching Manager, which discussed the importance and strategy of actually coaching--this new paperback book goes to the next level, taking a more strategic view of coaching. This is helpful because there's little out there that talks about HOW to create a coaching culture. The Coaching Organization admirably fills that gap. They get you to think about taking a strategic approach to development through coaching. Including what it takes to be successful.

The number of examples of real companies showing how they are using the development coaching model is really helpful. I especially liked the Whirlpool case, illustrating how a large, successful company uses coaching as an adjunct to its leadership development efforts and the importance of a senior leadership team dedicated to executive development. The cases used make a very compelling statement supporting the "business case" as to why it makes sense to create a coaching organization.

The authors are well-known academics in addition to being firmly grounded in the real world of business and consulting. They avoid excessive hype and selling their point of view, while making clear the value of their approach to organizations committed to genuine development efforts.