Customer Reviews

Masterful Coaching

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I would highly recommend Mr. Hargrove's book, Masterful Coaching, for individuals who are ready and willing to take on the challenge of transforming their own life and impacting others both in the workplace and on a personal level. The author assists the reader in the journey to personal transformation and the journey of coaching others to expand and grow. It is not an advice or prescription book but a tool to help one help themselves and also in the process help others. I especially appreciated the "Calling Forth Questions." The passion of the author is evident and the presentations of ideas are thought provoking, human, insightful and straightforward.

3 major points for pondering:

Personal Transformation: The author focuses on taking effective action throughout the book but the personal transformation that the book pushes readers to explore is powerful. "...coach is someone who engages and enters into the learning system of a person, business or social institution with the intent of improving it so as to impact people's ability to perform" (pg. 17) The presentation of coaching methodology and transformational learning discuss an individual's governing values and implications of those values in learning including Triple-loop learning, Double-loop learning, and Single-loop learning. Personal transformation is the foundation for everything that is presented in the book and is key to the "being" of a person.

A way of "Being" is central to being an effective coach: The characteristics of masterful coaches provide a guide for self-reflection and self-growth. The characteristics are the core of who one is and their sense of "being". Characteristics: 1. The ability to inspire; 2. Setting higher standards; 3. Honesty and integrity; 4. Disciplined intensity; 5. Forwarding action; 6. A passion to help others learn, grow, and perform.

Stewardship, commitment and learning models: The author discusses the shift from dominance to learning in groups and organizations and provides examples for the reader to internalize and better understand the paradigm shift. The role of the coach is is defined in the context of being a steward.

Robert Hargrove has done an exceptional job of clearly articulating and illustrating principles that have often been difficult to express in writing. Early in the text he links the ability to create truly extraordinary results with "personal transformation" and introduces the concept of "transformational learning." He does this by asking us to consider three learning loops: single loop learning (adding new skills-what normally passes for education), double loop learning (altering patterns of thinking/behavior), and triple loop learning (shifting context).

Fully grasping the third loop and its potential impact is not trivial, and the capacity to operate at this level provides a coach, manager, or leader an access to "transformation" of who people are and what they perceive in a given situation. The results can be far beyond the predictable. I personally know of corporate programs based on the principles of this book that have generated millions through productivity gains in a span of a six months.

This is NOT manipulation. Hargrove states in chapter 1, "it requires authentic communication" and again in chapter 4, "Any attempt to manipulate people will likely be detected and backfire."

If you are accountable for producing results through others as a leader, manager, business owner, or little league coach, this book provides powerful material for helping them achieve performance far beyond what is predictable.

For those already on the cutting edge of consulting in the distinctions of being, context, enrollment, and personal and organizational transformation, Hargrove's book offers yet more ways to express these ideas and produce the results that lead to effective action. The book also serves as a valuable text for individuals you wish to develop as coaches.

For those new to these ideas, the book is an excellent introduction to the principles of being vs. doing, committed speaking and listening, integrity (as a distinction), and personal transformation.

Mr. Hargrove has made the concept of "transformational learning" understandable in this well written and concise text. Masterful Coaching describes a process of thinking and coaching that leads to "being" versus "doing".

As a facilitator for a company that delivers adventure-based outdoor team building seminars, I was looking for a guide to help me make a real difference for my corporate clients; this book provides a structure for coaching that can have a profound and lasting impact.

My personal experience of participating in "transformational learning" seminars delivered by the Landmark Education Corporation, leads me to suggest that the maximum value of this book can be realized not just by reading, but by actually participating in a seminar or training program that gives one access to a trained "transformation coach". It was only after experiencing the distinctions of transformational learning on a personal level that I became effective at coaching others in transformation.

Coaching is the hot buzzword lately. Hargrove makes it clear that coaching is not just a management trend or a fashionable way of describing something like mentoring. There is a technology to coaching and the results can be powerful. I found something useful to me as a coach on almost every page. Exceptionally rich. Everyone who calls themselves a coach, and especially those who work in corporate situations, need to put this title on their desk next to the other reference books.

In the last ten years since I started coaching managers and leaders, I have read almost everything out there on the subject. This book stands out! The distinctions Hargrove makes about coaching provide clarity, while being very useable and transferable to others. He also writes in a very readable style, and balances profundity and humor to get his points across. Some points that I found especially useful were:

How to generate a powerful coaching relationship by clarifying what each person needs to bring to the party. I found this extremely helpful in re-igniting an ebbing coaching relationship.

Hargrove writes that a leader needs to "be the source" of their impossible future or what it is that they want to create. He shows how to coach someone to do this.

Thinking drives behavior. Hargrove provides clarity and examples on how to coach people in a more profound and deeper way than the usual tips and techniques that novice coaches give.

Hargrove also writes about getting feedback for the coaching client by doing interviews rather than using the typical 360 degree feedback forms. He says, "If more than one person calls you a horse, saddle up!"

I recommend this book to coaches, managers and leaders who want to up the level of their game.

An insightful account of the true meaning of coaching that goes to the heart of building and reliving the human spirit into organizaions that is quite amiss in today's corporate world.

By honing in on true spirit of community building , Hargrove has given the concept of stewardship its real place in today's material and self-interest based society.

The author integrates coaching with systems thinking and the learning organization popularized by Peter Senge's book "The Fifth Discipline". This revised edition shows the Hargrove's approach is still fresh and surprisingly unique, given all the recent books published on coaching.

One unique contribution is Hargrove's model of triple-loop learning. It is a model of reflection. The first loop is reflecting on the outcome of actions for incremental improvement. The second loop is reflecting on assumptions that led to the decisions about those actions. The third loop is self-reflection on the core identity of the decision maker. This acknowledges that who we are influences our assumptions about the world and thus our actions. This type of reflection has become the core of quality coaching.

Other particularly helpful sections are the chapters on stretch goals and breakthrough thinking. Pushing for breakthroughs, rather than incremental change, requires the use of stretch goals. Hargrove tells us how to coach through the process of setting stretch goals. He says you first must decide what would be a breakthrough, then dig inside for motivation by examining why it is important to achieve and what's in it for me? Finally, learning and acting differently is essential to reaching stretch goals.

Hargrove's combination of systems thinking and learning organization principles with coaching is a real winner. Other books might be more thorough on the "how to" of coaching but his theory and tools for transformational change are excellent and unique.

For anyone who is a coach, considering becoming a coach, or curious about coaching, this book is a MUST read! Hargroove clearly distinguishes between a coach and a "Masterful Coach" - one that gets results. It's a different paradigm and different way of being with coaching clients that gets results. He shows that coaching is about serving others from the perspective that they are whole and complete; it's not about fixing or helping them.

This is a very profound and powerful book The values really release your aspiration to be a coach. The ideas methods and tools go way beyond the superficialities of most coaching books.

This is a great book to study if you are serious about improving your own coaching skills. Bob has done an elegant job of explaining some sophisticated and subtle ideas in clear, expressive terms that illuminate the reader. His ideas on personal transformation and stewardship point the way for the high-performance coach.

Mark Kelly, coauthor of MASTERING TEAMLEADERSHIP: 7 ESSENTIAL COACHING SKILLS