Customer Reviews

Personal Best: Step by Step Coaching for Creating the Life You Want

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very disappointing. I brought this book after being seeing one of David Rock's New York sales-pitch seminars. Although giving some useful tips on basic goal setting, this is yet another simplistic "step-by-step" life coaching book, light-weight with no substance and which promises far more that it delivers.

The book ends with another sales pitch about how the reader can train to be a life coach with Rock's comanpy. I thought I'd paid for a book, not a sales pitich.

I also found the author's claim to be the actual person who invented "Life Coaching" and "Workplace Coaching" to be distasteful, patronising and rather derogatory to the real pioneers of the coaching movement such a the late Thomas Lenard and the great Sir John Whitmore. Save your money.

[...]

I have skimmed this book. It is NOT sophisticated or advanced. It is, however, an easy yet comprehensive read. It presents basic concepts, facts and helps. If you've read other, similar or more advanced books, then it is undoubtedly covering old ground and is not for you. But if you are looking for basic guidance then this book is an excellent beginning source and guide.

If you are looking for a nice and simple personal development book this is it. You can read it in one afternoon and start coaching. I know that David has never had any formal education or coach training before inventing Life Coaching, and now I can understand why.

David Rock is a real master at taking the simple and making it simple. I use the results coaching system to help myself and others deal with major health problems. David is a true guru. Just being around him is healing, but using his coaching methods in conjunction with astrological science is really powerful. His approach fits so well with astrology. Try it.

Here are some quotes from students in the coaching certificate programs at New York University, where this book has been a required text book for some years.

'It's really helpful to be able to read about complete coaching engagements with different clients.'

'I use it regularly as a resource and know that many others in my classes do as well.'

'I have so many pages marked out the book is a mass of tags, especially the sections that give you example goals and actions for different coaching situations'.

'It's an excellent resource that helped me picture what goes on in real coaching sessions'.

'I really started to understand what coaching was about after reading this book, it brought it all together'.

(From the Author): Personal Best is designed as an introductory book to simplify the complex issues in coaching, and give the new coach a good understanding of what is involved in coaching, from a birds-eye view. To the academics who think it is too simple, I expect that more people have got value from this book because it is simple not in spite of it.