Product Description
Find satisfaction and financial success with a new career in coaching

Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching offers a go-to reference designed to help every mental health professional build, manage, and sustain a thriving coaching practice. Packed with hundreds of proven strategies and techniques, this nuts-and-bolts guide covers all aspects of the coaching business with step-by-step instructions and real-world illustrations that prepare you for every phase of starting your own coaching business.

This single, reliable book offers straightforward advice and tools for running a successful practice, including:

• Seven tools for making a great first impression
• Fifteen strategies for landing ten paying clients
• Seven secrets of highly successful coaches
• Ten marketing mistakes to avoid

Complete with sample business and marketing plans and worksheets for setting rates and managing revenue, Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching identifies the fifteen biggest moneymaking markets to target and offers valuable recommendations for financing that get the most impact and mileage from every budget. Quick "Action Steps" for applying ideas and techniques make this book useful right away.

Get started in coaching today! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Excellent Choice!
This is a good place to start if you are new in the coaching and Sales & Marketing arena. Provides good points (based on authors personal experience) regarding do's & dont's.

If your background is Sales & Marketing, this book may seem a little too basic, but otherwise excellent for a starting point.

I recommend this book to read and follow!

Excellent How-To run a coaching business
If you want to get into the details on how to set up and run a coaching business, whether personal or executive coaching, this book tells you how. It walks you through the set up to full running. Highly recommended.

It does not cover how to be a coach. This is the business side of the coaching business.

GOOD BOOK
But before you consider coaching, YOU must ask yourself if your life and career are exactly as you want them to be before you go and work with other people. Remember: most people out there are only settling for second best instead of going to fulfill their true fantasies! ARE YOU ONE OF THEM???? I WAS!

A "Must Have" for coaches in their first years of practice
A terrific combination of comprehensive business planning, sales and marketing frameworks; practical action steps and real data to back up the advice.The book guides you through all the key steps required to succeed in this challenging professional services business.

Everyone starting an executive or life coaching practice should grab this book and read -- and reread -- each one of the book's 356 pages.

Excellent tips on establishing & growing your coaching business
Note that this is NOT a book about how to coach. This is a great resource for someone who is looking for a well structured set of tips on how to establish a new coaching practice. It is also a great reference for experienced coaches to dip into. The networking and marketing sections are particularly useful. Experienced coaches will likely find some new ideas, but may get more value by being reminded of techniques that already knew about but have just forgotten to implement...

The book follows a logical progression for a new coach.

- What type of coaching you should focus on and why (business vs personal coaching)
- Which markets to target
- Planning - financial & marketing
- Networking - first impressions, relationships & referrals
- Finding your first clients
- Marketing tips & mistakes
- Internet marketing
- Traits & techniques of very successful coaches

There's also a section focusing on individuals from a professionally regulated field, such as psychology or counseling, who are considering transitioning to coaching.

I enjoyed the style of the book, which is quite "checklist" oriented. As someone who makes lists for everything, it very was easy for me to digest. More importantly is that it's a book that I continue to pick up and reference as it's so easy to dip into. Nicely laid out.

I also like the mini-interviews with successful coaches (usually just a page or so) providing tips & perspectives from growing their own businesses.

As a nuts and bolts description of how to operate & grow a coaching business, you can't go wrong with this book. Look elsewhere if you need a resource for developing coaching skills & techniques. ... Read more

Product Description
Experts review coaches’ roles, examine research, and provide in-depth discussions of specific coaching models, including literacy, cognitive, instructional, content-focused, classroom management, and leadership coaching. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Coaches: Approaches and Perspectives
Excellent background information to review the various models of using instructional coaches in the schools to improve student achievement.

A survey designed to help professionals use coaching to support learning methods
Jim Knight edits COACHING APPROACHES & PERSPECTIVES, a survey designed to help professionals use coaching to support learning methods. There are many different kinds of coaching and administrators are put to the task to choose the form that best suits teacher and student patterns: this resource offers insights from many professionals in the field on different kinds of coaching and results. Education libraries will find this excellent for administrator reference.
... Read more

Product Description
"Richly illustrated with case histories, biblical guidelines, and practical insights, this is a helpful overall introduction to what coaching is and to what it can do, especially in ministry situations. Jane Creswell's book reflects her in-depth experiences as a coach, pioneer in the coaching movement, and teacher of coaching, all combined in a volume written by a skilled and established coaching professional."
--Gary R. Collins, author of Christian Coaching and Christian Counseling ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Easy to read and great information
Just as the title says, this book is easy to read and has some very good informaiton.I have enjoyed reading it and I will keep it to refer back to even though I am not a minister.However, anyone who wants to work with people in a helping profession can gain insight and useful knowledge from this book.

Great information from a great coach
Jane Creswell has years of coaching and teaching coaches under her belt. She has done a great job of sharing some of the most basic and most important information on coaching in this great book. This book is also very helpful for those of us who want to do coaching in a Christian context. If you are considering coaching or being coached, this book is a must-read.

Guide to Coaching Potential by a Master Coach
Christ-Centered Coaching: 7 Benefits for Ministry Leaders is a excellent introduction for Christian leaders to what coaching is and how it can help. The author, Jane Creswell, is no hack when it comes to coaching. She's the founder of the IBM Coaches Network and a Master Certified Coach, she's also a Christian with a passion to bring coaching to ministry leaders.

The strength of the book lies in Creswell's ability to dig into seven coaching approaches, which also serve as seven mental models or attitudes of a coach. Each chapter is illustrated with useful case studies of coaching situations that take the book from theory to real life. The seven are:

1. Leveraging strengths
2. Provide clarity and focus
3. Instill confidence
4. Catapult learning
5. Foster intentional progress
6. Coach others
7. Encourage God-sized goals

These seven may not sound particularly unique, they are not, what is unique is the way Creswell illustrates how coaching accomplishing these things in a non-directive way and integrates these with Scriptures. As such, this book is helpful to learn the mindset and approaches of a good coach. Both potential coaches and clients would benefit from reading it.

Christ-Centered Coaching adds to a growing library of coaching books for Christians.

Great Insights for Coaching
I believe "Christ-centered Coaching" is a great book both for those who coach and those are coached.It gives clarity as to what coaching is and is not and what it can strive to attain.The book is easily understood, even by the novice to coaching.I would recommend this book as one to be read first by those who are just beginning to explore coaching.

Christ-Centered Coaching Helps Everyone
A well-written book which appears to be targeted towards men and women who serve on the staffs of churches, it also provides valuable insights into how coaching works and how it can benefit everyone. It is organized in a manner that makes it easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to refer back to. I recommend it for everyone's library. ... Read more

Product Description
This exciting new resource offers “coach-leaders” tools and strategies for guiding staff to continuously grow and improve, maximize their potential, and create productive school cultures. ... Read more

Product Description
The first reference to bring scientifically proven approaches to the practice of personal and executive coaching

The Evidence Based Coaching Handbook applies recent behavioral science research to executive and personal coaching, bringing multiple disciplines to bear on why and how coaching works. A groundbreaking resource for this burgeoning profession, this text presents several different coaching approaches along with the empirical and theoretical knowledge base supporting each.

Recognizing the special character of coaching-that the coaching process is non-medical, collaborative, and highly contextual-the authors lay out an evidence-based coaching model that allows practitioners to integrate their own expertise and the needs of their individual clients with the best current knowledge. This gives coaches the ability to better understand and optimize their own coaching interventions, while not having to conform to a single, rigidly defined practice standard.

The Evidence Based Coaching Handbook looks at various approaches and applies each to the same two case studies, demonstrating through this practical comparison the methods, assumptions, and concepts at work in the different approaches.

The coverage includes:

• An overview: a contextual model of coaching approaches
• Systems and complexity theory
• The behavioral perspective
• The humanistic perspective
• Cognitive coaching
• Adult development theory
• An integrative, goal-focused approach
• Psychoanalytically informed coaching
• Positive psychology
• An adult learning approach
• An adventure-based framework
• Culture and coaching

Customer Reviews (4)

A scientific approach that strengthens coaching practice
This is a reference book that presents several different coaching approaches along with knowledge base supporting evidence that would help executive coaches reinforce their practice. I have found particularly refreshing, the inclusive approach of its authors to the many different schools of coaching present today. This overview of different systems,methods,concepts and philosophical backgrounds have enriched my understanding of the many different approaches available to the coaching conversation and has helped me optimize my ability to improve the way I conduct conversation learning processes.

A Great Resource in the Field of Coaching
Dianne Stober has been an active player in improving the field of executive coaching so I was delighted to see this publication. The handbook is comprehensive in coverage and well-organized. I am glad to see a book that has a strong theoretical base that also offers some easy to understand models and frameworks of coaching. While I enjoyed the entire book, I particularly liked the authors' chapter on a contextual approach to coaching as well as the chapter on positive psychology.I would highly recommend this book.

Academic Review
Notwithstanding the marketeering/hype that the book presents "scientifically proven" information, this "evidence-based" approach is on-target.In one source text the academic community now has a clearly presented body of knowledge from which we can trace how theory and practice can be linked.We also have a first opportunity to offer graduate programs or other disciplines where coaching is taught a volume that will allow an appreciation the breadth of coaching approaches available and the opportunties for engaging in further study as students, teachers, researchers, practitioners or combinations thereof.Within a few hours of reading this book (from cover to cover) I ordered 6 additional copies for our coaching faculty in the Organizational Dynamics Masters Degree program at the University of Pennsylvania.

I can't wait for the book to come out!
Dianne and Anthony - As a coach and social worker, I look forward to your work because I know that it will further develop and refine my skills. It will also evolve the coaching field as a whole.Thank you for taking the lead in this important area! ... Read more

Product Description
An indispensable resource-with real-life examples to enforce key concepts-for individuals and institutions charged with improving principal retention, teacher satisfaction, and student achievement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Blended Coaching
This is a well written, easy to read, practical guide to coaching. It contains many examples of different coaching styles for the education sector.I have used this book myself and recommended it to others. ... Read more

Product Description
A new edition of the book that took the art of coaching to new heights. Since COACHING FOR PERFORMANCE was first published over a decade ago, John Whitmore has lead the way with this best-selling classic that has sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide. Translated into a dozen languages and considered a ‘must-read' by such international leaders as Coca-Cola, this is the definitive guide to mastering the skills needed to help people unlock their potential and maximize their performance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Great Insights, I'd Highly Recommend It
This book was excellent!As a coach, I really appreciate new thoughts, ideas and strategies to help others grow personally.

If you're a teacher of any kind, the concepts discussed in this book are worth taking the time to learn.

I often judge a book by how many notes I've scribbled in it....and this book is marked up from start to finish with great thoughts about what I was learning.

I give a great deal of credit for the success I've had as a coach and writer to certain strategies shared in "Coaching For Performance." [...]

Buy this book today. Learn from it.Change your life and the life of others.

Jon Vroman, Speaker - Coach - Author
[...]

Good Deal
This book was a great buy.It was sent quickly and in good condition.Also, I highly recommend this book to anyon who wants t enhance his or her people skills.It is excellent and the seller was reliable.

A must for every leader
A great addition for a leader's repertoire of leadership competencies. This an easy read, very practical and the greatest need for today's leader that gets the least attention.

Foundations of Business Coaching
This book is an excellent expose of one of the primary sources, and the development of principles and techniques of business coaching from that starting point.He refers frequently to the work of Tim Gallwey and his inner game books.I was familiar with Gallwey's work, and appreciated the excellent organization, content and style of the book.

I found the book also to be of significant value to anyone who wishes to contribute to other people's success, be it in family, social, or other relationships.Parents should find the content valuable in moving from the control stage of parenting to the empowering stage of parenting.

Valuable coaching classic
Whitmore has provided a very good secular overview and guide to coaching in Coaching for Performance (I am a Christian coach). It is easy to read and gives lots of examples of using coaching technique in everyday life and work. It appeals to me as a classic as Whitmore came in at the early days of coaching and writes with clarity and enthusiasm. In this edition outlines its development. I purchased this book as it was often quoted in the Life Caoching couse I studied as part of a theology degree.

As someone with a sporting background I find his many references to sports coaching quite natural, however I can see this as an irritation to anyone who has never experienced coaching in the sporting arena. These references however do add to the readers' understanding of coaching technique and practice. I would recommend this book to anyone new to coaching, but would suggest further study and supervised practice if you want to do more than simply use a few coaching techniques in your worlplace and everyday life. ... Read more

Product Description
Coaching the Artist Within contains a dozen simple lessons. Eric Maisel, a leading creativity coach, writes each one with a novelist's flair, as a narrative complete with examples, exercises, and questions to help readers explore and reflect on underlying issues that may be keeping them from pursuing their urge to create. Topics include committing, planning and doing, generating mental energy, achieving a centered presence, becoming an anxiety expert, upholding your dream, and maintaining a creative life. Maisel has worked extensively with creative people - poets, filmmakers, novelists, dancers - and he revisits some of them in coaching sessions in San Francisco, Paris, London, and New York. Typical are the rock musician who wants to pursue a solo career and the screenwriter anxious to become a poet. Their examples both entertain and instruct, outlining how to discover one's personal muse - and the motivation to keep creating. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Such a smart, helpful book
Having just received this book about a week ago, and reading it voraciously ever since, I had to jump in to say this: Anyone who experiences blocks and insecurities in his or her creative life will benefit from the uncommon insights Maisel brings. I've read his columns in magazines about writing and art, which is why I came looking for this book. Time and again, Maisel not only gets to the root of what ails us, but explicates with lively, engaging prose. But I particularly wanted to write this review because I had read one suggesting that the book is in the mold of a facile,"ten-things-to-do" self-help tome. That is so far from the truth that it made me wonder whether that review writer had some sort of personal bone to pick or professional jealousy thing going on.

In any case, you'll find insights here, not easy answers, and perhaps enough information so that you really can be a better creativity coach to yourself.

Oy....
I suspect that if you own anything Mr. Maisel has previously written, this book won't be of much use to you.(Also, if you have a lick of common sense this book might not be terrifically earth-shattering, either). I begin to suspect that there's a cadre for popular writers, like groupies, who go on Amazon and *flood* them with bogus good reviews. Either that, or a lot of clueless people who think simple advice like 'create a mission statement' is just the most profound thing they've ever heard.

Crista, another reviewer, was dead on. Nothing new in this book at all.Some of the stuff is almost cringe worthy--I seem to recall at one point he tells you to hang onto a small pebble and squeeze it periodically?I guess he picked that because red strings were already taken, or something.

For a creativity guru, he also, really sadly, plagiarizes himself. That really damages his ethos in my little Book of Ethics and Character. I swear that his entire chapter on 'centering' is the executive summary of 'Ten Zen Seconds'. I guess in that respect, this book might be worth buying if you've never read him--maybe it's a 'Best of Eric Maisel.' And even at that, it's not that good.

The stories are entertaining, and in fact oftentimes more useful than his dopey exercises, but even that grated after a while. Yeah yeah all of your clients are amazingly successful and it's all because of you...ever heard of a little *humility*, mon ami? On that note, allow me to indicate that the ENTIRETY of his further reading/resources appendix at the end of this minim opus are books written by...Eric Maisel.

Helps Bring Good Ideas to Light
If you ever thought about hiring a coach to help bring out your natural talent, try reading this book first. It's delivers ground breaking results that will open your eyes to new ideas and ways of thinking.

This Book Is Helping Me Get Unblocked
I have been working with the ideas in the this book for less than a week, but, already, I seem to have recovered a lot of my lost passion for creativity.I was sinking into a state of overwhelm.Now I am doing just about the same things creatively.The difference is that I am excited about what I am doing, I see meaning in all of this, and my gut level passion to reach my goals has returned.I wake up in the morning excited about my day.I enjoy the personal stories, as I can identify with a lot of the personal creative struggles listed.This is my second Eric Maisel book.The first one just did not speak to me like this one.Now I am all fired up, and looking forward to reading the rest of the book, completing the exercises, and increasing my understanding of how to deal with blockages with some solid, workable tools.

1000X better than "Art and Fear"
Eric Maisel, San Francisco-based creativity coach and trainer of same, has delivered the excellent work Coaching the Artist Within.Unlike Art and Fear, Maisel's work feels more down to earth, less fluff-filled and is well-grounded by the author's experience as a licensed therapist and nationally certified counselor.

Coaching the Artist Within is presented in twelve segments referred to as "skill sets".Each has a specific purpose, being divided into information, examples and exercises.Perhaps it is the (former) teacher in me that appreciates Maisel's straightforward (but by no means flavorless) approach to mentoring over the Bayles and Orland spoonful of sugar oriented methods.The structure and resources in this book are impressive and intelligently presented.Specifically, I found that Maisel's ideas about dualistic thinking, which he identifies as separate from negative self-talk, insightful and relevant to my life and my study.Maisel defines dualistic thinking as a "either/or' mindset in which once a person has chosen their side of the coin a different reality becomes virtually impossible.His examples are easy to internalize:

"The moment I hear a client say that he favors process over product (or, more rarely, product over process) or that he favors simplicity over complexity (or, more rarely, complexity over simplicity), I suspect that he is in the habit of making excuses...and that he must be frequently creatively blocked.Just as one goal of an aware Taoist is to identify the principles of yin and yang and use their power to serve his ends so that in a given situation he manifests either more yin or more yang, the goal of a creative person is to honor both partners of every dualistic pair by choosing the quality he will manifest at different times."(Pgs. 56 - 57)

Maisel has chosen an apt delivery system to unmask this most insidious of self-traps.Dualistic thinking might be the most devious of all pitfalls the human psyche can create primarily because it is so unexpected.As he predicted I'd never given a moment of thought to the idea despite finding examples ever present in my daily life.Case in point:

"I'm not a concept person.I'm better at implementing somebody else's plan once it's been made."
"I've never been one for math.I prefer art, music and language oriented studies."
"Creativity is not my strong suit.I prefer more analytical pursuits."

Any accompanying contradiction in such thinking doesn't seem to eat into its effect.Dualistic thinking needn't make sense to survive; it works perfectly well in the absence of logic.Someone I know is fond of saying that the subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, it just records the most predominate messages and acts accordingly.If her theory is false there's no harm done.If it's true however...

Coaching the Artist Within is a primer for personal growth and creativity.Best of all no psychological subterfuge is employed in the delivery of its message; no Freudian-like analysis of the underbelly of its readers is necessary in order for them to put the concepts to good (and immediate) use.Maisel's writing expresses a respectful understanding of artistic anxiety without coddling or handholding, employing practicality and reverie in equal measure:

"Every creator is dreaming, but using the actual stuff of life, the formulas of chemistry, the lightness of feathers, the pliability of clay.Without a dream, the clay just sits there.Without the clay, the imagined jar holds no water...The dreamer rejects reality, the realist rejects the dream, the artist embraces both dream and reality...In your art and in your creative life, you uphold the dream and you respect reality.On a day that is too real, you remind yourself, `I have a dream!'On a day that is too idle, you remind yourself, `Get real!'...Since dreaming and reality-testing are both needed to fulfill your mission, both are moral imperatives."(Pgs. 177, 178)

If there is only one gift to be gleaned from Coaching the Artist Within it is this:Eric Maisel allows that creativity is a principle by which to live.By using the phrase "moral imperatives" he creates permission for artists to honor and feed their passions with legitimacy and gusto - supported from within by a strong framework of certainty that not to do so would be to starve a living thing, encouraging its death.
... Read more

Product Description
Leadership coaching has become vitally important to today?s most successful businesses. The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching is a landmark resource that presents a variety of perspectives and best practices from today?s top executive coaches. It provides valuable guidance on exactly what the best coaches are now doing to get the most out of leaders, for now and into the future. Revealing core philosophies, critical capabilities, and the secrets of coaching success, this one-of-a-kind guide includes essays from fifty top coaches, including Ken Blanchard and Frances Hesselbein. Packed with cutting-edge ideas and proven best practices, this is the definitive source of information for anyone dealing with coaching. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Great Book!
A mustt read for anyone just starting out in the coaching profession or that wants to pick up a few new thoughts for working with new clients!

Book Review of "The Art & Practice of Leadership Coaching"
"Coaching as an Industry is exploding. More and more coaches from every walk of life are starting to offer their services. This book is a culmination of a research sponsored by Linkage, Inc. Linkage is a global org. development company specialising in leadership development as well as leadership coaching. The Content's of this book are divided into four parts.

Part I includes a summation of what's considered the latest thinking on how to select the right coach with some best practices in partnering with coaches.

Part II dives in to five coaching categories. It does not include coaching within the functional fields such as Marketing or Finance. Instead, it focuses on Leadership aspects from strategic to changing individual behavior at the micro level.

Part III looks at the trends in building internal coaching systems with an essay on the issue of developing the capabilities of "The Leader as a Coach".

Part IV includes "The Coaching Almanac" with an analysis of trends, a macro view of the coaching market place and a discussion on the issue of "Return on Investments in Coaching".

In the process of finding the Top 50 Executive Coaches, the book builds in the limitation of choosing coaches that are currently in North America though admittedly there are fantastic coaches around the globe. Yet, all in all, based on the customers' first choice as speakers on executive coaching, Marshall Goldsmith, the co-editor does a brilliant job on the book. "

Great advice from the Experts
This book is helpful because expert coaches share their best tips on becoming a great coach.Extremely helpful.

Author, "Trust is Everything: Become the leader others will follow"

Good overall, but a little tedious in the middle
This book starts strong, but drags a little in the middle.The book covers coaches from all areas and many of the coaches have similar things to say. The research in the beginning and end are useful and the editors contribute some of the best work in the book.I think it's worth reading but I would skip sections that are not applicable to the area of coaching that you are most interested.

An Incredible Resource
Editors Howard Morgan, Phil Harkins, and Marshall Goldsmith have done everyone tremendous service by using their considerable stature and reputation in the Coaching/Leadership field to pull together this amazing list of professionals; as well as sharing their expertise on the topic. The format they've used makes this an immensely useful reference. If you have an interest in executive coaching -- are a senior executive in transition, or are thinking of hiring a coach -- this book belongs on your "must read" list. In fact, make it your next read.

Peter Clayton, Senior producer www.landed.fm ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (14)

Pleasant reading, but fully understandable by native english only
It is a very enjoyable read, full of anecdotes and insights for our life of programmers. Since the authors use a colloquial English, I think this book it is fully understandable only by native English speaker. I would recommend to read a chapter at a time; then consider how you work in your team, and try to practice what are you reading. The layout and binding are excellent. Very flexible and with quality papar. It is a pity for some photographic image too dark.

Agile Coaching
As a non programmer I was not looking forward to wading through another Agile book, but was pleasantly surprised to find it full of sensible advice for "normal" people. I've found a lot of great ideas, many common sense ones, which I can use to help institute our fledgling Agile practices. Many of the techniques suggested fit with educational practices, and which, from long experience as a teacher have proved to have worked. I'm recommending it to the Agile "drivers" in our business.

Computer and business collections alike will relish this
AGILE COACHING tells how to work with people to create Agile teams to build software, showing how to grow a team that is self-sufficient and skillful. From Test-Driven Development design to real-world experiences with real teams, this offers chapters applying agile techniques to everyday objectives. Computer and business collections alike will relish this.

Excellent information for anyone thinking about taking on role as Agile Coach/Mentor
My manager let me borrow his copy of Pragmatic Programmer's Agile Coaching. I've read a good number of Agile process and management books. I'm partial to the Pragmatic Programmer publishers due to their consistently well-written books. I also started using stickies instead of pens/pencils when I read my books. Mainly because they stand out better and allow me to find my notes quicker. The other reason is because I can remove them when I give the book away (which I've done a good deal lately. Of course, not with this book since it was my boss'). The stickies I use are these and can be found at most office stores.

Anyways, back to the book. The authors, Rachel Davies and Liz Sedley, do a good job explaining the different ways to start/continue agile coaching. The format of the book, multiple sections relevant to the chapter, Hurdles, and Checklist, worked very well for me. They share their experience, pain points, and give you a list that you can contain in your short-term memory.

I enjoyed reading this book because it made me, once again, focus more on the people aspect of software development and less on the coding. I haven't focused much on that part because I've assumed the people I work with are all professionals. Unfortunately, I've forgotten that they are human, too and need to be approached as humans and not machines. I'm still convinced that all software developers are control freaks. Our computer does what we tell it to. If it doesn't, it is usually our fault.

I highly recommend this book.

Grow Yourself with Agile Coaching
Agile Coaching, in my opinion, isn't only for people who coach agile teams. If you're in the software business, you'll learn something valuable from this book. Start with the last chapter - "Growing You". The only way to succeed in our industry is to continually learn and improve, and this chapter gives great suggestions how to do that.

This book is a model of concise, clear writing. It's packed with information in the form of narrative, bullet points, graphics, photos, stories of real teams and projects, exercises, tips and examples. The authors have been walking their talk for a long time, so you can feel confident about following their advice. Their flair for language makes the book fun to read. It could be a quick read, except you'll find yourself stopping to reflect on your own experiences, and thinking about how you could apply the technique you just read about on your own team. Each chapter includes hurdles you may face, and a checklist summarizing action items for you, the reader.

I particularly enjoyed the little vignettes with dialog from a typical team illustrating topics such as "Not Quite Done Yet" and "Getting Ready to Demo". The authors have insight into all aspects of coding, testing, and managing software teams. You'll find advice you might not expect in a software-related book, such as "Be kind to yourself". The focus on people and teams will make you a better person and team member.
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Lovely book
It should be required reading for all managers that need to be good coachers, `cause "great coaches are made not born". Even is a short book, it provides lots of practical examples on how to manage coaching situations. Interesting how the power of questioning can help managers to improve efficiency, and interesting how giving feedback upwards can help :)

Excellent as first introduction to coaching!
The Toa of Coaching - Boost your effectiveness at work by inspiring and developing those around you.

Max's follows his definition of coaching by tracking the adventures of a person called Alex, ending each short story with a summary of the lessons assimilated by Alex. The whole coaching element is very nice presented and each short story contains valuable lessons. The book gives an introduction to what coaching is and can be. It is a small book but densely packed with insights, techniques, and tips. Although I have read the book some years ago I still take it with me on business travels to refresh some of the knowledge offered.

Excellent as a basic introduction to coaching!

"Coaching aims to enhance the performance and learning ability of others. It involves giving feedback, but it also includes other techniques such as motivation and effective questioning. And for a manager-coach it includes recognizing the coachee's readiness to undertake a particular task, in terms of both their will and skill. Overall, the coach is aiming for the coachee to help her - or himself. And it is a dynamic interaction - it does not rely on a one-way flow of telling or instruction."

Content:
Introduction
Alex's story
1 Contemplating coaching at work
2 Asking versus telling
3 Eliciting feedback
4 Correcting common coaching myths
5 Giving feedback
6 Structuring the coaching session
7 Diagnosing individuals' different styles
8 Find and avoiding your coaching blocks
9 Coaching in a hurry
10 Taking account of others' skill and will
11 Overcoming a reluctance to being coached
12 Motivating
13 Recognising cultural differences
14 Starting teams well
15 Coaching caveats
16 Giving feedback upwards
17 Mentoring
18 Reflecting on coaching - a summary

Max Landsberg offers 3 books actually called "The tools of leadership", "The tao of motivation" and "The tao of coaching". Each book follows a similar pattern of telling, explaining and even showing funny cartoons to illustrate the stories even further. Each sub story is lovely presented and packaged so you can easily digest the lessons. The 3 books are excellent as a first and basic introduction to leadership, coaching or motivating staff. Each of them is highly recommended!

Coaching at it's inspirational best
We have used this little book for the last few coaching classes (mandatory for all our managers and supervisors) because it is extremely readable and inspirational.

A brief guide to key skills
One of three short books on key skills for leaders and managers. The others are The Tao of Motivation and The Tools of Leadership.

Each is written around a brief story about 'Alex', on his journey from manager to CEO, with each episode designed to illustrate some aspect of the coaching/motivation/leadership challenge. Each episode is followed by a two page summary of the particular skill needed to meet the challenge. Each book has a useful bibliography to guide the reader to more detail where desired and a suite of Appendices covering further details on key aspects of skill.

There is naturally some overlap between the books, but each is valuable in its own right and the set combine to provide a thoughtful, practical and readily referenced guide to the key elements in the human side of management and leadership.

The Tao of Coaching deals with such skills as eliciting and giving feedback, diagnosing the styles of individuals, taking account of the skill and will of the coachee and techniques of motivating (subsequently expanded into a book of its own). ... Read more

Product Description
Knock your socks off service doesn't just happen. It requires coaching on an ongoing basis. With this book, supervisors have a practical guide to the day-to-day challenges that arise in training superior customer service people. The authors present a model for successfully coaching anyone, anywhere, and they show readers how to apply it to familiar coaching situations.Amazon.com Review
Top performers in sports and the performing arts never outgrowtheir need for coaching, say authors Ron Zemke and Kristin Anderson,so why should your front-line employees be any different? On thecontrary, they insist, workers also need ongoing encouragement andassistance in order to upgrade their customer-service skills, maintaintheir daily motivation, and enhance their ability to react when newproblems arise. Coaching Knock Your Socks Off Service, the latestentry in a popular series, offers a series of solid suggestions forachieving first-rate customer service in any business environmentthrough sustained coaching by management and employees themselves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great book! It is a must read for customer service managers.
It is very practical and helpful in assisting those who are in customer service to see it from the customers' perspective. It is well worth the money and a great read!

Solid, Basic information
Good buy.Worth the time to read this book.This book offers basic insights that are easy to put into practice in any management situation.

THE best book on customer service out there !
This is a superb book. I recommend it to everyone. It has a delightful fun tone about it, easy to read with lovely cartoons & it is THE book to read on how to easily & simply coach your staff about customerservice.... AND get them to pay attention & actually do it !It is sological & so effective. I am a customer service consultant to the top100 & I find this book invaluable.You MUST read it !

Outstanding practical guide on how to actually be a coach!
This book comes closest to being an actual "how to" coach book. It is a practical, easy to read plan to improve coaching skills or startdeveloping them.Every new coach always asks "where is the book thattells you how to do it?"This is it! ... Read more

Product Description
The field of executive coaching is growing at an astonishing rate. Corporations are increasingly turning to coaching as an intervention, as it offers leaders and managers both on-the-job learning and built-in follow-up.But how can you make the best use of coaching within your organization?

Executive Coaching for Results helps this critical leadership development method come of age. This is not a "how-to-coach book"--there are already plenty of those--but rather a comprehensive guide on how to strategically use coaching to maximize development of talent and link the impact of coaching to bottom-line results. Underhill, McAnally, and Koriath draw on their rigorous original research (through Executive Development Associates) with Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies such as Disney, IBM, UBS, Unilever and many others, and combine that with their years of industry experience to advance the state of the art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

So good, I didn't want to draw attention to it
The book is a real gem for anyone with an interest in this area.Honestly, I thought it was so good I didn't want to draw other people's attention to it.The book is excellent not only for coaches and OD practitioners but for true leaders as well.I am a former sr. leader of a Fortune 100 company with firsthand experiences dealing with industry best practices and world class performance grading.This book is the "best practice" guide to executive coaching.I cannot believe I paid just a book cover price for the amount of data and insights that I received.

I give Brian Underhill a tremendous amount of credit for sharing his knowledge.It's a testament to his excellence and genuineness as a coach.Most great coaches I have known (corporate & athletics) put developing others, the team, and the entire community ahead of themselves.In my opinion, Brian places himself into that echelon with this book.I especially liked how the three different perspectives (coaches, leaders, and organizations) were presented throughout the book.Additional thanks to co-authors Kimcee Mc Anally and John J. Koriath.

Coaching Roadmap
So what exactly is coaching?What does the process look like?What can the coachee expect from the coach?When does one use a coach?When I tell people I am a business coach, I often am asked "Is that the same as a life coach?" or "What should I expect as a result?"The Executive Coaching for Results book is a great tool to use explain to a prospect or someone who is sketical about what business coaching really is! Thanks Brian, Kimcee and John!I've quoted your material often in presentations and proposals!

Maximizing Talent Through Coaching
This book is a concise look at coaching and how it can be effectively maximized in organizations, LDP programs and other orgnizational leadership initiatives.The research based approach, helps coaches and organizations review coaching processes necessary for achieving optimal results in a very practical, easy-to-understand way.It's a must have for any serious coach who is truly interested in being effective and driving change.

Practical guide to executive coaching
Professional sports teams feature the greatest athletes in the world - the fastest pitchers, the strongest hitters and the best ball handlers. Most of these individuals have been playing their sports since they were little kids, working hard to develop and refine their athletic skills over time. Yet, these superbly trained and exceptionally talented athletes depend on coaches to teach them to perform optimally. If sports superstars require coaches, don't corporate leaders need them also? Brian O. Underhill, Kimcee McAnally and John J. Koriath believe they do. In this book, these executive coaching experts thoroughly explain this leadership development methodology. They describe how your organization can create a solid executive coaching program to develop its leaders' expertise and professionalism. getAbstract suggests this comprehensive, detailed book to human resources and leadership development professionals, as well as to managers who want to enhance their up-and-coming executives' leadership capacities.

At last - a comprehensive researched Book
What I particularly liked about this bookwas that there was a significant amountof research backing up the conclusions. So much is written about coaching is full of "fluff". It offers pragmatic suggestions on how organisations and leaders should manage coaching so that the organisation gets the best return on the financial outlay ... Read more

Product Description
Coaching young players, developing their skills, and cultivating a love for the sport may be the most rewarding experience baseball can offer. Cal and Bill Ripken understand this like few others.

From their father, Cal Sr., a legend in the Baltimore Orioles organization for 37 years, they learned to play the game the right way. Those lessons, paired with their combined 33 years of big league experience, helped develop the Ripken Way, a method of teaching the game through simple instruction, solid explanations, encouragement, and a positive atmosphere. In Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way, Cal and Bill share this approach to coaching and development.

Whether you’re teaching your children at home, managing the local travel team, or working with high school-level players, Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way will help you make a difference both on and off the field, with these features:

• More than 50 drills covering defense, hitting, pitching, and baserunning
• Age-specific practice plans for players ranging from 4 to 15+
• Strategies for setting goals and reasonable expectations for your players and team
• Advice on communicating with parents, players, and staff
• Methods for creating a positive and fun environment in which kids can learn the skills and strategies of the game

Customer Reviews (9)

One of the best books for coaching little league baseball

Lays out the plan to train, manage and teach young players the right way. For less than $20, you get the basic training you need to help your team be their best. Outstanding tool for any baseball coach.

A Good Book For Youth Baseball!
You come away after reading this book that both Ripken brothers
love the game of baseball to no end. And they want to share their
love of the game with everyone.
The drills are good but needed a little more detail.
Worth the purchase price.





This person also reviewed these popular baseball instructional products:
Youth Baseball Drills
The 59 Minute Baseball Practice
Schupak's Baseball Super 8 DVD Set
"The 59 Minute Baseball Practice"Mem-cards

Great Book!
I've already coached one kid from tee-ball thru the 11-12 group.Just about to start again with a 4 year old next season so figured I'd buy a few books to do a better job.Got some personal validation when I found out that I have much of the same philosophy as the Ripkens, and also got some great new drills and coaching advice to go along with that.I bought two books, Play Baseball The Ripken Way, and Coaching the Ripken Way, and both have great tips from dealing with parents and then going on to cover just about every aspect of youth baseball coaching and playing that you will need to know, including illustrated drills.I'm a slow reader, these books are interesting and very easy to read, I had no trouble at all getting through them and will definitely continue to use them once the practices start up again.And for the price, way worth it!In my opinion paying ten or eleven bucks for even just a good really good drills would be money well spent, but these books have way more than that.

Great Coaching Tool - HIghly Recommended
We think anyone who coaches young baseball players should read and use this book.One of Cal and Bill Ripken's biggest goals is to get young players to LOVE THE GAME and have fun!We originally picked this book because it is written by the Ripkens (and we think Cal Ripken is one of the best ballplayers of all time!)

The book is not just a list of drills but they also take time to discuss coaching responsibilities and philosophies and reasonable expectations.They include great ideas for practices and how to run games at the younger levels - we wish this book was required reading for ALL volunteer youth baseball coaches.Drills included are several for Hitting and Baserunning, Throwing and Pitching, and Fielding.

The best part of the book is the Practice Planner, where they go over Practice Particulars for each age group (4-6, 7-9, 10-12, etc.)They also tell you what skills you should be teaching kids at what age level.I was amazed at the "basics" that my 8 year old son hasn't learned yet.The Ripkens want kids to learn and have fun doing it so they love the game.

We found ourselves agreeing with everything the Ripkens had to say and we will be using the rest of the spring/summer to "backyard coach" our 5 year old, 8 year old and 10 year old daughter now that baseball is over for the year - keeping it fun, of course!We would love for our children to go to one of the Ripkens' baseball camps, but this book will have to suffice.

Perfect for any Baseball Coach
This is a fantastic book. I'm a first time Tee-Ball coach and this book gave me a great start. I now plan to look into other Ripken Way products. ... Read more

Product Description
Group coaching is rapidly becoming the preferred coaching option for businesses and individuals. Effective Group Coaching is a practical, resource rich, hands-on guide for the group coaching facilitator in one of the fastest growing new disciplines. Organizations, community groups and individuals are discovering that group coaching is an exciting and sustainable model and process for learning and growth. Written for internal and external coaches, HR professionals, trainers and facilitators wanting to expand their work into this area, this book provides tested methodologies and tools and tips. Both new and seasoned coaches will find the book a practical roadmap and go-to guide when designing, implementing and marketing their own group coaching programs. Case studies highlight how group coaching programs are being delivered globally through corporate and public prgrams, virtually and in person. Also, the author's dedicated web site offers resources and articles available for downloading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very pleased so far
I rated this book 4 stars but only hesitate giving it a 5 because I haven't finished it.I am really pleased so far, however, because of the practical recommendations about how to actually DO group coaching.Thank You! ... Read more

Product Description
Learn how coaching conversations-which are different from supervisory and mentoring conversations-shift responsibility for instructional improvement from the school leader to the entire school community! ... Read more

Product Description
Most managers coach employees by giving them feedback and evaluating their performance, right? Wrong. Coaching differs markedly from other managerial functions. With its wealth of tips, worksheets, and self-assessments, this handy guide shows managers how to use coaching—not only to strengthen direct reports’ skills but also to rev up their performance to unprecedented levels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very useful
This book came highly recommended by my chief nurse. I found
the book a great tool to use not only at work but at home too.

Excellent value, and extremely practical...
Coaching employees is one of those things that is more easily said than done.And it's far too easy to mistake managing with coaching.I found Harvard Business School Press' Pocket Mentor series book Coaching People: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges an excellent concise guide forsuccessfully coaching people with optimal results.

Contents: What Is Coaching? How to Know When to Coach; How to Develop Coaching Skills; How to Manage a Coaching Session; How to Customize Your Coaching; Tools for Coaching People; Test Yourself; To Learn More; Sources for Coaching People; Notes

In a mere 69 pages, the writers pack in more useful information than books three and four times the size.Everything is geared towards practicality and immediate application, so the book delivers value from the very first pages.The distinction between what is, and what isn't, coaching is a perfect beginning, and sets the stage for what follows.Coaching is not behavior correction or task assignment.It's a mutual sharing to help someone reach their goals and improve their effectiveness.The coach doesn't have to know all the answers, but they do need to be willing to listen, share, and work with the coachee to make changes and monitor the results.The book also contains a number of practical worksheets and checklists to gauge the effectiveness of both parties.This may take the form of a checklist to assess your listening skills, or an action plan to outline a plan and follow up on the outcomes.

For the price and size, there's no reason this shouldn't be included as part of someone's package of materials when they are promoted to a position of management.And even if you're not officially management, you may still be an informal leader in your sphere of influence.Working on your personal coaching skills will only help to solidify that role and enhance your effectiveness with others.If you've never given any thought to how you can help others achieve their goals, start here... ... Read more

Product Description
The Swim Coaching Bible sets a new high water mark for competitive swim coaching resources. Experts from around the world offer a wealth of knowledge on

• coaching principles and program administration,
• conducting effective practice sessions,
• teaching techniques for every stroke, and
• training programs for every event.

The contributors are the most prolific group of swimming coaches, past and present, ever assembled in a single book: Jack Bauerle, Mike Bottom, Peter Daland, Rick DeMont, Jean Freeman, Doug Frost, Don Gambril, Shane Gould, Dick Hannula, Dick Jochums, Skip Kenney, John Leonard, Bruce Mason, David Marsh, Pablo Morales, Richard Quick, Eddie Reese, Randy Reese, Bill Rose, Dick Shoulberg, Deryk Snelling, David Salo, Jill Sterkel, Bill Sweetenham, Nort Thornton, John Trembley, and Jon Urbanchek.

The Swim Coaching Bible is a landmark work in competitive swimming. If you coach the sport or want a competitive edge, this book will be the one you refer to again and again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Full of knowledge coming from the experts
I'm halfway through the book and just about to start coaching.Although it is meant for more experienced coach up to the Olympic level, I find it useful.Lots of knowledge from levels of swimmers and their expectations, responsibilities of coaches in terms of psychology and facility management, and even technic explained in detail, coming from the experts.This book explained the differences between the 2 types of freestyle so clearly and I hope it will help me in sprint training.

Useful
I have coached for seven years and I found this book to be a good reminder of what I want to do, and a good start to improving on my faults.This book gives some good work out ideas, and planning, but the strongest section is how each coach should relate themselves to the kids.I found that alot of the ideas that are in the book can directly relate to so many of my kids.A must for new coaches, and a useful tool for us old heads who think we know everything.

Good Book
A very good book, you can learn from the experiences of the top coaches in the world from this book! Each chapter is written by a world class swimming coach, this however, in my opinion, makes the book a little confusing for less experienced coaches, because although all coaches apply the same principles of training, each one presents them in a different way.

This Coach Recommends It!
This is my first year as being head coach of the girl's swim team where I work and one of my co-workers bought this book for me and I loved it! Whether you're beginning your swim/diving coaching career, or you're an Olympic coach, this book comes it great handy! I learned a lot from this book, and at every meet, it's under my arm or right next to my split or heat sheets! I'd recommend it to any one who wants to coach, is a coach, or wants that extra edge!

THE SWIM COACHING BIBLE
This is a very helpfull book for all swimming coaches. It's complexed but very easy to understand and apply recomendations from the coaches of the olympic winners! ... Read more

Product Description
The key to successful coaching is preparing your players to make intelligent decisions on the field. For years, the best-selling Skills & Strategies for Coaching Soccer has helped coaches of every level do just that. Now, soccer's premier coaching resource has been updated and expanded to provide you with more insights into developing individual talent, team tactics, and winning play.

Skills & Strategies for Coaching Soccer provides you with over 125 drills for teaching skills and techniques. You'll also learn how to develop these skills in realistic game situations with beginning, intermediate, advanced, and all-star players.

Essential skills are presented, including collecting and controlling, passing, dribbling, kicking, heading, and goalkeeping. You'll then apply those individual skills with attacking and defensive tactics, team formations, and set pieces. With Skills & Strategies for Coaching Soccer, you'll learn the what, how, and why of soccer through these essentials:

• Over 125 drills for beginning, intermediate, advanced, and all-star players
• Progressing basic drills into realistic, competitive situations
• Tactics in attack and defense
• Tactics in set plays
• Team management
• Mental and physical preparation for games
• Handling problem players and parents
• Fitness and conditioning
• Preparing and developing coaching sessions
• Establishing a coaching philosophy

Skills & Strategies for Coaching Soccer is an invaluable guide for coaching any team in any setting. The best team doesn't always win--but it usually does. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

awsome
I used this book quite a bit this past soccer season.It gave me many ideas to use when coaching my child's team

I wish I'd found this book when I first started coaching
I'm your typical parent/volunteer coach with absolutely zero background in the sport. While I really enjoyed the game and enjoyed coaching, I certainly struggled at first and found it very difficult to gather information from a variety of sources. But, I stuck with it and improved as a coach and moved on to coach my younger kids, too. Then, last year, having moved up to coaching at a slightly more competitive level, I discovered this book. I've been through it several times and it is the foundation for most of my practices.
I can't recommend this book enough to a beginning or slightly experienced parent/coach. The organization of the book is first-rate. Each skill is explained in detail, with plenty of photos and diagrams to get the point across, then the authors present several drills (with progressions for better players) to reinforce the teaching of a given skill. There's information on the basic skills of the game (dribbling, shooting, receiving, etc...), as well as tactics and coaching techniques. I'm currently coaching my daughter's U8 team and son's U10 team. There's definitely a gap in skillset between the two ages, yet this book has plenty of drills for both.

Solid Soccer Book for Beginning to Intermediate Coaches
Solid Soccer Manual for Beginning to Intermediate Coaches.

Good diagrams.
Good explinations.
The coaches progressions are reasonable so that you can see how to "regress" (dumb down) or "progress" (ramp up) each of the drills.

Re-Read-ability: Has good re-readability and is useful as a reference during season and (more importantly) next season. There are some very popular Soccer coaching books that I have read once and then shelved. Skills & Strategies is a book that you can page through time and again, lift drills straight from the book or spark new ideas for training sessions -- the more one coaches the more one "sees" the idea behind a drill or the concept being taught and then creates a new one tailered to your own teams needs. Skills & Strategies has good breadth (technique/tactics/coaching philosophy/team concepts/team management)but not just latest fades.

ie. Set Pieces -- doesn't try to give you the "definitive set-up" for each player but rather tries to diagram the main lanes of attack.

Problems: As with any book w/ the word "Complete" in its title, it is not actually complete -- its more of a, "What every beginning/intermediate soccer coach should know...." But as a large part of soccer coaching is the ability to see and teach re-occuring patterns, this book is worth the money.

This book has everything you'll ever need on soccer coaching.Buy this and you won't need any other soccer coaching book.
Reviewed by Rory, UK - a PE specialist teacher and sports coach

This book is the bible of soccer coaching but it is useful to anyone involved in the game, coaches, teachers and players alike.It covers skills for beginners, intermediate and advanced players with a load of information to help coaches with the progression of their pupils.

The first edition was a best seller and this second edition has been excellently updated.I only wish I'd known of the book whilst at University as it would have been of huge benefit when writing assignments covering the techniques of soccer and how to coach effectively but now that I have found it I am looking to it for advice whenever I coach.

There is plenty of technical information eg on taking penalties and techniques for throw ins, including information covering the tactical benefits of the long throw which I found of particular use as information on this is quite rare.I particularly like the fact that the book emphasises a positive approach to coaching based on skill and fair play and also gives information on good nutrition and diet.The book is arranged in such an easy to use manner that, if my team was weak on attacking, I could easily find the chapter and read up about what was needed to correct the problem.

Hargreaves and Bate clearly have a wealth of experience in soccer coaching; their technique sessions are well illustrated and can easily be replicated on the training field and on the pitch.They don't just assume that coaches will have total obedience from their players and there is an excellent chapter in the book about how to cope with problem players and parents!

Excellent use of colour, diagrams, photographs and layout.Glossary included - so you can really prove that you know what you're talking about!

As I said, everyone involved in soccer would benfefit from this book but, for a practical handbook, as well as a great reference book for those "studying" the game or wanting to have a better understanding of what it is all about, this is a great investment.Buy it!
... Read more

Product Description
Trusted advice on finding a coach and getting more out of life

Life coaching is a popular, though unregulated, personal development tool. This no-nonsense guide debunks the myths behind life coaching and gives expert advice on incorporating it into daily life. Whether readers want to self-coach or work with a professional, this savvy resource provides essential tips on getting priorities straight, being more productive, and achieving goals.

Jeni Mumford (London, UK) is a qualified personal life coach and an accredited NLP practitioner. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

In My Top Five of Coaching Training Books
Jen Mumford does a beautiful job of explaining the tools and processes of life coaching.I would have used it as the text for the coach training I do but the title was rejected as not a good representation of a graduate level text.i include it on my reading list anyway.The tools are well explained, the examples are easily accessible, and its just plain well written.

great questions
This book answers your basic questions from "What iscoaching?" to "Would a coach be beneficail to me?" Easy to read and each chapter answers a specfic set of questions so you can skip around the book to get your individual questions answered without reading the whole book.

Awesome!!!!
This is a gret read, especially if you want to become a life coach, I have read this book numerous times, taken it out from the library & decided to own a copy, it helps in every aspect of your life.

If you are considering becoming a life coach, get this book.
If you want to really improve different aspects of your life, get this book.

You will not regret it, I will tell you, I cannot put it down.

Helping people 1 day at a time...

Kathieyes~

It works for me
I really think this is a great book for the rest of us. (Mean me the dummie) I am a new coach and it really makes it a lot easier to do my work with this book. I think that it was super. The Art of Graceful Change: Taming the Gremlin That Holds You Back

Useful for self-coaching
I purchased Life coaching for dummies about two weeks ago. I was looking for an introduction to becoming a life coach. This book is more geared for helping you to coach yourself. That being said, coaching yourself is a good way to understanding how to do it. At the end, there is a small section for would-be life coaches.

The book has a reasonable number of exercises to help you find balance or direction in your life, but I found the text describing the philosophy of life-coaching was wordy and vague-the exercises, however were clearly written.

The main lack in this book is it has only a tiny resource section. I would have liked to see a list of other books and websites, and also a section on avoiding charlatan's in this business.

Overall, a useful but rather limited book. ... Read more