The Evolution of a Coach – A Personal History in Books

It begins with a book cull.

The shelves at FBHQ groan under the weight of over 20 years of seeking, reflection and learning. As I run my finger over the spines, I see the selling of snake oil and simple solutions, shiny ideas long discarded as they held no longevity…I see old friends, familiar and well thumbed, holding touchstone principles and practices I return to. In these, I remember lightbulb moments and sentences that held such power, I underlined them for emphasis.? I see books gifted and others missing-presumed-lent. I see books I’ve never read, bought in a vague hope I’d absorb some wisdom, perhaps by some sort of psychic osmosis… or more likely just to make myself look clever.

And I see I have a LOT of coaching books.

Here is Whitmore – a testament to my days in the pursuit of client performance improvement. My early coaching days as I studiously wrote “GROW” in the top corner of my notebook, to remind myself to check out all quadrants. I can’t see Gallwey’s Inner Game of Tennis , but I associate the two from my coach training, somehow.? Hello to Clutterbuck, to Megginson …I can’t remember when I started making the terrible “The only way is Ethics” joke – but I remember my journey into understanding ethical boundaries in the work began with them.?

Jenny Rogers Coaching Skills Handbook , Julie Starr’s The Coaching Manual and Nancy Kline’s Time to Think are nestled together and easily accessible– bought when I was really wanting to hone my questioning and listening practice… my memory of the time I wrote down and used so many of Starr’s excellent questions from The Coaching Manual, that I completely befuddled myself, my client and nearly toasted our relationship in one session. The client was, thankfully, gracious enough to take up the offer of a free reparation and reflection session. After which I think we did better work together than ever…

Ah! The Neuroscience days – David Rock on Quiet Leadership and coaching the brain and a brief foray into NLP thinking. My shelves note the brevity of this relationship. Head work is good work… but my shelves offer more…?

I’m hunting for Bill Isaac’s work on Dialogue – I used to have two copies… now neither can be located…this marks a period of practice where I moved toward working less with the technicalities of coaching skills, more toward the relational, dynamic parts of working with others. The pretty patterns and neat dances we weave as we talk and think together.?

This dialogue work was introduced to me by Amanda Ridings – Pause for Breath sits beside work on Leadership Embodiment and breathwork / meditation books - elegantly bringing embodied experience and dialogue practices into my awareness. I go back to that time -? when checking in with clients on their felt and sensed state, along with their thinking, felt like a radical act and a glorious addition to my practice.

I then notice the years when the formal coaching studies ended – a period where I shifted my focus to look at my whole OD / Learning practice, not just the coaching part of it. Publications are replaced by notebooks on the bookshelf - self-created manuals… lessons learned, moments experienced, lightbulbs lit. These pretty tomes hold the development and honing of my coaching craft. Less theory, more field work techniques – walking with clients, using drawing, a hell of a lot of using writing. Reflecting with peers and in supervision, noticing my patterns, working to improve.

Then the formal books are back – brand new and sharply printed - as I begin to consider becoming a Supervisor. The pandemic brought an understanding of value I have had from my Supervisors, and an itch to stretch myself further… that’s all it takes when my curiosity is piqued – and so a new journey began. Here is? Edna Murdoch & Jackie Arnold’s Full Spectrum Supervison, peppered with bright post-it notes ( (it naturally falls open to Chapter 3 - Heart to heart – a meeting place for transformational learning. On page 80 I’ve put a heart beside the subtitle: “Open heart before mouth”). As I continue, I find a separate note-to-self on the outside of Erik de Haan’s Supervision in Action reminding me that time is passing:? “tiny text. get specs!”

My journey into Supervision is still very new – it’s been just over two years since completing the Certificate in Supervision with Barefoot Coaching Ltd . In that time, I've worked quietly and steadily as a Supervisor to a small handful of clients... reflecting, challenging, working through moments of stuckness, noticing patterns and inviting difference.. But I have a sense there is still much to learn.

In revisiting the bookshelves, I have woefully failed in my intention to cull. Instead, as I flick through years and words, I’m struck with gratitude for the books, the authors, the shelves that hold them and have reconnected to a sense of? my own evolution as a coach, a thinker, a practitioner.

Having spent a couple of hours remembering what brought me - not so much standing on the shoulders of giants, more standing on a big pile of books?they have written, shouting out “Thanks!”, whilst readying myself to move forward - I find have more appetite and energy for the work than ever before.

Maybe there’s a book in that somewhere…

End notes - the links in here are to the original editions of books as they look on my shelves. Do go find the newer versions.

It looks like Isaac’s Dialogue is now out of print - if I lent you mine, can I have it back?

About me:

I'm an Experienced Organisational Consultant, Executive Coach/ Supervisor, Writer & Speaker.

Pragmatic, forthright and kind, I work with people & organisations to improve conversations, relationships & learning. Doing stuff with love.

Find me on Twitter @fuchsia_blue ?

If you want to talk to me about Supervision or Coaching, contact? fuchsiablue to find out more or book a space on Friday 26th May for an initial chat here:?