Resources for the New Coach

This is the fourth and final section of content from my recent interviews with 14 established coaches. See this link for Part 1, which also includes a list of coaches interviewed. See this link for Part II, and this link for Part III.

What resources would you recommend to the new coach – what are your go-to references now?

This topic was approached with the assumption that every established coach might have one or two favorite resources that they constantly find themselves recommending, whether to clients or to fellow coaches. For instance, I have lost track of the number of peer coaches and clients I have suggested should read the Stanford Design School-based Designing your Life workbook.

First, as might be expected, several interviewees mentioned their primary resource and what they recommend is the relationship they have established with their own coach. Continuing to walk the talk around coaching means being open to continuous and lifelong learning through engaging the coaching process as a client as well as a coach. Included along those lines is engaging a community of peer coaches with whom to compare notes, provide mutual support and “ongoing reflection on each other’s work.”

Second, an emphasis for several interviewees was their ongoing reliance on their initial training, and on periodically revisiting the fundamentals over time with new perspective and additional experience. These fundamentals include such ICA basics as Active Listening, Direct Communication, Designing Actions, etc.

Regarding all other resources, as it turns out, some coaches consciously curate their recommendations by individual (and where an individual is on their journey), or curate their recommended books by coaching competency. Others don’t recommend books as much as they might recommend a certification or training program, tool, methodology, or coaching model. As one established coach put it, periodically stepping into new and unknown territory by engaging in a new model or training keeps things fresh, and demonstrates an “orientation to a lifelong learning mindset.” Finally, one coach interviewed said the most important and profoundly supportive resources are meditation and spending time in nature. Thus, the originally intended list of books has grown to include websites, models, associations, etc. All of these have been aggregated and are listed at the end of this paper.

Predominant categories / themes in the resources section include:

·      Leadership and related organizational roles / skillsets

·      Creativity, Trust, Bravery, Confidence and similar human qualities

·      Mindset, Choice and Autonomy

·      Diversity and Inclusion

·      Coaching practice and theory

·      Sales and Selling; Business and Strategic Planning

·      Peripheral / enrichment / inspiration resources (poetry, etc.)

While my original intention had been to read and briefly review all recommended resources, the sheer volume of suggestions has led me to recognize it will take a few years to delve into and fully appreciate what has been provided. With that said, I have provided a thumbnail review for the books or resources I have been able to read thus far. May you find at least a few worthwhile touchstones for yourself and for your coaching practice in the list below.

References Recommended by the Interviewees

Berger, Jennifer Garvey Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity Berger outlines five leadership mind-traps based on her review of decades of research: we are trapped by simple stories, by a sense of rightness, by our tendency to seek agreement, by our need for control, and by our ego. For each trap she offers proven practices for individuals, leaders and groups to work through those traps and use them for opportunities for growth and expansion.

Bregman, Peter. 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done

Brown, Brene. The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connection, and Courage

Brown, Brene. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts

Burnett, Bill and Evans, Dave. Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life. A workbook by two professors from Stanford Design school, and built out of their popular on-campus course of the same name. Their approach is to consider the question ‘what do I want to be when I grow up’ not as a question to be answered once and finally, but instead to be approached as a series of iterative design prototypes, that are tested, implemented, and continuously revised over time.

Bursel, Ayse. Design the Life you Love

Carson, Rick. Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting out of Your Own Way

Chandler, Steve and Litvin, Rich. The Prosperous Coach. Challenges assumptions regarding how to build a coaching practice as a business.

Chandler, Steve. Crazy Good and Wealth Warrior. [Or any of his other books around mindset.]

Covey, Steven. Trust Drivers model

Coaches Rising, and Coaches Rising Podcast

Dethmer, Jim et. al. The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A new Paradigm for Sustainable Success.

DiAngelo, Robin White Fragility: Why it is So Hard for White People to Talk About Race.

Drake, David. Narrative Coaching A more densely academic text than many other coaching reference works, but well worth the time if your interest is in client’s stories and how their personal narrative may help them self-author their changes in ways that help them embrace new challenges through a new way to view and tell their stories. Main principles offered include “everything needed is already available in the session; radical presence.”

Eagleman, David. The Brain (also has a PBS show) about conscious mind

Edmonson, Amy. The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. “How psychological safety works and can be built in organizations.”

Ericsson, Anders. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.

Frankl, Viktor. Man’s Search for Meaning.

Glasser, Neil. Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom. Human misery is linked to seeking quick happiness from things (drugs, alcohol, etc.) rather than being in true relationship. What makes us happy is relationships with other people. What gets in the way of those relationships is the urge and our efforts to control circumstances and other people. We have a choice every moment how to respond to others – with acceptance and understanding or with this urge to control and/or punish.

Godin, Seth. The Icarus Deception

Goleman, Daniel. Force for Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for our World

Goss, Tracy. The Last Word on Power: Executive Re-Invention for Leaders Who Must Make the Impossible Happen

Hendricks, Gay. The Big Leap, overcoming our Upper Limit so we can enjoy greater happiness, love, and success.

Hargrave, Tad. The Niching Spiral website and the book, The Niching Nest. A practical resource and workbook for how to discern, establish, test and revise your Niche.

Intrator, Sam et. al. Leading from Within: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead (inspiration as a topic, poem a day, etc.).

Katty, Kay, and Shipman, Claire. The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know.

Kegan, Robert, et. al. Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization An elegantly straightforward framework with which to assist individuals, teams and organizations to identify, work with, and then change what is needful for themselves, their way of operating, and their cultures to thrive.

Kimsey-House, Henry et. al. Co-Active Coaching, Fourth Ed. The Proven Framework for Transfomative Conversations at work and in Life. A comprehensive and dynamic coaching model including four major areas of practice, centered on fulfillment, balance and process. Starting with the assumption that every client is naturally creative, resourceful and whole, moving through dancing in this moment, focusing on the whole person and ending with evoking transformation.

Kimsey-House, Karen et. al. Co Active Leadership: Five Ways to Lead

Kofman, Fred. The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership

March, James. On Leadership (don Quixote extended metaphor, former Stanford Prof)

Michalowicz, Mike. Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash Eating Monster to a Money Machine One coach called this “required reading for all coaches.” 

Michalowicz, Mike. Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

Neill, Michael. SuperCoach. Not so much a book for coaches as a set of coaching engagements arranged with lessons by chapter, including overcoming mind-traps, decoupling our sense of worth from concepts like money and time, and with exercises and challenges to practice for ourselves and to use with clients.

Neill, Michael. Inside Out Revolution.

Neuro Linguistic Programming and Transformational Neuro Linguistic Programming

Newport, Cal, et. al. Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World.

Osterwalder, Alexander et. al. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers and Value Proposition Design.

Passmore, Jonathan et. al. Mastering Executive Coaching

Passmore, Jonathan. Diversity in Coaching: Working Across Gender, Culture, Race and Age. One coach recommending this book said: “you can’t have one size fits all coaching.”

Peterson, Jordan. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Pink, Daniel. Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us.

Pressfield, Steven. The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win your Creative Battles. An astoundingly motivating, and easily absorbed primer on how to overcome all types of creative blocks, focusing on overcoming Resistance as the primary obstacle to any worthwhile human endeavor.

Rackham, Neil. Spin Selling: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need, Payoff

Rock, David. SCARF Model

Sandler, David, et. al. You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar: Sandler Training's 7-Step System for Successful Selling

Schein, Edgar. Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling. A short but invaluable resource for coaches and leaders regarding how changing our mode of questioning to one of open humility can lead us to the answers that are most vital for the success of our business and our lives.

Scott, Kim. Radical Candor.

Silsbee, Doug. The Mindful Coach: Seven Roles for Facilitating Leader Development. Based in mindfulness practices, consciously embodying the seven coaching roles of Master, Partner, Explorer, Reflector, Teacher, Guide and Contractor can be used as a powerful coaching construct to help clients reach their fullest potential.

Sinek, Simon. Start with Why. (Jose Antonio gives this to millennials)

Singer, Michael. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Stocking, Jerry. How to Win by Quitting

Stoltzfus, Tony. Coaching Questions: A Coach’s Guide to Powerful Asking Skills. The seminal resource for coaching students, including classics such as the GROW model, and peer-self-study guides.

Tolle, Eckhart. A New Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose The follow up volume to Tolle’s previous work, The Power of Now. Both volumes have proven to be immensely accessible introductions to meditation, mindfulness and presence as a way to address the ego-based complexity and conditioned suffering inherent in our every day lives.

Trungpa, Chogyam. Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior.

Vanderpol, Leon. A Shift in Being: The Art and Practice of Deep Transformational Coaching. A resource for coaches who wish to go a level deeper than transactional, goal-based coaching to something at the spiritual level.

Wilson, Carol. Performance Coaching: A Complete Guide to Best Practice Coaching and Training

Winch, Guy. Emotional First Aid (for those who are just opening up to their emotions, such as executives)

Zander, Ben and Rose. The Art of Possibility: Transforming Personal and Professional Life.