The Coaching Habit
Book

The Coaching Habit

Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

Michael Bungay Stanier
Box of Crayons Press, 2016

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Coaching involves much more than just talking to people; it requires posing intelligent questions that inspire your employees to talk about their thoughts, their work and their concerns. Michael Bungay Stanier, the first person honored as Coach of the Year in Canada, uses the construct of seven essential coaching questions to teach managers how to coach effectively.

Summary

Coaching Challenges

Nearly 75% of managers have received training in how to coach their employees, yet 73% of employees never receive coaching. And, when they do, the coaching usually doesn’t help them. In fact, fewer than 25% of employees believe coaching benefited them, and 10% of employees report that the coaching their managers provided actually hurt them.

One problem is that most managers receive inferior coaching training themselves, so most of the coaching they deliver is also inferior.

Often, coaching training is complex or dull or seems unconnected to the real world of business, so managers find it difficult to understand the relevancy and implementation in their day-to-day lives.

Many managers don’t do much or any coaching because it’s a skill that they must learn. However, even managers who’ve been trained as coaches find themselves overwhelmed by the high-octane work pace at most organizations. As a result, they never get around to coaching employees.

Advice Is Cheap

Giving advice is easy. Because people value good advice, you like to give it and you regard your advice as worth hearing. Dispensing advice helps keep you in charge...

About the Author

Keynote speaker and founder and senior partner of Box of Crayons, Michael Bungay Stanier was the first Canadian Coach of the Year. He also wrote Do More Great Work. For videos and podcasts, visit thecoachinghabit.com.

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