University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Extraordinary Coach
Book

The Extraordinary Coach

How the Best Leaders Help Others Grow

John H. Zenger and Kathleen Stinnett
McGraw-Hill, 2010
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Managers who try to coach their employees often make wrongheaded assumptions about what their staffers think. They offer unhelpful advice about what staffers should do to improve their work, and this is exactly what coaching should not be. Human Resource Development Hall of Famer John H. Zenger and his colleague Kathleen Stinnett spell out everything for managers who haven’t a clue about coaching or how to conduct coaching sessions. getAbstract recommends discovering whether you need this helpful manual in much the same way that the authors suggest using when you conduct coaching sessions: by asking questions. Do your employees need coaching? Do you feel ready to coach? What can you do to learn more about being a coach? Would reading thoughtful information about coaching help? If so, this is the book for you.

Summary

Coaching: A Win-Win for Employees and Companies

Coaching helps employees develop at work, grow professionally and become more self-reliant. It increases their accountability and makes them feel valued. Coaching helps companies by building employee engagement, reducing turnover, motivating people to work harder, and strengthening the bonds between managers and staff.

Coaching encourages employee behavior that is good for business, like being innovative, thinking strategically, taking chances and exercising critical thinking. Through coaching, workers learn to seize the initiative and become accountable. Coaching offers 10 significant benefits:

  1. “Giving new meaning to work” – The coaching experience signals to employees that their company and their supervisors value them, want them to do well and will take active steps to help them succeed.
  2. “Engaged and committed employees” – Coaching occurs one-on-one. Employees appreciate the time their managers take to help and support them. This makes staffers more enthusiastic about work and more secure about their place in the firm.

About the Authors

John H. Zenger co-founded Zenger/Folkman, an executive education firm where Kathleen Stinnett is a senior consultant and executive coach.

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