Coaching for Leadership - The Practice of Leadership Coaching from the Worlds Greatest Coaches (J-B US non-Franchise…

This book is an essential resource for executives aspiring to become coaches, HR professionals managing coaching programs, and leaders seeking to enhance their own coaching skills. It gathers the collective wisdom of the world's greatest coaches, including Marshall Goldsmith, Edgar Schein, and Paul Hersey, to provide a definitive text on leadership coaching. The book covers foundational concepts, practical building blocks like 'feedforward', strategies for leading change, and real-world case studies from companies like Siemens and Agilent Technologies. It moves beyond theory to offer actionable advice on how to implement effective coaching that fosters behavioral change, aligns with business strategy, and ultimately drives individual and organizational success.

What it argues

This model, synthesized from the collective wisdom in 'Coaching for Leadership', posits that structured coaching interventions, tailored to the leader's readiness and organizational context, are key design levers. These levers facilitate psychological shifts (e.g., self-awareness, motivation) and drive the adoption of new leadership behaviors. The consistent application of these new behaviors, reinforced by stakeholder feedback and aligned with business strategy, leads to improved leadership effectiveness, enhanced team performance, and positive organizational outcomes.

Key ideas it contributes

• Coaching Interventions — The set of structured processes and techniques employed by a coach to facilitate a leader's development. This includes initial assessment (e.g., 360-degree feedback), collaborative goal-setting, creating an action plan, and regular follow-up sessions focused on progress and challenges.
• Stakeholder Involvement — The systematic engagement of a leader's key professional contacts (manager, peers, direct reports) in the coaching process. This involves their participation in providing initial feedback, offering ongoing suggestions (feedforward), and assessing behavioral change over time.
• Strategic Alignment — The extent to which an individual leader's coaching goals and developmental action plans are directly linked to the organization's strategic priorities, business objectives, and defined leadership competencies.
• Situational Leadership Application — The coach's adaptation of their leadership style—varying the amount of directive (task) behavior and supportive (relationship) behavior—to match the coachee's level of readiness (ability and willingness) for a specific developmental task or behavioral goal.
• Leader Self-Awareness — An individual leader's accurate perception of their own behavior, strengths, weaknesses, and the impact of their actions on others, particularly the discrepancy between their intentions and how they are perceived.
• Leader Motivation to Change — The degree of a leader's personal commitment, ownership, and willingness to invest the necessary time and effort to alter their established behaviors and adopt new ones, driven by the belief that change is both necessary and beneficial.
• Leadership Behavioral Change — The observable, consistent, and sustained alteration in a leader's actions, communication style, and habits as a direct result of the coaching process, as judged by themselves and key stakeholders.
• Perceived Leadership Effectiveness — The collective judgment of key stakeholders (manager, peers, direct reports) that the leader has demonstrably improved their performance and impact in their leadership role over the course of the coaching engagement.