New Book: Coaching Questions

The single most important skill in coaching is asking powerful questions. An incisive question posed at just the right moment can be a life-changing experience.

In this volume, master coach trainer Tony Stoltzfus joins with 12 other professional coaches (including me, Keith Webb) to present dozens of valuable asking tools, models and exercises, and illustrates them with over 1,000 examples of penetrating coaching questions. Covering the gamut from basic techniques like options and actions to advanced concepts such as challenge and reframing, Coaching Questions is a book that will find a home on any coach's short list of handy references.

Instead of just offering lists of questions, this book connects the question examples with the coaching tool they are used with and their place in the coaching conversation, and teaches you to use the tools as well. The focus on tools plus examples makes it a reference guide you'll return to again and again.

You can purchase this directly from Tony.

What do you think of this book? Leave a comment.

Culture, Coaching, and the Brain

A few years ago my buddy Takeshi told me about Geography of Thought, a book that makes a case that East Asians and Westerners (Americans) think differently. Great book. I review it here.

I've also been hearing about how neuroscience has been discovering the physical reasons for why coaching is effective. See here.

Now neuroscientists are finding physical evidence of cultural patterns in our though processes. See here.

All very fascinating with huge implications to how we work cross-culturally. For me it increases the expertise needed to coach across cultures. If perceptions and thought patterns are seemingly hardwired into our brains by culture, then the coach better understand that and be able to tap into the strengths of that wiring.

What are your thoughts?

The Making of Leader

Read my review of Bobby Clinton's classic book on leadership development phases.

Once you're there, at the bottom please click "yes" this review was helpful.

Coaching For Christian Leaders

I just reviewed an interesting book called Coaching For Christian Leaders. It is a helpful introduction to Christian coaching. The strength of the book lies in its balance of explaining coaching skills, benefits, and uses of coaching in Christian ministry.

Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com, read my review under "customer reviews" and please click "yes" if it was helpful.

The Coaching Organization

I just reviewed an interesting book on creating a coaching culture in an organization called The Coaching Organization. It's one of only two books out there on implementing coaching organization-wide. (The other is Making Coaching Workby Clutterbuck, but it's only available in the UK and isn't cheap!)

Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com, read my review under "customer reviews" and please click "yes" if it was helpful.

Christ-Centered Coaching: 7 Benefits for Ministry Leaders

I just reviewed an interesting book called Christ-Centered Coaching: 7 Benefits for Ministry Leaders. It's one of only a few books out there on coaching from a Christian perspective. It doesn't give the detailed "how-to" of coaching skills, but it does a good job of illustrating the processes and mentality of good coaching. The Christian integration is light, but helpful none-the-less.

Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com, read my review under "customer reviews" and please click "yes" if it was helpful.