Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives

So I went old school and got the audio book. Played it while I was travelling a 50 minute commute to work each day. Good insight that has served me well. I started a new job and was given a person to mentor within 2 months of being there. This audio book gave me some great ideas and also helped drive home the point that you are trying to help someone reach their goals within a mutually interactive coaching experience. Highly recommended if you have a semi-open mind.

This is a classic and must read for aspiring professional coaches. It’s a readable, positive and idealistic book with examples, diagrams, and encouragement. A coach following this model also transforms her own life, not just a client’s life. Not easy to achieve, but a worthy goal regardless.

I have been recruited over the past few years to serve on boards and as a business advisor for companies in the healthcare field. My role has expanded in each to become a leadership coach for first time CEOs and COOs. I am not a professional coach nor have I been certified as a coach. I really enjoy growing people but building a career specializing in professional coaching would be a significant distraction from my real passion – “Bringing Entrepreneurs and Technology to Life.” That is, building new health related companies that are trying to solve intractable healthcare problems. Presently, I am involved in companies focused on medication adherence, continuous remote patient monitoring, therapies for rare and neglected diseases, and the treatment of presbyopia. I have always viewed coaching as a spiritual calling. As the authors note so well, the coach’s “job is to be out front, encouraging, pointing the way to a life fully lived, a life that is valued and without regret. There is more in life each day. The work of coaches is to assist clients in creating the work and lives they want.” This is a big responsibility with many obligations to getting it right. I have had a number of important advisors (coaches) in my life – Tony Petrella (pioneer of organizational development), Peter Drucker, Ram Charan, Patrick Lencioni, and Dean Herman. Not all would be classified officially as coaches but all were or are. The expansion of my role from informal coaching to more formal coaching has motivated me to learn more about coaching and the coaching profession. This led me to the third edition of “Co-active Coaching” by Kimsey-House et al. This book, according to the authors, gained prominence as a guide for “bringing coach-like conversation to important relationships at work or at home.” It is now “the standard text for coaching education in many colleges and universities, business schools, and coaching programs around the world.” Authors believe coaching is chiefly about discovery, awareness, and choice. It is a way of effectively empowering people to find their own answers, encouraging and supporting them on the path as they continue to make important life-giving and life-changing choices. “Co-Active Coaching” provides a unique way of communicating which will be valuable in many settings including the home. The authors provide an excellent on-line resource, the coach’s toolkit, which filled the early print editions. This approach provides coaches with tools to employ for discovery, awareness, and choice. “It is a way of effectively empowering people to find their own answers, encouraging and supporting them on the path as they continue to make important life-giving and life-changing choices.” The spiritual element is self-evident in the approach offered. The book is organized around three primary topics: Co-Active Coaching Fundamentals; Co-Active Coaching Contexts (listening, intuition, curiosity, forward and deepen, and self-management); and Co-Active Coaching Principles and Practices (fulfillment, balance). Some of what is offered is common sense so it will not knock your socks off. But the toolkit, its application, the sections on dealing with failure (the client’s) and value clarification, as well as the chapters on fulfillment and balance are excellent. In addition, the authors provide excellent examples of useful dialogue and many great questions to use when probing. Listening and asking great questions are the two most important keys to coaching success. I expect to use this book as a reference often. The authors explain that “choosing a fulfilling life is a radical act.” It is our obligation as leaders, managers, friends, or family to keep this goal top of mind. The best gift we can give another is support for choosing a path that will lead to a fulfilling life.

Well written and informative book. Co-Active coaching works from the paradigm of holistic Co-facilitation in a clients life. Working as a clinician in the mental health field, the perspectives offered in this book have really offered an expanded conceptualization in treating clients and interacting with others on a multitude of levels. I strongly feel I should have bought this book earlier. A caveat: if you are strongly dogmatic, and gravitate heavily toward Evidence Based Practices [treatment modalities which have extensive research supporting efficacy], some sections may feel more like new age gimmic than effective strategies of interacting with clients. Overall, should be in every coaches library.

This book is an excellent resource for coaches who are just starting out and coaches with established practices. It advocates a Co-Active coaching model in which the client's agenda, objectives and core values are paramount. Each section of the book includes examples of coaching sessions, and demonstrates skills at various levels of competency. I found these conversations particularly practical and helpful. This book clearly articulates the coach's primary responsibility: to help clients determine their best course of action, support them in staying on track, and empower them to become more resourceful over time. I highly recommend this book!

I attended a 3-day workshop on co-active coaching and it not only improved my professional relationships but also interacting with my two teenage boys. This book is easy to read and was a good refresher course for me.

An excellent, practical book with some very useful ( and enjoyable) exercises. I loved the inclusion of the Curiosity and Intuition fields The emphasis is on the ongoing relationship between Coach and Coachee with a special emphasis on the core principles of fulfillment, balance and process. The coach is seen as a change agent, holding the client's agenda and not her own. The commitment necessary from the coachee is also reviewed, with concepts such as courage, depth and willingness being highlighted. The book is easy to read, and I will refer back to this many times.A worthwhile purchase for me

A really clear, concise book. I would recommend to anybody; every person could benefit from listening to their own body & digging deep into their own psyche to understand what thoughts may be blocking them. To be willing and able to hold a non-judgemental, safe space for another person to find their own path could transform the planet... Valuable information.

La esencia del coaching resumida en un solo libro. Muy aprovechables todos sus contenidos. Práctico y fácil de leer. Me está encantando.

The essential coaching book.

I was afraid of buying in second hand. So pleased that received it quickly and exactly like in the description. Thank you!

This book is not without a reason called as Bible of coaching. It's simplicity and depth is awesome... recommended for multiple time reading

I want to become life coach, but I first, though, will a book only teach me techniques and remain on the surface of things. Even the cover of the book made me think of ''business'' kind of approach, to be honest here, but once you dive into this book, well, this is great, deep and consider really all that need to be considered about coaching. It goes to the spiritual level and is very genuine and authentic in its approach. I started skeptical and now think that anyone in the field of coaching should have a read on this one, or at leats, an equivalent. (The book is well layed out and nice to read. the points are clear, all well, well done!) Thank you.