Coaching for Performance: GROWing Human Potential and Purpose - the Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership (4th Edition) (People Skills for Professionals) [Paperback]

Coaching for Performance: GROWing Human Potential and Purpose - the Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership (4th Edition) (People Skills for Professionals)
This review references the 4th Edition of Coaching for Performance.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, it went beyond my expectations. The book had appeared in several bibliographies and suggested reading lists that I had reviewed. My initial belief was that it was focussed on the GROW coaching model, it does cover this model in some detail; However, there is so much more in the book.
The book consists of four sections that cover the principles of coaching, the practice of coaching, leadership and transformation through transpersonal coaching. Some of the key topics from my perspective were the introduction and deeper explanation of the GROW model, the behavioural aspects of leadership and how coaching can be used to develop and grow high performance in individuals and teams.
The author throughout the book communicates the development of coaching as a discipline from the work of Tim Gallwey (The Inner Game) through to the present, but also goes on to offer his perspective on the future developments of coaching and leadership in a world where social pressures and corporate governance will demand a new approach behaviours.
My only negative, although the author is quite clear in his text that it will be, is the shallow coverage of the field of transpersonal coaching.
Overall an excellent book.

I bought the third edition (which concentrated entirely on coaching) about eight years ago and thought it was excellent.

However, for me, this new fourth edition, which is subtitled "The principles and practice of coaching and leadership", over-promises and fails to deliver on the "leadership" bit.

John Whitmore has added three new chapters on the subject of leadership. The first is largely a re-presentation of an old chapter ("Coaching the Corporation") under a new chapter heading ("The Challenge to Leaders"). The second stresses the need for leaders to get beyond their old conditioning and free themselves from fear (which I am all for) but it does not say much about its practice other than, "It can be achieved by coaching." The third lists the author's views on the ideal leader's qualities: (1) values-driven (2) vision (3) authenticity (4) agility - that is, flexibility, ability to get beyond old conditioning, and creativity (5) inner psychological alignment (6) selfless purpose. And that's largely it.

Admittedly, he does suggest that the way for leaders to develop these qualities is through transpersonal coaching and he offers a new "Tools of Transpersonal Coaching" chapter. However, some of its content is a re-presentation of what was in the old "Coaching for Meaning" chapter. The rest is interesting in that it introduces (with little detail) the idea of sub-personalities and a transpersonal model of the psyche. However, I just do not think this all adds up to the "principles and practice of leadership". The principles and practice of modern coaching, yes, but not leadership per se.

In summary, if you are looking for a good book on coaching, this is one. But if you are looking for something to guide you in developing others as leaders (or developing yourself as a leader), for me, this isn't it. What would I recommend instead? If you want something that does address the principles and practice of leadership and gets into the leader's underlying psychology in more depth than Whitmore does, try James Scouller's "The Three Levels of Leadership". If you want just the principles and practice of leadership without the psychology, you cannot go far wrong with John Adair's classic, "Effective Leadership" although he puts less emphasis on values, vision, authenticity and servant leadership than Whitmore and Scouller.

This is the fourth edition of this seminal text on coaching (primarily) in the business environment, although it's the first that I, a coaching novice, have read. I have to rely on the author's explanation of the differences to the previous edition, which will be of interest to those many who have already read it - some 500,000 copies have already been sold, published in over 20 languages. He has added chapters on the relationship between coaching and leadership, explored the significance of emotional and spiritual intelligence and their relationship to coaching, and has added material on values in work, in particular their importance to Generation Y. The book is certainly up to date at the superficial level, with multiple references to the credit crunch and growing concerns for the environment. He concludes with a new chapter on the future of coaching; he thinks (unsurprisingly) it has a very significant one, with an expansion into new areas, for example, the use of coaching rather than purely instructional techniques when training, or perhaps that should be developing, people to become car drivers.

Whitmore, a racing car driver in the 1960s, was trained by Tim Gallwey, of "Inner Game" fame (see, e.g., The Inner Game of Tennis, published originally in 1975) and then set up Inner Game Ltd in the UK. He clearly regards Gallwey as one of his own great inspirations, and that brand of psychology, the transpersonal, which underlies the Inner Game, as being the most important for coaches. Whitmore is best known for the GROW model, standing for Goal, Reality, Options and What/Will. He spends some time explaining why setting goals should precede checking reality, and I do wonder, sometimes, whether the use of this sort of catchy acronyms hinders as much as it helps. Notwithstanding this slight caveat, Part 1 of the book, ten chapters, is devoted to the principles of coaching and a detailed explanation of the GROW model, and it is presented in a clear, simple and understandable way.

Part 2 of the book, a further nine chapters, covers the practice of coaching, and this sections does go a long way to explaining how to be a coach. I don't think that Sir John intends this book as a "teach yourself coaching", however, and it is probably better seen as a textbook for a coaching course or as additional material for already experienced coaches. In Part 3 Whitmore explores leadership in three chapters, and in the final three chapters of Part 4 he focuses on transpersonal coaching and the future of coaching.

I am sure that this is a must-have book for those involved in coaching, including, although it is not my interest, sports coaches. It is well written and easy to read, and I know, having read it through once, that it will bear much re-reading and further analysis. It is a well published and printed book, too, in a large paperback format with plenty of space for marginal notes. (I don't like it when publishers use glossy paper for textbooks, because it makes it harder to write marginal notes without them smudging. I do wonder, however, whether a slightly higher quality of paper might have been used for this one.) If I have any criticism of what Sir John has written, and as someone studying coaching for the first time it is rather presumptuous of me, I know, it is that he implies that coaching can and should entirely replace mere teaching or instruction. While I agree that taught classes, especially in business skill areas, often fail to effect much change, let alone improvement, when people return to the day job, there are nevertheless many areas in which "conventional" training still has a place. It is, where it works, for example with a class of eager and already motivated students, a much less expensive proposition, for a start. Perhaps I am simply betraying the limitations of my own background, and shall overcome these in due course!