Effective Coaching: Lessons from the Coach's Coach: Lessons from the Coaches' Coach [Paperback]

Downey begins by pointing out that coaching is largely unregulated, has no core professional status or training/qualification requirements, and is, effectively, validated only by the person receiving the coaching. Coaching is results driven - it is predicated on empowering the client (or 'player'). The role of the coach is to encourage you to believe in yourself, to understand the complexities that are self, to help you discover the skills and momentum you need to transform self-belief into action, and then to motivate you towards achievement.

Downey writes of the need to bring humanity back to the workplace - and his book is largely directed at those working in business coaching. It's a very humanistic, compassionate approach - the role of the coach is not to mould automatons who will go to work unquestioningly, but to help people find their creative side, explore their imagination, recognise their intelligence, skills, passions, etc. The workplace benefits because the workers are fulfilled and achieve a balanced lifestyle which brings a fresh vitality to their work.

Gallwey's "Inner Game" identified the problem - what comes between you performing at your best and achieving your potential is that inner echo of doubt, that indecision refrain which repeats and repeats in your inner ear, "I can't", "I'll fail", "I'll miss", "they'll laugh at me", "what if ...", "what if ...", "what if ... ?" You have your own inner chorus of doubt and negative commentary. Gallwey argues that you have to switch this off and achieve "relaxed concentration" - often now described as "flow".

Downey sees the relevance of this to business coaching - if you are already plagued by this inner chorus of doubt and negativity, the sort of thing which prevents the player hitting the ball true, or taking the catch, or whatever, how much more battered must you feel if that chorus is orchestrated and conducted by a manager or work colleagues who routinely put you down? Downey's is a humanistic approach to coaching which emphasises listening, communication, creating a safe world where coach and client can achieve their own "flow" of understanding. Downey's vision of coaching is one of liberation and self-growth, is an exercise in the intimate trust and inspiration of rapport.

For Downey, effective coaching delivers fulfilment and achievement ... achievement which is sustainable. It doesn't just equip the individual to do the job better, it equips them with a confidence and self-assertiveness which they can transfer to their everyday life.

Coaching is an art - the art of interaction, of working together in harmony. Downey explores the practicalities - listening skills, the GROW model, the intricacies of business coaching - but it is his emphasis on creativity which I find most impressive and most stimulating. Creativity is at the core of the human condition - too many people learn not to be creative because it's safer to be the same. Too many learn to doubt their creative ability or potential. Too many learn to keep secret skills of innovation, problem solving, or imagination. It's safer to conform, it's safer not to take risks, it's best not to give others an excuse to laugh or condemn.

Downey emphasises the need to empower the individual, to extend to the client the liberation of being allowed to think, to imagine, to adventure, to take control.

It's a well-written book - it doesn't tell you how to go about becoming a coach, it doesn't provide you with a how-to guide to 'doing' coaching, but if you work in coaching, or psychology, counselling, social work, even medicine or teaching, it gives an invaluable perspective which will enable you to reassess your skills (and attitudes), and give greater depth to your practice. An excellent book, highly accessible, and deserving of a wide audience.

Myles Downey's book, despite its relative brevity, makes an excellent job of introducing some of the key considerations involved in training or hiring business coaches. At 135 pages (including the Introduction) you obviously aren't going to get an in-depth explanation of what coaching can do for you and/or your company. What I think you WILL get is a pretty good feeling for whether coaching can be of benefit to you.

If that makes the book sound a bit airy-fairy, I apologise. Mr Downey also does an excellent job of laying the groundwork for becoming an "effective coach" - if that's what you're after. There's actually plenty of very practical tips, including useful models, such as the "Spectrum of Coaching Skills" and the GROW (or TO GROW) outline of any coaching session.

One of the highlights of the book as far, as I was concerned, was the inclusion of snippets of dialogue (ranging from a few lines to several pages in length) used to actually demonstrate how to handle various elements of the coaching function.

The one element of the book I felt a little uneasy about was Mr Downey's hypothesis that a manager can also function as coach to one of his/her subordinates. As Mr Downey himself points out, facts and thoughts might emerge during a coaching session that could potentially be somewhat damaging when it comes to appraisal time. There seems to be an assumption that a "good" manager could somehow separate the two functions and ignore in 'manager mode' the things s/he has learnt whilst in 'coaching mode'.

I'd suggest that this is a piece of impractical idealism, which places an unrealistic and unfair burden upon the manager.

Rather than sweeping such considerations under the rug, it seems to me that coaching is likely to remain a fad until issues such as this have been fully addressed and resolved.