The Coaching Habit - Michael Bungay Stanier - Part 1

The Coaching Habit -
Michael Bungay Stanier

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 136

  May 16, 2017 

Book 39 - The Coaching Habit -
Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever
Michael Bungay Stanier (2016)
 Part 1 - pages 1-48
Reading Time - 1 hour

This book is more of a "work" book for me. I am realizing that this book challenge is a bit more of a challenge than I thought. There have also been some hiccups in my life and I'm finding that I can't devote all the time to reading that I would like to. So... we're going to have to stitch in some other books that I've been reading in addition to the book challenge books. Otherwise... this challenge is going to fall flat!

This book starts off with the rather provocative thought: You're probably not getting very effective coaching; and you're probably not delivery very effective coaching. Given that I work in a field where coaching is part of the air we breathe... this was a bit of an eye-opener. The author comes at the idea of coaching from the premise that we give too many solutions... and don't ask enough questions. There is a distinction between coaching for performance (giving advice, solving problems for people) and coaching for development (they solve their own problems - more rare and more powerful).

Sooo... we're going to learn 7 questions that will support us in becoming better coaches. One tidbit he offers is this... ask one question at a time! Good thing to remember.

The first question to ask is: What's on Your Mind? This is a nice opening question... not too broad and not too narrow. It gives the person the opportunity to share what is in their space. Out of that... you'll get enough information to see... do you need to coach a person, a project or a pattern of behaviour.