Adaptive Coaching: The Art and Practice of a Client-Centered Approach to Performance Improvement

Rich in detail from the authors' work with more than 2,000 clients in Fortune 500 companies, ADAPTIVE COACHING offers a unique client-centered focus and solid research into how people prefer to be coached. Combining 30 years of experience as coaches and educators teaching others the art of coaching, Bacon and Spear deliver the tools and techniques coaches need to identify clients' real needs, negotiate expectations, understand and adapt to different coaching style preferences, manage the dialogue, and help clients change.

The authors identify eight distinct coaching styles--teacher, parent, manager, philosopher, facilitator, counselor, colleague, and mentor. They also include numerous examples of coaching dialogue and explore in detail the special challenges of coaching across cultures and generations, and of coaching women, minorities, and C-level executives.

Bacon and Spears, experienced in coaching more than 2,000 individual clients in Fortune 500 companies, share their knowledge and experience. Their researched-based approach emphasizes the skills needed by coaches and that coaching styles must be adapted to what the client needs. The eight styles they identify are directive (teacher, parent, manager, philosopher) and non-directive (facilitator, counselor, colleague, mentor). This model alone will expand, deepen, and enrich the work done by the vast majority of coaches in the corporate world.

The book offers even more, delivering checklists, assessment tools, tips and tools, and a wealth of sample coach-client dialogues. Recognizing the special opportunities the future will hold, the authors include insights into coaching across cultures, across generations, as well as coaching women, minorities, and C-level executives.

An epilogue with even more perspectives adds value to this volume, as do the reference section and comprehensive index. This is not a book for readers who simply want to gain a few insights into improving their coaching effectiveness. You'll learn, but you'll be overwhelmed. Adaptive Coaching is like a college textbook on the topic. It's a heavy, deep, and thorough treatment with relatively small type. The $39.95 price suggests that this is more than the average airplane reading management book...and it is. If you're serious about the critical and fine art of coaching in the complicated corporate environment, you'll gain considerable knowledge, insight, and growth from this book.

Side note: I am the author of Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People. As a workforce futurist, I see what's coming... including a dangerous dearth of leadership. Application of the principles in this book will help today's leaders strengthen each other and the next generation of leaders.