The Tao of Coaching: Boost Your Effectiveness at Work by Inspiring Those Around You

Rating:
Summary: Easy to read, hard to ignore
Review: Max Landsberg succeeds in translating the essentials of coaching into a simple story and a few tables and graphics. It is easy to read, but once you've read it, the actual thinking begins. The somewhat unusual approach Landsberg takes introduces various aspects of coaching (such as receiving and giving feedback, overcoming coaching blocks) as elements of someone's career, providing the reader with instant examples.

Rating:
Summary: Gave me the courage to try, with superior results
Review: Placed in the leadership role for a high performance team undertaking a "McKinsey-ish" strategy study I found myself very challenged. Having spotted this book at an airport bookshop I read it on the plane. I put its suggestions into place, starting from the front of the book, and worked my way through the chapters as they were appropriate. I had it on my desk for the entire 4-month study. It bought immediate results for the team, and me by achieving greater cohesion of energy yet releasing greater diversity of thought especially during the inductive phase of the study. During the deductive stages it helped us focus on a team-based outcome without leaving people out of the decision-making process that had to be managed to a schedule. I firmly believe that without this book we would not have achieved the results we did - the pressure was intense and teams have a tendency to blow themselves apart after the final report is in. The team would not have continued to work as a coherent whole on subsequent phases of my study. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to lead a high performance team. Landsberg's@examples and his obvious experience come through well, and they gave me the courage to try what the book suggests with my team. Well worth the cost.

Rating:
Summary: I really learned a lot from this book and felt inspired.
Review: The coaching techniques and examples provided in the book are outstanding. By applying these techniques to your everyday activities you will definately see a positive change.