Rating: 
Summary: The real deal: no fluff, no hype
Review: As an independent career coach, I find most of the so-called "coach training" to be ideological and idiosyncratic. In contrast, this book utilizes research and offers some genuine intellectual content. The first part of the book was especially helpful to me and I particularly appreciated the chapter on midlife career changers. My only quibble is the reference to Jung and the Myers-Briggs tests. I find labels and tests unscientific at best and even potentially harmful when dealing with adults. Considerable research shows that people tend any so-called "description of yourself" as accurate.
Rating:
Summary: The real deal: no fluff, no hype
Review: As an independent career coach, I find most of the so-called "coach training" to be ideological and idiosyncratic. In contrast, this book utilizes research and offers some genuine intellectual content. The first part of the book was especially helpful to me and I particularly appreciated the chapter on midlife career changers. My only quibble is the reference to Jung and the Myers-Briggs tests. I find labels and tests unscientific at best and even potentially harmful when dealing with adults. Considerable research shows that people tend any so-called "description of yourself" as accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Useful Perspectives on an Emergent Field
Review: Catherine Fitzgerald and Jennifer Garvey Berger, themselves both accomplished professionals in the field of adult development, have brought together and presented in a very accessible fashion practical experience and provocative theory in this emergent field. A particular accomplishment of this book is its integration of perspectives on coaching in a way that is useful to a variety of audiences. It is an excellent resource for organizations seeking to integrate executive coaching effectively into their leadership development and business strategies. Additionally, the reflections by a diverse group of seasoned executive coaches on issues arising in their practices are useful and stimulating for other coaches practicing in the field. Finally, the thoughtful insights into executive coaching that this compilation provides should prove very helpful to executives seeking to understand the process of coaching and its application to their own development. Margaret Jane Porter, satisfied executive coaching client and student of executive coaching.
Rating:
Summary: A Diversity of Approaches
Review: Executive Coaching: Practices & Perspectives, is an excellent and timely text consisting of 16 chapters written by 20 contributors, the editors also being contributors, providing a wide breadth of information and references. It provides a rare opportunity to shadow many experienced coaches from diverse backgrounds and learnings. I applaud the editors for what is a very successful attempt to weave many different "essays" into a coherent book. The writing styles and approaches are different for each of the chapters resulting in many practices and theories, and many modes of learning for the reader. Executive coaching is still a fairly new profession and this book provides a wide variety of perspectives not typically shared among peers. Although titled Executive Coaching, it indirectly explores the diversity of individual and organizational learning and change with a keen appreciation for the complexities of the human mind. For executive coaching, as in organizational development consulting, one size does not fit all. The diversity of approaches from the respective authors reflects the strength of belief in their own methods when dealing with the complexity and diversity of the human mind; and reveals the many barriers to individual learning and ultimately organizational learning. In many ways the book is about organizational development and organizational learning brought to an individual level. Most of the contributors have psychology backgrounds; however, the editors have made a good attempt to look at executive coaching from a variety of lenses, with a noticeable influence of Carl Jung and Robert Kegan. As an organizational development consultant and executive coach, I find some bias toward the need for a psychology or psychotherapy background in some of the chapters. Does one need a degree in psychology to have an understanding of a variety of perceptual views through intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social dimensions, for example? I don't believe so. There are many issues that emerge when we have conversations at personal and sometimes intimate levels. Do we dare go where no non-psychotherapist has gone before? I believe the human psyche is much less fragile than most psychotherapists, and even psychologists, might have us believe. And as organizational change consultants, how much damage have we inflicted because we dared not to tread, or even look, in those heretofore-protected domains? Where is the line drawn between learning and repair, or between personal growth and cure? The authors have drawn their lines and they are in different places. I do believe, when coaching Executives, it is essential to have a greater depth of knowledge and abilities as an observer and guide. I believe executive coaching can increase the potential for profound change. Peter Senge, in his book The Dance of Change, describes profound change as "organizational change that combines inner shifts in people's values, aspirations, and behaviors with 'outer' shifts in processes, strategies, practices, and systems ... In profound change there is learning." (p 15) W. Edwards Deming said, "Nothing changes without personal transformation." Executive coaching allows us to further shift the learning paradigms of our clients. We are beginning to apply to individuals what we have applied to organizations. Coaching appears to be the natural progression to double-loop learning at a personal level, in addition to the organizational level, and further progression to triple-loop learning. Double-loop learning is a concept developed by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon based upon the work of Gregory Bateson. The term "triple loop learning" was used by William N. Isaacs, in Taking Flight: Dialogue, Collective Thinking, and Organizational Learning. "Double-loop learning encourages learning for increasing effectiveness. Triple-loop learning is the learning that opens inquiry into underlying 'why's.' It is the learning that permits insight into the nature of paradigm itself, not merely an assessment of which paradigm is superior." Effective coaching includes the practice of Dialogue at a one-to-one level. This "third" level of learning can be called transformational learning. As such, this book could be about transformational learning. A noticeably missing piece was a chapter on distinguishing coaching from therapy, and addressing some of the boundaries to be considered and what resources the executive coach should have available in assessing and dealing with those boundaries. Another missing piece was the role our body plays. Recent studies suggest a more holistic approach is needed in our learning - the integration of language, emotions and the body. I am referring to more than the traditional concept of "body language." Albert Einstein said, "My primary process of perceiving is muscular and visual." Richard Heckler, a psychologist and director of the Rancho-Strozzi Institute, says in his book The Anatomy of Change, "An education that connects us with our body would teach us the difference between what we are experiencing and what we are thinking and fantasizing about." (p 12) Full awareness goes beyond what we are thinking. The body can reflect what we are thinking and feeling and the body can support what we desire to think and feel. Stuart Heller, mathematician, operations researcher, and psychologist, says in his book Retooling on the Run, "To make a change in any part of you, you have to change all of you." (p 10) "Your results are a function of the way you organize and use yourself. By studying your patterns of reaction, belief, tension, feelings, and posture, you learn how you both hinder and help yourself." (p 17) I highly recommend this book to anyone involved with coaching and executive development. In addition, it offers many insights to any organizational change consultant wishing to search deeper in the psyche of an organization. Many organizations, and individuals, are struggling to find ways of breaking free of traditional thinking and modes of operation to enhance continuous learning. At a minimum, these insights may help forge better partnerships with clients and help facilitate greater awareness, reflection, and ultimately learning.
Rating:
Summary: A variety of proven approaches.
Review: I admit to more than a bit of bias since many of the authors are colleagues of mine; however I urge you to look at this book. It's the only one on the market, I believe, with diverse contributors and methodologies. The commonality among the authors is that they are all highly experienced and successful executive coaches, and I doubt that there's a "certified" coach among them. Some of these authors are also contributors to The Executive Coaching Handbook: Principles and Guidelines for a Successful Coaching Partnership, January 2004, third edition. It is written by The Executive Coaching Forum, (TECF) whose charter is to advance the highest standards and best practices of executive coaching with all members of the "coaching partnership" (Executives, Coaches, HR Professionals, and others interested in Executive Coaching). The Handbook is available to read or download at no cost at TECF's website: theexecutivecoachingforum.com
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Organizational consultants Catherine Fitzgerald and Jennifer Garvey Berger offer a collection of articles by 16 executive coaches, including themselves. The essays cover executive coaching perspectives, practices and management. This book examines the range of managerial and psychological approaches shaping this emerging field. These expert articles provide a diverse overview, varying in complexity, practicality and therapeutic philosophies. The hazard of anthologies is the mix of voices, so there is some blurring between what is coaching and what is therapy, and some drift about exactly who is being spoken to, the coach, the manager or the executive. The book seems to focus primarily on the analytical, psychological and tactical tasks of coaches. However, we from getAbstract suggest that if you are hiring a coach for yourself or your organization, you may find this very practical in understanding what coaches do and in being sure you select a good one.
Rating:
Summary: Rewarding Read
Review: There are very few well-written, substantive books that have practical application in the field of Executive Coaching. And fewer still have value to both beginning and experienced coaches. Executive Coaching: Practices and Perspectives is the exception. The chapters are well-written and varied with enough substance to be read over again with new insights each time. One excellent chapter covers new and emerging research on the complexity of mind in adults. Other chapters are very pragmatic with specific ideas which would improve one's practice. As an experienced coach, I found it rewarding to read and I am confident that it will become a seminal resource in my coaching library.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book on Executive Coaching
Review: This book is a wonderful blend of how-to's and organized thinking on the field of Executive Coaching. It is the most practical and well organized book that I've read on the subject. It is well suited for both the experienced practitioner and the novice. The authors clearly know what they're talking about and they've been able to convey it in a clear concise way that will help many coaches.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book on Executive Coaching
Review: This book is a wonderful blend of how-to's and organized thinking on the field of Executive Coaching. It is the most practical and well organized book that I've read on the subject. It is well suited for both the experienced practitioner and the novice. The authors clearly know what they're talking about and they've been able to convey it in a clear concise way that will help many coaches.
Rating:
Summary: Well-Written Advice from the Best Coaches
Review: This is a well-conceived well-written compilation from some of the top coaches who have been inventing and defining the practice of executive coaching. It's full of useful information (I particularly liked the chapter by William Hodgetts about what can go wrong) that I was able to immediately apply to my work with executives. Worth reading cover to cover.
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