Our latest book review, from founder Paul Laughlin, has been published in the December 2021 edition of The Coaching Psychologist journal from The British Psychological Society (BPS). Edited by Dr David Tee, this is the academic journal for the new Division of Coaching Psychology within the BPS.
Having previously had two book reviews published in this journal, this time Paul reviews a book more suited to leaders than coaches. Published in 2020, “The 4 Greatest Coaching Conversations” was long listed for the CMI’s management book of the year 2021. The authors, Jerry Connor & Karim Hirani are both experienced leadership coaches at BTS Coach and draw their advice from thousands of coaching conversations with their clients.
In his detailed review, Paul helps dissect how the content of this book can help leaders develop their questioning skills. He also highlights the risk that this is viewed as a book for the professional coaching community & why it does not suit that audience. If you are a leader who has benefited from writers like Michael Bungay-Stanier (books including “The Advice Trap“), then this book could help you develop your questioning skills.
If you are a professional coach then we recommend becoming a BPS member. Then you can access the latest copy of this great journal (volume 17, number 2) from the BPS online shop. There are many other great articles in this edition to support coaches thinking & CPD.
However, we recognise that most senior leaders (including our clients) will not have such access. So, we have uploaded a copy of just this book review for you to download. Please note this is a pre-publication version of the following article: Laughlin, P (2021) “Book review The Four Greatest Coaching Conversations”, The Coaching Psychologist, 17(2), Dec 2021.
We hope that review helps you both consider whether this book would help your development as a leader & reflect on your own coaching conversations. If you are a senior leader who wants to further develop your own leadership skills (including using coaching moments & questions), we would love to have conversation with you. Please use this link to book a call.
Further details of the mentoring and coaching services on offer from Laughlin Consultancy can be found on the following pages:
Overview of our coaching & mentoring services
Booking a taster mentoring session (for senior leaders)
Bespoke mentoring programmes for leadership development
Our 360-degree feedback service
If you have any questions about this review or our associated services, please get in touch. We hope it helps to inform and develop further the thinking of both leaders and our fellow coaches.