Another book review from Paul Laughlin, called “Coaching Practiced“, has been published in volume 18 issue 2 of The Coaching Psychologist. This is the leading journal for coaches published by the British Psychological Society.
In this article, Paul shares his review of a comprehensive new handbook for coaches called “Coaching Practiced”. It is an edited collection of articles from leading coaches and academics working in this field. The curation achieved by the superb Dr David Tee and Dr Jonathan Passmore is well-selected and resourceful. As Paul makes clear in his review, this book could help many coaches or mentors practising today for two reasons. There are two gaps it closes compared to similar textbooks.
Firstly, each section includes plenty of practical advice and case studies from real-world coaching sessions (rather than just explaining theories or models). Secondly, this book spans the many different approaches or schools of coaching today. Unlike many resources that are targeted at those interested in NLP, Gestalt, Positive Psychology, CBC, GROW or Solution Focused coaching – this spans all of those and more.
To bring that to life, this book includes sections covering:
- Coaching Frameworks & Models
- Reflective Practice & Personal Development
- Wellbeing Coaching
- Workplace Coaching
- Cognitive Approaches
- Motivational Interviewing
- Solution-Focussed Coaching
- Using Mindfulness in Coaching
- Narrative Coaching
- Positive Psychology Coaching
Paul’s review is very positive and highlights a number of ways that experienced coaches or mentors, as well as those starting out could benefit from getting a copy of this book. As Paul makes clear in his concluding remarks…
At nearly 500 pages it is not a short book. But this treasury of useful essays/papers is structured in such a way that readers should find it easy to find the content that is relevant at that time. Plus, each chapter (or section introduction) is short enough to be read on a break or a spare 15-20 minutes. So, it could provide a useful structure for a personal development plan.
What will I take away from it? Well, a couple of the opening chapters challenged me on two other important aspects of my practice (improved note taking and reflective practice). I also plan to learn more about using Motivational Interviewing in practice and to try using a couple of the simple mindfulness models to help one client. Beyond those points though, reading this book left me encouraged that my development as a coach is a polymath’s journey for me and others. One that does not really end. So, it is time to enjoy that journey; not just focus on achieving certificates or other milestones of progress.
“Coaching Practiced”, The Coaching Pyschologist Vol 18 issue 2
Here is the link to download a copy of this article or access the full journal.
If you would like to understand more about how Laughin Consultancy uses a number of these approaches in service of our mentoring clients, please get in touch.