Executive Coaching: Practices and Perspectives

Coaching has for too long been relegated to the bottom of most consultants' bags of fixes. More properly called "executive development," this field is becoming one of the hotter areas in the training world because of today's need to retain and develop superior talent. This excellent book of essays and articles by the top people in the industry is the first to integrate the theory and practice of this emerging field.

One of the central tenets of the book is that psychological training is central to the in-depth coaching process. The publisher, Davies-Black, is an imprint of Consulting Psychologists Press (the developers of the famous Myers-Briggs personality-type instrument) and thus there is the requisite focus on understanding the complexities of various "type interactions" in the workplace as part of the coaching process. Nevertheless, the text is solid and understandable, with some sophisticated, challenging, and often provocative arguments. For example, the book examines the collaboration between coaches and organization development experts and suggests that an executive's problems may stem not from poor interpersonal skills but from poor organizational structure, inadequate ground rules, or unclear decision-making processes.

Though it can sometimes seem academic in its approach, this beautifully packaged book is complemented by highly practical conversations, exercises, and checkpoints to determine the depth of learning. Human resources professionals, trainers, and consultants looking for guidance on the skills required to implement a topnotch executive coaching program will find this compendium by some of the top professionals in the field absolutely invaluable and well worth its price tag. --Charles Decker