Coaching Books

Until recently, there were no books on how to implement a coaching style of leadership throughout an organization. Now we have The Coaching Organization. This book provides leaders with a thoughtful strategy for introducing developmental coaching throughout an organization.

The Coaching Organization is straightforward, mixing helpful instruction with actual case studies. The authors also wrote Coaching Manager: Developing Top Talent in Business and have obvious expertise in this area.

After reviewing what developmental coaching is, the authors provide an organization assessment of readiness to implement a coaching culture. The assessment has four sections: 1) the cultural context; 2) the business context; 3) the human resource management context; and 4) organizational experiences with coaching. The last assessment section leads into one of the more innovative (and therefore worth reading) chapters, that of A Strategic Approach to Coaching.

Here the authors go beyond the obvious of "linking coaching to business outcomes" and go deeper to the systemic level. The goal is to create a coaching initiative that promotes a sustainable coaching capacity. Here's where the book pays off: the authors show how some "common sense" initiatives to introduce coaching actually work against the long-term sustainability of coaching. For example, if a coach is assigned to a poorly performing manager, what is communicated is that coaching is for those not doing well, thus, managers resist the coaching initiative so they won't be labeled a "poor performer."

Two other especially useful chapters are about how to build and lead a coaching capacity, and how to raise up qualified Internal coaches. These two processes are at the heart of creating a coaching organization. In my view, it will still take partnership with a coaching provider or trainer to do it, but the chapters serve as a guide for the overall process.

The Coaching Organization is one of only a few books on organization-wide implementation of coaching.

I liked their first book, The Coaching Manager, which discussed the importance and strategy of actually coaching--this new paperback book goes to the next level, taking a more strategic view of coaching. This is helpful because there's little out there that talks about HOW to create a coaching culture. The Coaching Organization admirably fills that gap. They get you to think about taking a strategic approach to development through coaching. Including what it takes to be successful.

The number of examples of real companies showing how they are using the development coaching model is really helpful. I especially liked the Whirlpool case, illustrating how a large, successful company uses coaching as an adjunct to its leadership development efforts and the importance of a senior leadership team dedicated to executive development. The cases used make a very compelling statement supporting the "business case" as to why it makes sense to create a coaching organization.

The authors are well-known academics in addition to being firmly grounded in the real world of business and consulting. They avoid excessive hype and selling their point of view, while making clear the value of their approach to organizations committed to genuine development efforts.

This guidebook presents readers with a thorough, practical and straightforward framework for understanding the process and value of executive coaching. Dr. Battley dispels the misconceptions surrounding this new and exciting professional development service. Anyone considering hiring a coach for him/herself or someone that he/she supervises will be able to make a more informed decision by reading this book.

Battley's book is a concise overview of business coaching and its practical applications. She addresses the most commonly heard opinions and beliefs about coaching in terms of "coaching myths." This is the perfect book for those who are curious or skeptical about the bottom-line benefits of coaching. It's also one of the few guides written about business coaching for the lay person rather than for human resources folks or professional coaches. Hooray!

Coaching Soccer: 6 To 10 Year Olds by experienced soccer coach Giuliano Rusca is a useful and "user friendly" guide to building motor and teamwork skills in young people. Yet the involving text quickly gives way to pages and pages of soccer play diagrams, sample drills for lessons, and tables to record athlete's performance. Simply put, Coaching Soccer is a "must-have" for any gym teacher, team coach or volunteer parent charged with the responsibility of teaching this increasingly popular team sport to young people.

Great book for coaching young players. Simple games and drills for serious work and development of young players. There is no boring drills that go on and on. Effective. Also charts for evaluation of every workout etc.

Coaching That Counts is a must read if you are a corporate, executive or business coach or a consumer of coaching. This book takes the reader step-by-step through the process of creating and executing coaching initiatives that maximize the value for both the individual being coached and the organizations in which the coaching is conducted.

The authors clearly demonstrate (through empirical data and anecdotal stories) that the key for any successful coaching initiative is to link the objectives of coaching to the strategic goals of the organization. The book is organized to support this insight and opens with a thorough discussion of a client-driven coaching model that delivers lasting change. The second part of Coaching That Count focuses on how to harness the value of coaching at the individual level and direct that value to produce tangible results to the business. The third part of this book provides a complete understanding of how to develop evaluations that clearly link coaching initiatives to business goals, including how to demonstrate ROI.

Coaching That Counts provides both a blueprint and the tools for building, executing and evaluating a successful coaching initiative.

I highly recommend this book!

"Coaching That Counts" is a must read, particularly for the experienced executive coach and/or the corporate executive managing large scale coaching and leadership development programs.

Many fine books have been written separately on the topics of executive coaching and organizational development and learning. What sets "Coaching That Counts" apart is how it expertly combines the two topics seamlessly in a clear, readable and immediately useful format.

The husband-wife team of Diana and Merrill Anderson share generously their 30 plus years of combined expertise and insights in their roles as executive coach, corporate leader and organizational researcher.

The authors are pioneers in their respective fields. Diana is a superb and gifted executive and leadership coach and one of the first Master Certified Coaches with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Merrill has contributed foundational and pivotal research-models for measuring return on investment (ROI) impact for training and coaching initiatives.

The book is divided into two parts. The first half describes in detail a comprehensive and provocative coaching model, called "Leading With Insight". The model describes 4 coaching quadrants: Reflective, Emotional, Intuitive and Inspirational. Each key coaching quadrant is expertly described first conceptually and then through case study presentations.

The second half of the book details very useful quantitative and qualitative ROI approaches for measuring coaching impact. Additionally excellent chapters are also included focusing on key steps, considerations and insights for conceptualizing, initiating and measuring large scale organizational change-coaching programs.

Of particular interest in the Leading with Insight model is the authors' observation that most current coaching work focuses on the first 2 quadrants, which asks the questions, What do I need to do now? and What am I made of? The authors explain that most ROI impact however occurs in Quadrant III and IV, which focuses on Organizational Alignment and Original Action. They share that less than 50% of coaching relationships currently evolve beyond Quadrant II, but that 70% of return on investment derives from gains in Quadrant III and IV. This has enormous implications for future executive coaching focus and pay-off.

In summary, this book is a call to action, challenging the reader to work deeper within themselves and with their clients to achieve broader, more impactful coaching outcomes and execute more accurate and measurable Coaching ROI analysis.

I purchased this book for my private collection, and I am not sorry I did. It is easy to read. It has lots of diagrams that are easy to follow and full of information that can be used at any coaching level. If you want to know more about the no huddle offense this is the book for you.

Mark McElroy covers every aspect of how to practice and implement the no-huddle offense to allow your offense to control the game. Since reading this book and implementing the no-huddle offense my teams have lost only two games in three seasons and are currently on a 10 game winning streak.

The first chapter explains the benefits of running a no-huddle offense. The number one reason is that you can control the pace of the game. You can actually run a no-huddle slow down offense to bleed the clock when you have a significant lead or hurry up to move the ball quickly when you are behind and need to score.

Mark McElroy gives several different examples of how to communicate the no-huddle signals to your players including dummy siganls to through off your opponents when they try to steal your signals.

The communication system is very simple yet it appears to be complicated to your opponents. The chapter on practicing the no-huddle is the best. It explains how using the no-huddle system in practice actually allows you to get more done in less time and increases your team confidence when you are in a situation where you must run a hurry-up offense.

Game Planning and Trouble shooting chapters are extremely useful to the success of the no-huddle system.

This book is an excellent value.

Tennis is a widely celebrated sport the world over and has numerous physical and psychological benefits for its players. "Coaching Your Tennis Champion: The Progressive Plan for Success" is a guide for those who would coach children of any age to become the very best tennis player they can be. Covering day by day plans, drills, rules, strategies and so much more that every aspiring tennis star would love to learn. "Coaching Your Tennis Champion: The Progressive Plan for Success" is highly recommended for community library sports collections and for any who want to teach their tennis students right.

This book is a must have for any parent or coach teaching youth tennis. Outside of the basic drills taught in schools and camps around the country, this book uses imaginative and extremely effective techniques for ensuring your youth are not only physically ready for competitive (and leisure) tennis, but also develop the knowledge to be "smart" players on the court. A truly phenomenal product and hats off to Mr Minihan for his efforts!

This book contains tons of useful information about playing and coaching soccer, with absolutely no fluff. Ingels updates the book constantly, so be sure to buy it new. For each area (passing, shooting, dribbling, juggling, heading, trapping, goal-keeping, tackling), he first lists the skills that a player must develop, then follows with drills to teach them. It has a template to plan your practice, rules of the game, small-sided games, and more. The book diagrams the more complicated drills. I found the book useful for my own play as well as for coaching. I agree with the previous review that the book doesn't contain much in the way of tactics, but for teaching the fundamentals, this book is excellent.

This charming selection is hands down the best book this reviewer's ever seen for coaching beginning soccer. No fluff, no philosophy, just excellent practice drills, one after the other, bang, bang, bang. Superb tips by someone who's been there on selecting players, running practices, skills training drills with gobs of variations, through shooting and goalkeeping. This book contains enough material to supply you with many, many productive soccer practices. A welcome addition to any soccer coach's library. Perhaps the only notable omissions would be to include some of the niceties of organized soccer, like a little more in-depth explaination of rules of organized play, game strategies, beginning play, etc. These are available elsewhere, but Ingels' concise prose and illustrations would round out this work beautifully.

I am a MS Soccer Coach and quite frankly never knew half the things I read about in Thompson's book. I found it very refreshing, and quite entertaing. The skills and drills were also very helpful. Where has this book been?

As a reluctant "volunteer" coach for my daughter's soccer team, my previous soccer experience consisted of watching the Carolina Courage play. I knew I needed help and turned to my local bookstore for a "Soccer for Dummies" type book. What I found, instead, was this wonderful book by Coach Thompson. It is concise, humorous, informative and jam-packed with ideas for making coaching fun. He doesn't leave anything out and the plays that are included are presented in such detail, even I could understand them! I highly recommend this book for any coach, parent or soccer lover.

This is a great book for the begining soccer mom/dad or even coach! It has drills and coaching ideas for kids of all ages.

This is the best book I've found for coaching the U8-U10 age groups. McCarthy writes well, and explains the basics in simple, easy-to-understand language. For coaching my U9 team, I found his explanations of skills, positions, rules, and strategy especially helpful. This book should be supplemented with a good book of soccer drills. What it covers, it covers well.

McShane is the real deal when it comes to coaching soccer. I highly recommend his instructional and informative book. I do wish that he sought out the mighty Arsenal Football Club as a resource. I'm sure Thierry Henry could have added some poignant insights on the game. My only other complaint regarded the fact that there were no chapters on soccer video games. I feel that these games not only serve to develop hand-eye coordination and lot of good material for "smack-talk," but also instill confidence (albeit false) in one's outdoor performance. Nonetheless, this is a fine read for the lads. Go STA! Go Arsenal! and GO SOX!

Mr. McShane has produced a work that will, I think, have a profound effect on how the elite youth players in the United States are trained. He has done intensive research on how the most successful player development systems operate and has written a book designed to clearly define the essential elements of their training. If you have involvment with the development of potentionaly elite players, you should read this book.