The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier: Issue 42 | September 2017

The Coaching Habit (Amazon link) was first recommended to me by one of my best friends, Chris Ducker, for a couple of reasons. First, we were chatting about self-publishing one day, and he brought up The Coaching Habit as a prime example of how a self-published book (it is self-published by the author, selling nearly 200,000 copies!), if done well, can have the same physical/tactile feel as a traditionally published book—from its paper quality to the sturdiness of its cover. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]

As a self-published author, this kind of stuff always fascinates me. With The Coaching Habit, not only are you getting a great read with tons to apply to your own life, but you’re also getting a top-notch book in terms of the materials it’s made of.

The second thing that Chris told me about The Coaching Habit is that it would be relevant to me specifically because I’ve been creating and launching (and will continue in the future!) online courses (most recently Power-Up Podcasting) and workshops lately. I also want to get more into high-level coaching. Chris knows this. So, in his great wisdom, he explained that The Coaching Habit is really about asking the right questions of yourself and of people.

A truly great coach asks the right questions to empower the person who is being coached to find answers the answer they need to move forward and progress through any roadblocks they may be experiencing. I want to serve my audience in the best way that I can, and I know that more personalized coaching is an unexplored way in which I can do that. I can reach more of my audience in more specific, potentially more helpful ways, and that’s an exciting thing to think about.

As for reading The Coaching Habit, it flew by. It’s an extremely fast read, and also very easy to understand, process, and then apply to your own life. Michael, the author, helps you by sharing examples of what to do versus what not to do in coaching. It’s really effective, and there are so many golden takeaways that I don’t want to spoil for you!

But I will say this: The most helpful and surprising part of the book wasn’t necessarily the information about how to coach students (although that is awesome). The most helpful part is how the lessons in the book can be applied to how you interact with team members. As you know, I have a team to help me do all the things I do. They’re amazing, but as with anything, tweaks and a little coaching is required every once in awhile. This book gave me insight into how to coach them in a way that doesn’t make them feel small or less important. Rather, in a way that actually empowers them along the way so they can become better leaders within the group.

So, is this book for you? I think there’s a lot of broad lessons that are timeless and applicable in most contexts. But, specifically, this book will do wonders for anyone who is in the position of teaching anything, even in a one-to-many capacity, because, again, it’s not about giving more information—it’s about asking the right questions.

Here’s to asking the right questions!

Try ZipMessage

$

This is an affiliate link

ZipMessage

ZipMessage is a video messaging software for remote teams who want to communicate asynchronously with their team, clients, and customers.