LE 703 Book Review:
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier
This book offers seven questions and tools to equip leaders work less and have greater impact on others. In most circumstance, coaches cannot impact clients because they cannot form personal connections with clients (7). Coaching is an important element of leadership because through it coaches help others mature and become more effective (3). Whereas counselors advise clients how to improve, coaches need to ask clients important questions – even if it’s only for a few minutes per day – so clients will be inspired to move towards their goals. Stanier suggests coaches need to move beyond myths to practicalities so clients will become motivated to move forward. (17-18). Before clients will be motivated to make the needed changes, however, coaches need to know the triggers that cause clients to behave in a certain (19). When this is discovered, coaches will be empowered to help clients make “small steps forward” towards the goals as both parties declare “the I will of focus” and set boundaries, which will help them reach the goal together.
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Coaches need to prudently ask the client one question at a time, because they cannot handle and entourage of question hurled at them. Asking one question at a time also suggests to the client that the coach is genuinely interested in hearing from him/her, and it demonstrates the coach is focused on the clients future (32). Coaches deepen client focus as they use what Stanier calls his “3 P’s”, these being, “projects: what are we trying to do,” “people: with whom are we talking, and how are we forming a strong relationship,” and “patterns: how are we going to get the client to grow?” (44). Any of these questions can be used as a starting point for thse coaching