Coaching Plain & Simple – book review
7 December 2010 in Books/Articles review Write by Paolo Terni
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of “The Little Prince”, once wrote: Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
According to that definition, this little book is perfection.
In 100-pages Peter Szabó, Daniel Meier and Kirsten Dierolf manage to distill the essence of Solution-Focused Brief Coaching.
The beginner coach will find in the book a useful framework for leading a successful coaching conversation:
- Reaching a Coaching Agreement
- Discovering a Preferred Future
- Finding Resources and Precursors of Solutions
- Defining Progress Clues
- Coming to a Session Conclusion
- Follow-up Sessions
The experienced coach will discover in the book the fascinating simplicity of the Solution-Focused approach, with a clear illustration of its key assumptions, jargon-free:
- Solution-Building is a Fast Track to Problem Solving
- Clients Already have Experience with the Solution
- When in Doubt, Trust the Client
- Not Knowing is Useful
together with some case studies that bring home the essence of Solution-Focused Coaching.
Do not be led astray by the simplicity of the book – it is built on years of coaching experience by the authors.
There is a difference between 100 pages that are all the authors can say on a topic, and 100 pages that are the essence of the 1,000 pages the authors could write on a subject. Clearly “Coaching Plain & Simple” belongs to the latter category. A small little gem.
2 Comments to: Coaching Plain & Simple – book review
What do you think?
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
A friend of mine asked me why I chose the name briefcoachingsolutions for my website.
Easy: it is the shortest description for what I do.
Solutions: that is what my clients arrive at: solutions. For their goals, their needs, their problems. They arrive at better solutions. Faster. With less effort. Solutions sustainable in the long run because they are based on what is already working in the clients' situations
it is also the description of my approach: solution-focused.
Coaching: that is the tool I use to help clients...
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What a coincidence, I was just talking with a friend today about this book. When I mention it some time ago, she go 2 copies and gifted me one of them. Neither I nor her got around to read it.
I look forward to reading it!
Hi Peter!!
Great to hear from you! :-)
Well, I guess the Universe is telling you it is time to read this little book! :-)
It is an easy read, I was impressed by how the authors managed to make Solution-Focused Coaching so simple!!
Have a good one,
ciao,
Paolo