Book Review of Executive Coaching for Results: The Definitive Guide to Developing Organizational Leaders by Brian O Underhill and Kimcee McAnally

This book addresses coaching – starting with explaining the purpose and usage, then moving into specific application along with support for making the case for coaching.

Summary – the chapters of the book include:

Introduction

Coaching Has Come of Age

Why Now?

About the Book

1. Understanding the Coaching Field
   1. What is Coaching?
   2. The Purpose of Coaching – Why?
   3. What does Coaching Replace?
   4. Who Gets Coaching?
   5. Coaching Highlights

2. The Importance of Culture and Leadership Support
   1. Culture Counts
   2. Get Leadership Support
   3. Why is Coaching Different?
   4. Marketing Matters
   5. Coaching Highlights

3. Linking Coaching to Leadership Development, Talent Management, and Human Resources Practices
   1. Link to the Leadership Development Strategy
   2. Linking to the Talent Management Approach
   3. Linking to Leadership Development and Human Resource Personnel
   4. Coaching Highlights

4. Managing the Coaching Engagement
   1. Preparing the Executive for Coaching
   2. Prepare the Boss for Coaching
   3. Don’t Underestimate Matching
   4. Watch for Stalls
   5. Find Mismatches and Fix Them Quickly
   6. Get Clear on Length and Frequency
   7. Activities in Coaching
   8. Know the Costs, but That’s Not All
   9. Coaching Highlights

5. The Toolbox: Instruments and Assessments
   1. Why Use Assessments?
   2. Gather Feedback
   3. Expanding the Toolbox
   4. Determining Instrument Policies
   5. How to Manage Tool Selection
   6. Coaching Highlights

6. Balancing Consistency and Flexibility
   1. Be Consistent – or Not
   2. Add Consistency to Taste
   3. Coaching Highlights

7. Bringing Coaching Internal
   1. Consider the Opportunity
   2. Compare Internal to External Coaching
   3. The Positives of Internal Coaching
   4. Challenges for Internal Coaches
   5. Leader-as-Coach
   6. Mentoring
   7. The Debate Continues
   8. Coaching Highlights

8. Measuring Impact
   1. Start at Satisfaction with Coach
   2. Include Impact Metrics
   3. Ask the Boss to Assess
   4. Follow-up with Another 360
   5. Measure Return-on-Investment
   6. The Bottom Line
   7. Coaching Highlights

9. The Art of Finding Qualified Coaches
   1. Qualifications
   2. Locating Coaches
   3. Screening Coaches
   4. Does Certification Matter?
   5. Coaching Highlights

10. Creating a World Class Coaching CommunityWhy It Matters
    1. Stay Connected to the Pool
    2. Develop Coaching Talent
    3. Know How Coaches Tick
    4. Coaching Highlights

11. Life After Coaching
    1. Renegotiate the Relationship
    2. Boost the Fading Finish
    3. Internals Can Continue Support
    4. Beware of Dependencies
    5. Self-Coaching
    6. Keep the Measuring
    7. Coaching Highlights

12. The Future of Coaching
    1. Practice Standardization
    2. Results Focused
    3. New Forms of Coaching
    4. Regulation
    5. Coaching through Technology
    6. Industry Trends
    7. Closing Thoughts
    8. Coaching Highlights

Coaching Program Design Checklist

The Good: Offering a tremendous of expertise both in terms of the reasons for coaching and some how to, the insights here are valuable for coaches and companies alike.

The Bad: For some it may come across as “salesy”. While there are lots of answers, some were foregone conclusions or intentions.

Conclusion: A very worthwhile read from industry leaders with excellent considerations and tips.