A COACHING BOOK

I hope that you are constantly reading books, journals, and articles about coaching. I am. Last week I read a new book with a great title, Unlocking Potential. The foreword was by the celebrity coach, Marshall Goldsmith. With his recommendation, how could you go wrong. But . . . the book does.

Now the author has an impressive background, which is one thing that motivated me to buy it. He is a senior consultant to FranklinCovey; he has “spent twenty-five years training executives to become effective coaches.” Yet the author, Michael Simpson, gives no indication about where the idea of unlocking potentials came from, not a single word about Abraham Maslow or Carl Rogers. It is as if the whole Human Potential Movement of the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s never existed. Now he does touch on key coaching skills—asking questions, seeking clarity, building empathy. That’s good.