Adaptive Coaching

By Terry R. Bacon and Karen I. Spear Davies-Black, 2003, 339 pages

List price: $39.95, ISBN: 0-89106-187-8

In Adaptive Coaching, coaching experts Terry R. Bacon and Karen I. Spear insist there is "a crying need for coaches to be more adaptive," tailoring their coaching approaches to individual clients' needs. In a survey of more than 2,000 coaching clients, they found that 56 percent said coaching wasn't helping them become more effective. A mismatch of coaching style and client need is often the reason for failure, they say.

This volume is a detailed handbook aimed at current or would-be coaches. The authors walk the coach through situations, providing specific questions to ask both one's client and oneself. Sample dialogues throughout the book illustrate right and wrong ways to elicit information, guide clients to come up with their own answers or confront clients. Special sections discuss coaching people from different cultures, women, Generation X employees and baby boomers.

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Bacon and Spear, both of the consulting firm Lore International Institute headquartered in Durango, Colo., show how to assess clients' needs. Is the client ready and willing to be coached? What does the client expect? What are your own coaching experiences? Coach and client must negotiate expectations, such as goals, where and how often to meet, and confidentiality issues.

Coaches learn how to unearth the real issues underlying clients' immediate workplace problems. For example, a client who feared public speaking at work wasn't stressed about public speaking overall, as it first appeared; he easily addressed community and church groups. His coach's questioning drew out the real issue, his lack of passion for his work.

A section on adapting coaching to clients' needs helps coaches determine their natural style, such as directive coaching, which tells the client the coach's strong viewpoint, and nondirective coaching, which asks rather than tells and guides rather than directs.

Chapters on skills cover how to initiate coaching sessions, keeping ethical limits on dialogue with clients--such as not offering advice where you don't have expertise or not divulging the client's comments--and developing listening skills such as picking up on nonverbal clues.

Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement by SHRM or HR Magazine.

COMPILED BY LEIGH RIVENBARK, A FREE-LANCE WRITER AND EDITOR BASED IN VIENNA, VA.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Society for Human Resource Management
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group