The coaching style of leadership is one of the styles highlighted in The New Leaders (The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership, by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee) as highly effective in creating high performance teams. The outstanding leader needs to know how to coach those he or she leads. The books below are just a few of the many great books available to support leaders in developing their coaching style.

Coaching Skills for Leaders in the Workplace: How to Develop, Motivate and Get the Best from Your Staff
Jackie Arnold

This book is tailored for leaders in the workplace and draws on a variety of sources to provide a comprehensive and practical guide for leaders who want to develop their coaching style. This is a “how to” book which covers all the bases.

From Coach to Awakener
Robert Dilts

Dilts’ thought-provoking book highlights the wide range of forms that coaching can take, from helping individuals to acquire a new skill right through to sponsoring the individual in understanding who they are and awakening their awareness of the wider system in which they live and work. This book is for leaders and coaches who want to deepen their understanding of the full range of forms that coaching can take.

Sleight of Mouth
Robert Dilts

It’s not because of the limitations of our circumstances that we get “stuck”. Rather, our perspective or “map” can prevent us from seeing ways forward. Coaching is often a matter of helping people to see old information in new ways. Sleight of Mouth draws on what we know about some of the most effective leaders to offer ways of using language to open up new ways of looking at things. An invaluable resource for the leader as coach.

Coaching: Evoking Excellence In Others
James Flaherty

Coaching is a journey of mutual learning and growth – a two-way relationship. Flaherty’s practical guidance is rooted in a clear understanding of the mutuality of the coaching relationship.

The Coaching Bible: The Essential Handbook
Ian McDermott & Wendy Jago

The Coaching Bible aims both to make the case for coaching and to offer practical guidance to help the coach to make the most of what coaching can offer. It is as valuable for the leader as coach as it is for the professional coach.

The Portable Coach: 28 Sure-fire Strategies for Business and Personal Success
Thomas J. Leonard

Leonard is often cited as the father of modern-day coaching so his book is something of a classic. For the leader as coach (as well as for the professional coach) this book offers a way to coach oneself and this in turn makes for far greater authenticity in coaching others.

Fierce Conversations
Susan Scott

Coaching is about courage as well as compassion. Fierce Conversations reflects the author’s belief that a single conversation can change the course of a career, marriage or life, showing readers how to have conversations that count. A powerful tool for the leader as coach.

Coaching for Performance: GROWing People, Performance and Purpose
John Whitmore

Whitmore’s GROW model has been widely adopted and is often shared in training programmes for leaders in the workplace. Whitmore identifies coaching as an essential leadership skill as well as providing practical approaches for the leader as coach.

Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Life and Work
Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sandahl

Even when you are coaching as a leader, you are entering into a relationship with those you lead which is based on mutual consent. This book offers clear guidance on the nature of the coaching relationship as well as many practical approaches.