Coaching from A to Z and back again

Written by an experienced coach, mentor and mediator, this book is perfect for developing your coaching skills by drawing on ideas, tools and models to help you engage in effective coaching conversations.

It takes ideas from a variety of approaches to coaching and explores issues such as ethics, coaching as a line manager, boundaries and qualifications/accreditation. It summarises key ideas from the literature on management, leadership, psychology and personal effectiveness, as well as coaching.

Written in 52 short accessible chapters from A to Z and back again, it is a clear and engaging guide that can be read from beginning to end, or dipped in to as appropriate. Critical questions throughout help the reader  to reflect on their own knowledge and apply it to their work or studies.  This book is ideal for students on coaching programmes, people working as a coach, consultants, learning and development practitioners, and managers at all levels from supervisor to director. 

A

Awareness + Responsibility = Performance

ABCDE model. CBC and Acceptance and commitment coaching

B

Boundaries

Being a coach

 C

Culture

Contracting and confidentiality

D

Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There

Debate and dialogue

 E

Emotional intelligence

Ethics

 F

Feedback

Facilitation

G

GROW model

Growing People

 H

How to Coach How not to coach

 I

The inner game of coaching

Impostor syndrome

Judgement Journey

Kolb learning cycle Kantor’s languages. Meetings

 L

Listening

Letting go

 M

Mentoring

Managing people – coaching as a line manager

 N

Note taking and keeping Neuroscience and the Chimp Paradox

O

I’m OK, You’re OK

Objectives, obstacles, options and outcomes

P 

Playing back

Psychometrics

 Q

Questioning

Qualifications and accreditation

R

Coaching as a relationship

Rich pictures (and other tools?)

 S

Supervision

Solution-focused coaching

 T

Teams

Time management

U

Understanding Yourself and Others

Use of self

 V

Voicing

Values in Action. Positive Psychology

W

Writing

Why?

X 

Xtraverts and Introverts

Xploring metaphors

Y

Theory Y and Theory X

Your own practice

Z

Zoom

Zone of proximal development

Bob Thomson is a Professor at Warwick Business School, an experienced and accredited coach and supervisor of coaching, and a workplace mediator. He collaborated with the University of Warwick Wellbeing Services team to deliver a series of webinars to help line managers support their staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. He has worked as a volunteer counsellor and as a Samaritan. He is the author of a number of books on coaching and learning from experience.

He was previously Leadership Development Manager at National Grid Transco. Before moving into coaching and management development he worked as an economist for eleven years with British Steel and ICI. Bob has degrees in maths, in economics and in management learning. He also has Certificates in counselling, coaching, supervision, and mediation.