Pearson Business The Coaching Manual: The Definitive Guide to The Process, Principles and Skills of Personal Coaching

This book is one of the few on Life Coaching that actually talks your language and gives you straight-up all you need to start coaching with confidence.

My life coach recommended this book, and it is well worth the investment.

Halfway through and I’m loving it

Very detailed facts/information for your coaching career

I originally came across Julie Starr via her free online coaching toolkit which provides a treasure trove of useful resources for any coach. I figured that any author who was willing to provide such good resources for free would be worth paying to read – and so it proved.Where Julie Starr’s The Coaching Manual (TCM) differs from many similar guides, including the very good Coaching Skills by Jenny Rogers, is in its relentless practicality. It really feels like a manual – a much needed practical handbook for coaches and the best on the market. It was the book I took with me on my first few coaching assignments to guide me (not in the sessions themselves!). I still refer to its two key chapters, “Coaching conversations: the coaching path” and “Coaching assignment: structure and process” whenever I’m structuring a new assignment and I can imagine using it happily for the rest of my coaching career.In just under 350 pages (including the excellent Appendix and Toolkit), the book manages to be helpfully systematic without ever being unhelpfully prescriptive. It also manages to address both the “being” and doing” aspects of coaching with equal insight and clarity. It includes exercises and case studies to help coaches build their awareness and skills as well as checklists that are gold dust for both the new and the experienced coach. It also has a series of coach – client dialogues which help illustrate points in a dynamic and incredibly helpful way. While’s there’s a good chapter on becoming a coach there’s not a huge amount on the business of coaching, although, given how quickly such information dates, that may be a wise choice.Julie Starr’s tone is never patronising or hectoring. She never pushes a particular style or school of coaching; she never mentions GROW, Gestalt, NLP or psychometrics; she is just keen that those reading the book grow in their skills and confidence and ability to serve their clients. Even though she is clearly passionate about coaching, Starr doesn’t load the book with lots of autobiographical detail which, in other books, so often ends up being prescriptive unintentionally.When I was thinking of going into coaching full time, I embarked on a pretty comprehensive review of available resources. My budget was tight so I was rigorous in my search for the best, most useful material. Along with Coaching for Performance, The Coaching Manual was one of the first books I bought and it has been one of the most worthwhile investments I’ve made in developing as a coach.Whilst I can be a bit wary of “If there were just one book…” reviews, I agree with John Whitmore’s review that TCM is “the most comprehensive book on the practice of coaching that I have ever come across.”

I loved the 1st edition of this book. Great content and very nicely laid out. Easy to read. This 4th edition is awful. They reduced the width of book by just over an inch. The added more text. And made the print very small. Very long paragraphs which make it hard to read. The left side of pages are way over to right so hugging the middle bend of book.. leaving a lot of white space to left of page. I have over 100 books on various business, coaching etc.. this is the worst print job of them all making it almost useless to read. I'm finding I'm just avoiding it and going back to the original 1st edition as it's actually easy to read.