Jonathan Passmore (ed)

London: Kogan Page
222 pages. Paperback. £24.95
ISBN: 0-7494-4637-4

Reviewed by Clare Huffington

This book, which came about as a result of a conversation at an Association for Coaching event, brings together an illustrious group of authors, all top coaches and experts in their individual fields. In it they aim to set out what excellence currently means in the dynamic and evolving field of coaching. They cover this both in terms of presenting a diversity of models and approaches and in terms of setting out standards of professional practice to which we should all aspire. As an ‘industry guide’, it is written primarily for coaches rather than purchasers of coaching.

The book is divided into three parts. The first, called ‘The Business of Coaching’, covers ‘coaching basics’; ‘What is coaching?’ by Frank Bresser and Carol Wilson; ‘Coaching with organisations’ by Katherine Tulpa and ‘Running your coaching practice’ by Alex Szabo. It is intended for those starting or studying coaching or setting up a coaching practice.

The second part, called ‘Coaching Models and Approaches’ forms the bulk of the book. It contains a selection of eight of the most popular coaching models and approaches (actually six models followed by two approaches) with chapters by leading writers in each of these areas: ‘Behavioural coaching - the GROW model’ by Graham Alexander; Solution-focused coaching’ by Anthony M. Grant; ‘Cognitive-behavioural coaching’ by Michael Neenan; ‘NLP coaching’ by Ian McDermott; ‘Transpersonal coaching’ by John Whitmore and Hetty Einzig; ‘Integrative coaching’ by Jonathan Passmore; ‘Intercultural coaching’ by Philippe Rosinski and Geoffrey Abbott and ‘Coaching and stress’ by Maria Alicia Pena and Cary L. Cooper. The aim is that these chapters are practical and accessible and might lead coaches to develop their practice further both by reading and securing training.

The third part, called ‘Professional Issues’, covers ‘Coaching ethics: Integrity in the moment of choice’ by Allard de Jong and ‘Coaching supervision’ by Peter Hawkins. This section is aimed to take forward the debate in these areas.

Overall this is an impressive book, largely for the achievement of gathering together the luminaries in the field and producing a consistently organised, accessible and practical read for coaches. Particularly helpful was the repeated ‘10 questions to help you on your way’ at the end of each of the chapters on models.

However, with a title like Excellence in Coaching, I had expected a number of things I did not get;
1. More depth. The downside of the book’s accessibility and practicality was the lack of depth and debate in this complex field. An example would be the concern about the boundaries between coaching and psychotherapy / counselling and how to manage them. A key anxiety of those new to coaching is that they will stray into territory outside of a coaching remit which they feel ill equipped to tackle.
2. There was a significant omission in not including in Part 2 a chapter on the psychodynamic model. There were several mentions of the ‘unconscious’ and psychodynamic approaches (for example, in Jonathan Passmore’s chapter on Integrative coaching). But he was overly dismissive in this comment; ‘While many of the psycho-dynamic techniques may work well in the counselling room, they lack face validity for work with coaches and are less appropriate for the short and more focussed work of coaching’ (p.142). I have to declare a personal interest in the systems psychodynamic model in that my organisation runs a well-received training in this approach. It is now a popular rather than fringe model - there have been two books on the subject published in 2006 alone (Newton, J. Long, S. & Sievers, B.(Eds.) and Brunning, H. (Ed.)).
3. More was needed on professional practice and less on models/approaches. The big gaps in the field at present, and acknowledged by Passmore in the introduction to the book, are for outcome research, development of an agreed competency model, definition of coaching standards and agreed accreditation routes for coaches, coaching training and also for coaching supervision and supervision training. These issues are being seriously addressed by some practitioners in the field (for example, Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006, and Whybrow & Palmer, 2006). It would have been helpful if some of the key tensions and issues around defining coaching as a profession had been more fully set out.
4. I would also have liked to see more in Section 1 on ‘Why coaching?’ in terms of what needs it is meeting in organizations today. One of my clients said; ‘Coaching is the new organisational consultancy’. If this is true, coaches need a better understanding of the organisational issues that individuals are trying to fix via coaching as this sets a context for the huge growth of the market in the last 20 years. In my view, it is not just about personal development (Huffington, 2006). As well as covering how to sell yourself as a coach into organisations (Chapter 2 on ‘Coaching within organisations’ by Katharine Tulpa), it would have been helpful to hear more about what is going on in organisations at the moment and what their needs are overall and from key individuals in leadership roles so coaches can prepare themselves for what may be asked of them, both achievable and unachievable in a coaching frame.

However, no book on coaching can achieve all that is needed in this growing field. What is clear is that more scholarly as well as practically-based books are needed. I would recommend this one as a valuable primer and handbook for those new to the field.

Clare Huffington
Director,
The Tavistock Consultancy Service,
Centre Heights, 137 Finchley Road,
London NW3 6JG.

References

Brunning, H. (Ed.) (2006). Executive coaching: Systems psychodynamic approach. London: Karnac Books.

Fillery-Travis, A. & Lane, D. (2006). Does coaching work or are we asking the wrong question? International Coaching Psychology Review, 1(1), 23-37.

Huffington, C. (2006). Chapter 2, A contextualized approach to coaching. In H. Brunning (Ed.), Executive coaching: Systems psychodynamic approach. London: Karnac Books.

Newton, J., Long, S. & Sievers, B. (Eds.) (2006). Coaching in depth: The organisational role analysis approach. London: Karnac Books.

Whybrow, A. & Palmer, S. (2006). Taking stock: A survey of Coaching Psychologists’ practices and perspectives. International Coaching Psychology Review, 1(1), 56-71.