Coaching for Performance: The principles and practice of coaching and leadership
John Whitmore and Tiffany Gaskell
John Murray Press (September 2024)

How to collaborate on your and others’ personal growth and professional development

This is the Sixth fully-updated edition of a book first published in 1992. According to John Whitmore and Tiffany Gaskell in the Introduction, “There is no one right way to coach, though professional standards have now been mapped out by the various associations of coaching. This book is no more than a companion to help you decide where you want to go and to introduce you to some routes toward your goal. You will have to explore the territory for yourself, since no one but you can begin to map the infinite variety in the landscape of human interplay in your life. The richness of that landscape can turn coaching and leadership into a personal and unique art form with which to decorate, appreciate, and enjoy your place of work.

The material in Coaching for Performance is carefully organized within five Parts and three Appendices. Whitmore and Gaskell address these questions:

o What is coaching and how can effective coaching help to create a high-performance culture?
o What are the basic principles of coaching?
o What are the essential components of coaching?
o What is the GROW Model?
o What are the specific applications of coaching?
o How can both coaches and those they coach maximize their potential (respective) benefits

There are a number of different versions of the GROW model. The following table presents one view of the stages but there are others. The “O” in this version has two meanings.

GOAL: This is the endpoint, where the client wants to be. The goal has to be defined in such a way that it is very clear to the client when they have achieved it.

REALITY: This is where the client is now. What are the issues, the baseline, and how far away is the client from their goal?

OBSTACLES: These now prevent the client from getting from where they are now to where they want to be. If there were no Obstacles the client would already have reached their goal. Once obstacles have been identified, the client needs to find ways of dealing with them if they are to make progress. These are the Options.

WAY FORWARD: Options then need to be converted into action steps that will take the client to their goal. These steps are the process or sequence to follow. The “W” of GROW can also include WHEN and by WHOM and the WILL (or intention or commitment) to achieve success.

“Individuals can evolve and transform their work and lives if they decide to embark on a personal developmental journey. Organizations can evolve and transform the work and lives of their people if they decide to embark on an organization-wide development journey. In practice the coaching process fosters evolution at every stage, for evolution emerges from within and can never be taught in prescriptive ways. Coaching is not teaching at all., it is about creating the conditions for learning and growing. Go for it!”

This is the best single source I know of that offers an abundance of invaluable information, insights, and counsel that can help coaches to improve what they do and how they do it. It can also help those in need of coaching to increase their understanding of what they learn, and, how effectively they then apply what they have learned.

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Coaching for Performance: First, highlight key passages Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and whatever you have learned that will be most helpful. Pay special attention to Appendix 2: “Coaching Question Toolkit.”

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite your frequent reviews of key material later.