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Book Corner
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
Reviewed by Gary McCoy
Building a coaching habit will help your team be more self-sufficient by increasing their autonomy and “ sense of mastery and by reducing your need to jump in, take over and become the bottleneck.” That’s just one of several great quotes from the “Coaching Habit” by Michael Bungay Stanier.
Stanier is the founder of Box of
Crayons, “a learning and development company with over 17 years of experience creating and delivering practical learning experiences that unleash the power of curiosity to create connected and engaged company cultures,” according to the company’s website.
The essence of the book is to teach leaders to up their coaching skills. How is this done? Stanier argues it’s the art of avoiding advice-giving and to focus instead on the art of curiosity. Stanier’s book is relatively short and full of practical wisdom. He focuses on seven core The essence of the book is to teach leaders to up their coaching skills. How is this done? Stanier argues it’s the art of avoiding advice-giving and to focus instead on the art of curiosity.
questions to help build a leader’s habit of curiosity.
The kickstart question: “What’s on your mind?” The awe question: “And what else?” The focus question: “What’s the real challenge here for you?” The lazy question: “How can I help?” The foundation question: “What do you want?” The strategic question: “If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?” The learning question: “What was most useful for you?”
The book highlights these seven questions and Stanier provides the necessary context and insights on how they work and why they are useful. My only quibble is that the author can be repetitive at times.
If I could summarize the point of this book it would be: “Shut up and listen.” It is a great habit that all of us could develop. n
