“The Coaching Connection: A Manager’s Guide to Developing Individual
Potential in the Context of the Organization”
By Paul J. Gorrell, Ph.D. and John Hoover, Ph.D.;
AMACON Books, New York, New York; 2009;
266 pages; $29.95.

Just in case you’ve been totally distracted by the financial events of the past 18 months, there has been renewed emphasis in mid-sized and larger companies on coaching. This time around there’s a difference. In past years most of the emphasis on coaching has been on the “how-we-do-things-around-here” approach. The focus is now on developing leadership qualities, beginning shortly after a likely candidate is hired.
The co-authors, Gorrel and Hoover, don’t truly come down on one side or the other of the ultimate question about leadership. That question is whether true leadership traits can actually be taught or even coached into existence. The most they are willing to infer on that topic is that leadership is probably a combination of natural abilities which can be refined into practical skills through good coaching. It’s not clear whether that’s a useful inference or not.
Far more useful to management coaches and coaching consultants is the authors’ approach to the coaching process, which they call the “Contextual Coaching” Process, which blends the individual being coached within the context of a single corporate culture. The authors define this as:
“The Contextual Coaching process provides leadership development to everyone who shows potential. All growth and development of your coaching clients take place within the context of the organization. As the coaching progresses, the identity, agenda, and priorities of your clients begin to merge with those of the organization, resulting in more continuity and consistent alignment between the organization’s needs, the clients’ needs, and ultimately your clients’ performance.”
Initially, it may be confusing to understand the terms “clients” and “co-clients” used throughout the book. Keep in mind that the authors are consultants, and when they refer to clients, they are talking about two entities. First, there is the organization (and its managers) who hire coaching consultants. Second, there is the individual (or team) within an organization who receives the coaching.
One of the most interesting areas of the book deals with what the authors call the “Area of Behavioral Focus: Culture.” They make the point that organizational culture is likely to be the single most important factor in making coaching effective. As they put it:
“For the individual and for the organization, culture is in control. But is culture an independent power that influences us and takes us to places we never intended to go, or is culture merely a reflection of our own collective biases, behaviors, beliefs, and values? That debate will need to play out in another forum.
“What we are looking at now, from a high-level perspective, is the fact that culture encompasses everything in the organization. If you think of an organization as a physical, carbon-based, biological body, culture would be the DNA. The good thing about culture, though, is the fact that, unlike DNA, it can be re-engineered.”
Here’s one example of what they mean. If a culture honors and rewards only short-term performance and not long-term planning, there’s likely to be very little long-term planning. More likely, long-term planning will then consist of individually selling the most profitable segments of the company and laying off everyone. That’s a plan that corporate executives can only do once and is not normally considered an example of good organizational leadership.
“The Coaching Connection” is primarily directed to independent human resources and talent management consulting companies. Most of the “how to” information is directed to them. If you’re in that category, or possibly a human resources specialist for a large company, the book is a good first step in leadership coaching.

-- Henry Holtzman

Here are the current top 10 bestselling books for business. The list is compiled based on information received from retail bookstores throughout the U.S.A.

1. “SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance,”
by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner (HarperCollins…$29.99) (5)*
The author of “Freakonomics” strikes again.
2. “Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves”
(Penguin Group…$32.95) (2)
Does the size of a failing company dictate government rescue?
3. “How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud,”
by Ken Fisher (John Wiley & Sons…$24.95) (1)*
When an investment seems too good to be true, it usually is.
4. “In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic,”
by David Wessel (Crown Publishing…$17.54) (3)
What happened in “the Fed” during 2008 and 2009.
5. “Outliers: The Story of Success,”
by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown & Co…$27.99) (4)
Why the cause of success can be linked to where you were born.
6. “The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System,”
by Charles Gasparino (HarperCollins…$27.99) (8)
How greed and incompetence brought the financial system down.
7. “Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity,”
by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton & Co…$27.95) (6)
How underpricing financial risks led to economic catastrophe.
8. “The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters,”
by Alexander Green (Wiley & Sons…$26.95) (7)
A road map to a rich life with or without lots of money.
9. “The Madoff Chronicles: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth,”
by Brian Ross (Hyperion…$19.99) (9)
How Bernard Madoff made the original Ponzi scheme look small.
10. “Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan,”
by Suze Orman (Spiegel & Grau…$9.99) (10)
Suze offers her classic advice for survival in tough times.

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*(1) -- Indicates a book's previous position on the list.
** -- Indicates a book's first appearance on the list.