THINKaha: #COACHING tweet Book01 (PDF)

Mentor...teacher...guide...friend...a coach is all of these, and more. Sterling Lanier, author of '#COACHING tweet Book01', has decades of experience coaching CEOs and CEOs-in-the-wings, and knows that coaching is no secret or magical process. Rather it is the art of inspiring, encouraging and motivating people through active listening, by asking thoughtful and thought-provoking questions and helping to set ambitious but realistic goals and action plans. It is a journey of self discovery, as much for the coach as for the person being coached.

In the corporate world, a typical 'coaching' session consists of an annual manager or supervisor soliloquy in which the employee receives 'a mound of criticism sandwiched between two thin slices of praise.' Instead, as Sterling shares with us, coaching should consist of a series of frequent dialogs between employee and manager on the employee's goals, action plans, measurement milestones, alignment to corporate direction, and resources needed for improvement.

In '#COACHING tweet Book01', Sterling has distilled his practical experience into bite-sized insights on the power, practices and sheer joy of coaching. Individual sections cover coaching philosophy--coaching from the heart and being fully present in the moment--and coaching practices, which reveal the tools of the trade, including such subtleties as ensuring non-judgmental listening and peeling back the layers so that clients voice the hidden issues.

This little gem is written in the popular tweet format, which makes it easy to read but also, even more important, easy to immediately put to good use in your own work and life. As Sterling succinctly puts it, anyone can seize the opportunity to be a coach for someone--for a friend, a colleague, a business associate, even a family member or a child. #COACHING tweet sets you on the path to being a successful coach--here and now.

'#COACHING tweet Book01' is part of the THINKaha series whose 100-page books contain 140 well-thought-out quotes (tweets/ahas).