Book Review: Coaching With Colleagues, Erik de Haan and Yvonne Burger

This is a really comprehensive and detailed analysis of the different approaches to coaching. It really "brings it all together". But more than this, the book sets out an agenda for a more integrative approach to coaching. Rather than promoting a narrowly defined proprietary method, it invites the reader to explore and combine different approaches.

It is particularly useful in grounding many of the coaching schools in the context of the various developments in psycho-therapy and counseling psychology. 

Book Review: Susan Greenfield, I.D. The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century

Professor Greenfield is one of the world's leading neuro-scientists. She is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. I had the great pleasure to meet her after a seminar at the leaders in London Conference in November, 2007. I was struck then by how she could relate complete scientific insights with a deep concern for humanity. This book takes this winning combination to a new level.

It is wonderfully informative about developments in modern brain science. But it provides a lot more. The book is really about what makes us human. Her thesis is that our brains are highly dynamic entities that constantly interact with, and are changed by our environment. She describes neural plasticity, and the  capacity of the mind to change and develop.

She writes: "The dynamics of the environment and the neuronal malleability give rise to an ever evolving identity, one that is unique and individual, yet an individuality that is constantly transforming".

No longer can we assume that our brains are "hard wired". Our minds are not fixed at birth. Our brain, mind and personality are part of a dynamic system that change throughout our lives. The implications for leadership and coaching are profound.  Minds can be nurtured and developed. The environment can foster minds that become more creative and intelligent. Through conversation, learning and experience we can continually develop ourselves.

At the same time, Professor Greenfield points out our identity is at risk. Technology advances present a series of ethical dilemmas as well as providing many obvious benefits. But more than this, she argues that our very connectedness and immersion in "wrap-around" web technologies can threaten our sense of who we really as people.

This book does more than just describe the threats. It inspires us to protect our humanity at all costs.

Book Review: The Smartest Guys In The Room, Bethany McClean, et al

Although the fall of Enron now seems old news, the book and movie are as relevant today as in 2003.

It is an insider expose of the macho, ego-driven ride to disaster. It also, as today, charts a tragedy. Many decent hardworking folk working for firms acquired by Enron lost their 401ks and a lot besides.

Unchecked risk, leaders without scruple, out-right lying about the real value of stocks - it's all here. On the movie you can here the Enron traders cynically manipulating California's energy prices to max-out on profits.

It also shows how Enron innovated the very credit instruments that formed the heart of the 2008-09 sub-prime crisis. In my view, we have lived through one continuous crisis, starting in 2003, the alleviation of which caused the bubble of 2008.

The book neatly integrates the sequence of events and links to a psychological interpretation, referencing the infamous Milligram experiments, showing just how far people will go to follow the orders of authoritarian leaders.

The book also works as a story of how one female journalist and one female whistle-blower brought down the stack of cards.

Book Review: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing, Leszek Kolakowski

This is a wonderful and very readable book. It is a long way from the dry and jargon ridden books on philosophy that I had to endure at college. It is written with the general reader in mind and with beautiful economy, clarifies questions raised by the great philosophers. I found it a particularly useful resource to understand philosophical approaches to human motivation.

As the book is divided neatly into chapters for each great philosopher, it is easy to skip the material you don't find as relevant and move on.

It is a book that promotes thoughtful reflection and that has to be a useful thing in this day and age.

What's it all about?

Book Review: Psychology of Executive Coaching, Bruce Peltier

Surely one of the best books on Executive Coaching and a milestone in coaching literature for providing an integrative approach to psychotherapy and business coaching. While most coaching literature tries to show how they're different, Pelitier successfully argues that psychotherapy and psychodynamic approaches have an important application in coaching.

There are important and very practical sections on defensiveness, avoidance, etc, useful to all business leaders, I think. I reflected that few of us realize our debt to Freud when we use phrases in the everyday such as "He's defensive"; "She has a big ego"; "Look at how he projects himself".

What attracted me was his criticism of lightweight coaching approaches that have no basis in how personality is formed and developed and as a result lapse into glib superficialities. At the same time, he recognizes the danger of introducing psychotherapy to the coaching and business arena:"The trick is to integrate "analytic" or dynamic thinking into coaching without pathologizing the client relationship".

As he makes clear, executive coaching is the perfect vehicle to do this. Executive coaches are trained to produce results while recognizing the independence and autonomy of the client.

A good read and a useful reference.