The Art of Strengths Coaching: the Complete Guide

Perfect for my wife's work.

This is a great book. It combines a history of the Strengths and Positive Psychology movement with summaries of the key figures and their contributions. You may be surprised by the depth of the historical roots of the philosophy, this review really allowed me to appreciate the foundations and inspired me to continue exploring the approach with my coaching clients. It provides sufficient information to allow the reader to build a foundation of knowledge in the history of the subject and also points to sources of further, more detailed research.Part 2 of the book has two components, how to coach people to recognise and build on their strengths and how to apply the strengths approach to develop teams and organisations. These sections provide a thorough and comprehensive toolkit. Each tool is set out clearly in an overall framework and in a way that facilitates understanding and application.I have been coaching with the Strengths approach for several years and have embedded the philosophy as the core feature of my practice. This book is one that never leaves my desk, I dip into it on a daily basis and use the exercises to allow my clients to recognise their strengths and potential which delivers powerful results.This book truly describes the Art of Strengths Coaching and the author's enthusiasm, passion and expertise shines through every page.

This is three books in one...First comes a summary of the strengths `tradition' - a look at the people that helped set the stage way back with influencers in education like Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) who believed that education should help people fulfil their potential, through to the modern day with Marcus Buckingham in strengths and Martin Seligman in Positive Psychology. Each short section includes their principles and contribution to the strengths approach.The second of the books in one is about helping individuals build on their strengths. It's intensely practical - here are the exact steps (the presentation slides even) and questions to ask, it's like sitting in a coaching session.The last of the books, actually the second section of Part II, is about working with teams and organisations: `The Art of Helping People to Build Super Teams'. It starts with the process of working with leaders and progresses to the teams themselves. Again, this is a practical step-by-step approach - it's a framework to take leaders and teams through.The Art of Strengths Coaching covers a lot of ground from the foundations of strengths through to building super teams. But, fundamentally it's a practical book, a toolkit, that keen leaders, coaches or trainers can use to inform their own approach.Worth adding to your repertoire.

Shouting at a flower won't make it grow, Instead, a flower needs light from the sun, nourishment from the earth and water from the sky in order to thrive and blossom.Mike knows the same underlying principles hold true for people and this book takes you on a journey to success.It starts by paying homage to the wise souls who planted the first seeds for understanding that human development is centered on the inner spirit. This spirit moves effortlessly in the direction of strengths and struggles when obsessing over weaknesses.You need to know these pioneers and the depth of their ideas in order to be effective as a coach and Mike captures their essence and life purpose quickly and efficiently.Grounded in this unconventional wisdom, you can act to help others through practice and Mike makes this easy by conveying simple and effective models that help individuals and teams become successful by building on strengths.Great coaches bring out the greatness in others through compassionate discipline. Success is a by-product of this nurturing process.The not so obvious weakness of this book is it doesn't explicitly ask prospective coaches to search for their inner light first.However, it is hard not to do this if you take the messages from the pioneers seriously. They are great and inspiring thinkers who turned their thoughts into action and serve as role models for all of us.

Mike's life is in this impressive tome. Could almost be his autobiography, as it incorporates everything he has learned about coaching and mentoring people, setting up superteams, identifying and building on strengths and leading the positive life. In addition to a myriad of tools that you can use as a consultant or individual there is a very comprehensive 130 page history of the philosophy and principles of the world of strengths coaching. Every contributor to the strengths world including some you may not have heard of are included here. Here is a resource for individuals, teams and organisations. In fact after this book there is not much else to say about the subject! Which is probably why it is very large indeed!