When I played high school basketball I was naturally good at anything that involved jumping high — layups, blocking shots, jump balls, etc. However, I was not a natural at aggressively gaining possession of the ball, which was pretty much essential to helping my team put points on the board.
So, my coach pulled me aside and directed a more aggressive upper-classman to work with me on catching hard-thrown passes, capturing rebounds, and scrambling for loose balls. Those were all fundamentals I could practice on my own, but Coach understood the value of ‘iron sharpening iron”.
The following coaching resources will help you with self-coaching and with honing your skills in coaching others.
However, they are not intended to take the place of an active coaching relationship in which you are the one being sharpened. Either way, any one of the following will help you cut through accumulated mental, emotional, and behavioral clutter that prevents you from becoming your best self, or, as a coach, help you do the same for others.
- “Who Moved My Cheese?”, by Spencer Johnson, MD
- An elegant fable on avoiding “We’ve always done it that way” thinking.
- “Integrity, The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality”, by Dr. Henry Cloud
- Practical insights for before the going gets tough.
- 100 Most Powerful Life Coaching Questions at Life-Coaching-Questions
- Whether you ask them of yourself or others, they are worth asking.
- “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”, by Marshall Goldsmith
- Insights and exercises on getting from better to your best.
- “Coaching for Performance” by Sir John Whitmore
- One of the primary resources on how to bring out the best in others.
It is easy to forget that the best of the best seek out coaching on a regular basis. They do so because they do not want to merely “get by”. Some do so because they are aggressively competitive. That’s still not me. However, I do want to be and do my best for the sake of others, their own development, and their good works. So, I remain in need of an appropriately present “upper-classman” capable of helping me grasp and gain possession of pivotal awareness and insights.
Read our recommended organization coaching resources, as they will serve as a guide for you when you coach team members in your organization. If you see that need for yourself, contact TurningWest – Your Guide to a healthy culture and human work systems which work best when run by well-coached team members.
