Brief reviews of books that are enriching my coaching
Beauty in Leadership and Coaching and its role in transforming human consciousness, Peter Hawkins, Routledge 2025
It doesn’t take long for a new coach to discover the work of Peter Hawkins. I met him first in the realm of coaching supervision and the seven-eyed supervision model celebrating its 40-year history of supporting coaches to reflect on the relationships within themselves, with others and with wider systems and how these relationships live in coaching moments.
In recent times Hawkins has become curious, with others, in exploring how coaching can engage the ‘more than human’ world in the web of relationships. There has been emerging reflection on the ecological realities that humans rely on to sustain our lives.
In this book Hawkins begins to refine this thinking. In Chapter 12: ‘Beauty in the art of coaching’, he creates a framework that encourages that we recognize the beauty of the environment where we coach; that coaching be generative for the client and their wider span of influence including everything that is alive – ‘the more than human world’; and be in ‘deep time’, time that recognizes the impact of our actions on future generations.
This approach has the possibility of broadening the scope of coaching and challenges the ‘norms’ of our social systems on many levels. What possible level of influence could this have for your clients?
This is an important work and dare I suggest readding this book at any stage of our coaching journey.
Thinking of ‘deep time’ engage in this now and don’t wait until another time!
October 14, 2025
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the art of holding space a practice of love, liberation, and leadership, Heather Plett, Page Two, 2020.
I recently finished reading this book, for the second time. There is something compelling about the creation of ‘space’ where two or more people experience something unique and possibly transformative in their lives. This book speaks of transformation as a gift of a connection that is unexpected and deep and expansive.
The truth of the previous sentence is that we sometimes hear the promise of ‘transformation’ from coaching. I think that this is a false promise!
At its core ‘holding space as an art’ is about people coming together as fully alive and vulnerable human beings (as much as this is possible) in a place of awareness and hope, without expectation and with acceptance. This is an ‘ego free zone’ that lets go of the self to receive whatever is there. The idea of ‘liminal space’ the threshold between what we know and what we do not know, speaks to the space where transformation is possible.
This may be a way to describe the detachment that is within the core competencies of masterful coaching. How much are coaches attached to their promise of transformation?
In its essence this book, while using group work as a frame of reference, speaks to the personal work that comes with becoming a coach who meets clients in the process of doing their personal work. The coach’s role is to create the container for this meeting. This book provides a rich resource for coaches in all domains to do this work and be better prepared to hold space for their clients. At the core it is about being unattached to our ideas so that new ideas can emerge. This could have the promise of transformation.
I highly recommend this valuable resource.
September 7, 2025
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Presencing 7 Practices for Transforming Self, Society, and Business, C. Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer, Barrett-Koehler, 2025
Based in the theoretical framework of Theory U, this book brings to life a hope for the future that arises when we intentionally focus on deep change that engages the person, the social system and the conscious impact of business on the present and possible future. Presencing is a practice of deepening and broadening consciousness so that we can experience the interconnectedness of the systems that touch us. It challenges us to bring to consciousness an emerging future that will be inclusive of eco-systems and our part in sustaining these for the future.
This is a significantly under-used and refreshing way ‘to see’. It implies letting go of the frame of reference that created realities like pending climate catastrophes or food insecurity and embracing a frame of reference that looks at ‘the we’ rather than ‘the me’. We also see that personal and global realities such as the climate crisis are connected to a history of short-term thinking from the ‘me’ approach to business resulting in exploitation on many levels.
So why this book for coaches? One of the gifts of coaching is deep listening that can identify unconscious experience and create an ‘emerging future’ where the client (and the coach) engage in creating the possibility of change. Presencing engages listening; listening engages emerging thoughts; emerging thoughts engages the possibility of change that benefits being in our eco-system. Sounds like the possibility of positive coaching to me!
August 5, 2025
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Stamped from the Beginning The definitive history of racist ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi, originally published in 2016, 2023 Bold Type Books, New York.
How to be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi, originally published in 2019, 2023 One World Trade Paperback Edition.
In a wholehearted response to these works by Ibram X. Kendi, I am called into identifying myself as a white, male of European descent, and a part of the dominant race in my world (I could go on). I have lived in a predominantly white part of the world surrounded by ample evidence of the history and story identified in these books. For example, the view from where I sit as I write this, includes an area of Nova Scotia given as ‘farmland’ to African people who came to Nova Scotia with their British Loyalist owners from the United States in the 18th century. The fact that it is and seems to have always been rocky land and it is currently being encroached upon by land developers continues the story of oppression and white supremacy that Kendi explains so well.
So why these books for coaches? Credentialed coaches have pledged to coach the ‘whole person’ living in the context of their history, cultural influences and relationship to power in our world. I am coming to see that there are two essential parts to being in coaching relationships: a clear commitment to a growing understanding of who we are as a result of the culture we embody and how this impacts who we are as a coach; and a sense of cultural humility that keeps us aware that we do not know what we have not lived – and we have not lived the lives of our clients. These approaches to being a ‘whole person’ coach apply to all of our coaching and a commitment to ‘embodying a coaching mindset’ can be enhanced by gaining historical cultural perspectives and owning our own part in the culture that exists, and we desire for the future.
July 16, 2025
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Becoming an ICF Credentialed Coach, The Journey to ACC, PCC and MCC – Practice Insights from ICF Assessors, Jonathan Passmore and Judit Abri von Bartheld and 35 contributors, Libri Publishing, 2024.
If you are a coach who seeks to coach beyond competence to become one who meets your clients in a space that allows for generative discovery and growth, then this is a book for you.
If you are a coach who is looking for an expansive view of the ICF Core Competencies and how you can coach with all of who you are, take the time to read Section 2, a detailed review of coaching at the ACC, PCC and MCC levels.
Regardless of where you are in your coaching journey, Section 3 offers provocative insights into the mindsets, practices, approaches and presence of the book’s contributors. These short pieces could become a daily point of reflection for any coach. They offer depth and breadth to what the practice of coaching could be.
The two articles in Section 1 offer valuable insight into the mindset of an assessor and the spirit of the benchmark PCC Markers. These helpful articles provide a foundation for the deeper reflection that the rest of the book encourages to evolve as coaches.
This book takes our understanding of coaching far beyond the notion of transaction and moves us to deeper dialogue and relationship in coaching practice.
An excellent resource for coaches, mentor coaches, coach supervisors and coach educators.
December 3, 2024
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Systemic Coaching Delivering Value Beyond the Individual, Peter Hawkins and Eve Turner. Routledge 2020.
This is a comprehensive and integrated book that encourages the practice of coaching the person in their multi-faceted context. While it seems obvious that the individuals we coach are in relational situations this book offers a shift from the obvious to the imperative. Focus on the individual is limited; acknowledgement and curiosity about the systems the individual inhabits expands the possibilities to generate wider and deeper impact from a coaching relationship. The authors explore coaching in organizations, they recognize that the coach needs to attend to the individual and the organization; see from a relational and interconnected perspective; acknowledge that the organizational system is related to other systems, that are parts of still broader systems; that the coach is also part of their own system; and, that ultimately to be impactful coaching needs to be aware of what and how we focus on all of these relationships (Chapter 3). This brief synopsis seems like a complicated approach. It is and it is necessary!
The authors invite the reader to listen to experiences from coaches and thought leaders to expand their, and our, view of being coaches who see and relate systemically.
There is an acknowledgement that coaches are part of systems and that we need to be aware, acknowledging and mindful of the limitations of our relationships and how they influence our view of the world.
I believe that this is an important work and an important resource for serious coaches.
I am unclear; however, if the value delivered to organizations is so that they can maintain their power and position in a system that focuses on individual power. Is there room and intention to challenge the systems that hold some in positions of power over others resulting in systemic racism, global poverty etc? In the end I am still left wondering how coaching can become an agent of global equity and inclusion.
November 5, 2024
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Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in Coaching, A Practical Guide, Salma Shah. Kogan Page, 2022.
In my little world I often wonder how I can make the coaching experience meaningful and engaging for clients with cultural experiences that differ from mine. I do believe that the ICF Core Competencies https://coachingfederation.org/credentials-and-standards/core-competencies when lived fully, can create the space for dialogue that can be inclusive and beneficial for clients. Yet I find this to be an engagement that continuously refines my coaching presence with each client.
The book Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in Coaching, A Practical Guide by Salma Shah is a gem found along my 2024 coaching journey. Shah’s voice speaks cultural relevance into the ICF competencies. Shah offers both context and challenge to support reframing typical coaching assumptions and how they can impact coaching relationships.
Each chapter of this book places the ICF call to embody a coaching mindset in a new light. For example, the chapter on Resilience begins with ‘As coaches we need to redefine our understanding of resilience from the lens of someone from a minority group. Resilience is a complex dynamic, with many multiple layers, specifically from the perspective of someone who has had no choice but to stay strong to survive’ (121). These sentences alone contextualize the challenge to know ourselves, be open and non-judgemental, step into spaces that are new and unknown and to be present without attachment to our views of what is going on for the client. They express a view of how we see clients and invite us to critically reflect on the idea of our ‘clients are resourceful and whole’. Resourcefulness and wholeness take on new meaning when seen in the lived experience of the client.
Shah invites us to be curious about ourselves and our clients with eyes open to seeing with new lenses.
If you are serious about hearing diverse voices to inform your coaching presence, I encourage you to hear Salma Shah’s voice and the voices she includes in this book.
October 15, 2024
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Ecological and Climate-Conscious Coaching A Companion Guide to Evolving Coaching Practice. Edited by Alison Whybrow, Eve Turner and Josie McLean, with Peter Hawkins. Routledge, 2023.
This is a book that I waited too long to read! It was brought to my attention on two occasions by one of the editors. The most recent time when I was inquiring about research related to social systems / justice and coaching.
As soon as I began reading, I found myself engaged in the story of a conversation that explores how coaching can become an agent of change. This conversation holds both the core principles of coaching: inquiry, partnership, invitation, listening, expansive exploration and action and the challenge of coaching in a world impacted and threatened by the climate crisis. It creates a space that challenges the status-quo by inviting coaches to become agents for social change. The fact that coaching is dominated by a white western world view is acknowledged and some voices of coaches and thought leaders with diverse experience are included. The key question of ‘neutrality’ in coaching takes on a new light (p. 39) when clients are invited to look beyond the individual perspective to diverse, systemic, ‘desire for the future’ and sustainability lenses. (the above is an oversimplification of a few points).
I believe that this book will stand as a significant influence in shifting coaching practice to include global concerns and the environment that we inhabit and impact. It is a call to responsibility that stretches a coaching mindset to become more inclusive, curious and engaging. It creates possibilities for coaches to support leaders to see the impact that is possible when we explore leading with the other than human world in mind.
As I reflect on this book, I am left wondering what possibilities will arise that will provoke the ‘global north’ (me) to listen to the voices of coaches and thought leaders from the ‘global south’ where the impact of climate change is most evident.
I encourage you to get engaged in this conversation.
September 25, 2024
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Ubuntu Coaching and Connection Practices for Leader-Managers Selected practices to grow your team in a fast-changing world. Dumisani Magadleda PhD edited by Sunny Stout-Rostron. KR Publishing, 2023.
I came across this book while looking for information about coaching in parts of the world other than North America and the United Kingdom. The term ‘ubuntu’ was somewhat familiar to me so my interest was piqued to understand more.
The gift of this book is that it invites readers into a culture that is steeped in connectedness. Ubuntu ‘I am because we are’ places relationship at the foundation of living together. It builds shared vision and recognizes that excluding others limits the possibilities of any vision because it limits the fullness of the community. Coaching with a ubuntu perspective ‘… is about seeing and feeling the humanity and greatness of others as part of the coach’s interconnected social system and human ecosystem’ (xii). This is about coaching the whole person in the community and realizing possibilities that generate change for all.
Magadleda has taken the time to demonstrate how ubuntu can live in organizations and in the actions of leaders which reminded me that it is not what we know but how we live in relationships with others that makes lasting change in the world. This approach implies a need to shift our view of power in leadership.
After experiencing this book, I am left with a challenge to see the whole, the unified view, by how I recognize the humanness of myself and others. From my perspective this living world view shift could lead to a more inclusive, communal and person-centered world.
And of course, I recommend this book.
September 12, 2024