Category:

This Breakthrough Coaching book provides the essential skills for using reflective inquiry supported by resources and exercises so you can open people's minds and transform their thinking in a way that they can't do in self-reflection. Shifts are made in both identity and reality. This process ensures long-term change both in perception and action. With active support over time, the new ways of thinking and behaving become the typical way of doing things, at least until the next breakthrough experience.

THE BREAKTHROUGH COACHING PROGRAM

The book complements the coach training program I deliver online for Coaching.com, formally known as the World Business & Executive Coach Summit. I delivered my first breakthrough coaching program in 2020. To my delight, over 27,500 people registered to watch my masterclass promoting the program, with nearly 14,000 showing up in person, and many more watched the recording. I am humbled, grateful, and sincerely convinced of the power of coaching to transform minds, hearts, and actions.

The breakthrough coaching program is now in a self-study format, so people around the world can access the material at any time of day, as many times as they desire. The program is supported by a live global learning community where coaches gather to do exercises, practice coaching, and discuss what they are learning. I do live Q & A sessions and coaching demonstrations in support of the programs as well.

What's next? That's the question the coaches frequently ask. We are offering an advanced Breakthrough Coaching program starting in 2024 to provide advanced coach training and the opportunity to practice the exercises suggested in this book plus two or three additional exercises aligned with each chapter. More information can be found at the end of this book.

My intention is to offer books and programs in support of your ongoing learning while on the journey of mastery in coaching. The five parts in this book cover the essential skills:

Part 1: How to Embody a Coaching Mindset

Part 2: Maintaining a Client-Centered Focus

Part 3: What Is Their Desired Outcome 'Really'?

Part 4: Debugging the Operating System

Part 5: Turning Insights into Commitments

Each part has chapters with supportive resources and a practice exercise to help you integrate your learning. The resources and exercises are provided to give you a guide to discuss and try out new ways of coaching with others. It is a book you do, not just read.

WHY I DEVELOPED THIS PROGRAM

I wrote my last two books, The Discomfort Zone and Coach the Person, Not the Problem, to fill in the knowledge gaps I saw in some coaches whom I worked with worldwide. Over the years, I noticed coaches trying too hard to demonstrate each competency no matter the coaching situation. The harder they worked, the less effective they were. Their attempts to do perfect coaching made them feel more stressed and frustrated. They were stuck in their heads, not being present and listening for the key words and moments that, when reflected back to the client, could cause the shift in perspective that changed minds and possibly lives.

The coaches were also taught misinterpretations of the coaching competencies that limited their abilities. Most were not taught how best to use closed questions, how to address the social needs and conflicts of values restricting growth, and how to effectively use reflections without questions to provoke creative insights. Coaching felt more formulaic than spontaneous.

Coaches were not fully open and ready to receive whatever was presented. Key moments were missed. Critical but understated pieces of the puzzle were bypassed.

I came to coaching as a part of my incessant desire to understand what makes people learn and grow. Once I discovered the difference in impact of coaching from teaching, advising, mentoring, and counseling, I devoted my learning to discover how best to use the specific technology of coaching to transform minds and choices.

As I learn from my research and practice, I share what I am discovering in my writing, classes, and, most significantly, coaching demonstrations I do monthly so people can see what I teach. The reactions are the same wherever I go: "Thank you for liberating me from the rules I thought I had to follow." Coaches tell me they better understand the unique gift coaching provides.

Breakthrough Coaching includes the new teaching, exercises, examples, and tools that I developed since writing Coach the Person, Not the Problem, with at least 80 percent of the material being new. The book is intended to be a companion guide to my training as well as a stand-alone book for people to dive deeper into using a coaching approach in their conversations.

Coaching can be easy. The easier it is, the more meaningful and joyful the practice becomes.

_______________________________________________________________

***** TABLE OF CONTENTS *****

INTRODUCTION: The Science of Learning and the Role of the Coach

PART ONE: How to Embody a Coaching Mindset

1. What It Means to Embody a Coaching Mindset

2. Aligning Your Nervous System

3. Choosing Your Emotions

4. Catching and Releasing Your Judgmental Reactions

PART TWO: Maintaining a Client-Centered Focus

5. How to Shift to Coach the Person While Seeking to Solve a Problem

6. What Are You Listening for That Can Lead to a Breakthrough?

7. The Value of Reflecting Emotional Expressions

8. How to Coach Insights out of Emotional Moments

PART THREE: What Is Their Desired Outcome 'Really'?

9. The Need for a Clear, Observable Desired Outcome

10. Clarifying Obstacles to Achieving Desires

11. Recognizing Changes to the Outcome as Thinking Evolves

12. Coaching through Resistance

PART FOUR: Debugging the Operating System

13. Looking Inside the Operating System

14. The Strengths and Snags of Social Needs

15. The Importance of Values Alignment

PART FIVE: Turning Insights into Commitments

16. Solidifying a New Awareness to Wrap Up the Breakthrough Process

17. Aligning Insights with Commitments

18. The Measure of Value in Coaching