The Psychology of Executive Coaching: Theory and Application
by Bruce Peltier

This is an extremely well written and thorough resource for psychological professionals, management consultants and executive coaches. For psychologists, it helps you decide if EC is right for you. For others, it helps to understand what about psychology is needed to successfully provide EC. There are two basic assumptions outlined in the book which are believed by many to be limiting: One, that executive coaching is primarily a psychological service; and Two, that executive coaching is solely for the purpose of developing leaders. Executive coaching is more complex than just a psychological service.

Executive Coaching: Practices & Perspectives
by Catherine Fitzgerald, Jennifer Garvey Berger

What a contribution to the emerging field of Executive Coaching! This book represents a sophistocatd and diverse look at a field that is thankfully growing not just in scope, but in depth as well. While beginning coaches will clearly benefit from this book, it is much more than a collection of "how-tos". It is unique in that it takes our understanding of the purposes and frameworks of executive coaching to the next level -- exploring not just the strategic and behavioral benefits of executive coaching, but its potential to serve as a foundation for adult development and transformation as well.

Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart : A Systems Approach to Engaging Leaders with Their Challenges
by Mary Beth O'Neill, Mary Beth O'Neill

If you've been looking for sound direction on how to coach top executives, here it is. In Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart, Mary Beth O'Neill outlines the dynamic approach to coaching leaders that she's developed over the course of a twenty-year career. Her unique perspective and sage advice, backed by a specific four-phase methodology, gives you the means to successfully manage the coach-client relationship and effect dramatic changes that ensure the business outcomes leaders' want. It's a one-of-a-kind guide for executive coaches--both aspiring and established--that fills a long-standing gap in coaching literature.

Executive Coaching: Developing Managerial Wisdom in a World of Chaos
by Richard R. Kilburg

At last, the executive coaching puzzle is coming into focus! More of the missing pieces have been accounted for thanks to Dr. Richard Kilburg and his insightful book on executive coaching. After reading this book, I feel like I have been made privy to a well-kept secret-psychological dynamics. Coming from a fairly traditional Industrial/Organizational Psychology (I/O) background that focuses primarily on systems, I immediately embraced the book in my quest to learn more about how unconscious psychodynamic processes influence executives' behaviours. Finally, a thoughtful, scholarly book addresses these invisible and powerful processes and ultimately makes the individual a focus in psychology.

Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching : How to Create a Thriving Coaching Practice (Getting Started in)
by Stephen G. Fairley, Chris E. Stout

Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching offers a go-to reference designed to help every mental health professional build, manage, and sustain a thriving coaching practice. Packed with hundreds of proven strategies and techniques, this nuts-and-bolts guide covers all aspects of the coaching business with step-by-step instructions and real-world illustrations that prepare you for every phase of starting your own coaching business.

• Seven tools for making a great first impression
• Fifteen strategies for landing ten paying clients
• Seven secrets of highly successful coaches
• Ten marketing mistakes to avoid

Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose
by John Whitmore

We immediately liked John Whitmore's book on coaching for one simple reason: It admits right off that a coterie of charlatans have passed off their bogus "consulting" approaches as business coaching, thereby diminishing the credibility of the practice. But Whitmore does more than recognize the problem: He sets the record straight by providing a true definition, a working history and a psychological explanation of real coaching, which evolved out of sports performance enhancement. Capping off this overview is a comprehensive guide to practical coaching practices, complete with techniques that readers can adopt in their own careers. We from getAbstract highly recommend this book to all business managers, human resource professionals and, of course, coaches.

The Handbook of Coaching: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for Managers, Executives, Consultants, and HR
by Frederic M. Hudson, Frederic M. Hudson

The Handbook of Coaching is the first resource to offer a compendium of basic information about the burgeoning field of adult coaching--the art of guiding individuals and organizations to function at their most effective and creative levels. Written for experienced and aspiring coaches, as well as for executives and human resource professionals interested in this rapidly growing profession, the Handbook describes the essential underpinnings of successful coaching and includes a comprehensive, annotated list of books, articles, and other resources. The Handbook of Coaching is sure to become a classic in the field.

"A coach needs to be able to touch people with new possibilities and bring wisdom, compassion, and humor to the issues and problems they face. The Handbook of Coaching provides a treasure trove of learning resources that you will be able to practically and immediately apply to a wide variety of personal and professional situations."
--Robert Hargrove, author of Masterful Coaching and founder of R. Hargrove Consulting

Coaching for Leadership: How the World's Greatest Coaches Help Leaders Learn
by Marshall Goldsmith

Executive coaching is dramatically increasing in popularity. Leaders around the world are both using coached and becoming coaches. But, the understanding of what executive coaching is and how it can increases leaders' effectiveness has not grown as fast as the application of this process.