The Tao of Coaching
Max Landsberg
Profile Books   1-86197-650-X
Let's start by avoiding any unnecessary confusion - if you think you've seen a book by the same name and the same author but issued by a different publisher, you're right..  Up until this year (2003) the book - first published in 1996 - was put out under the HarperCollins imprint.  This is a new, revised edition, though the revisions aren't that drastic.

Secondly, the bad news and the good news.
The "bad news" is that this author seems to consciously have no more idea as to the true nature of coaching (or mentoring) than do most of his fellow writers on the subject.  In fact he tells us quite categorically, and several times over, that for him, "coaching" actually means one-on-one training:

"Training now had to be continuous and 'on the job' - i.e., by coaching." page 3.

"Mentoring and coaching are very similar activities.  The only real difference is that the coach focuses on building the coachee's ability to accomplish specific tasks, whereas the mentor has a wider perspective." page 94.  (Bold text as in the original)

The "good news" is that, despite the author's conscious misconceptions, this book comes closer, overall, to describing genuine coaching than most other books that I've come across.

My first thought when I opened this book was how different it was to Parsloe and Wray's Coaching and Mentoring (see previous review).  Instead of the totally "user hostile" 183 pages divided into just 9 chapters, Max Landburg offers us 115 pages divided into 18 chapters and 6 appendices.  Most chapters are divided into 5 parts - a cartoon, a story segment, a summary, a chart or diagram and an exercise.

To be blunt, the cartoons, which take up no less than 16 pages, are neither humourous nor relevant and seem to be there simply in order to take the book over the 100 pages mark.
The story segments take us, in flashback, through the rise of the (presumably) fictitious "Alex" from a strategic planning manager to the verge of a directorship.  I didn't have a copy of the original edition on hand when I was writing this review, but my impression is that the storyline has been somewhat modified so that Alex is now a credible figure.
The summary sections, though they aren't actually identified as such, actually contradict one of the key themes in the book in that they tell the reader what message they should have gleaned from the accompanying story segment.  Nevertheless, I imagine that many business readers will be used to, and appreciate, the "executive summary" approach.  It would have made an interesting change if the author had taken the more radical step of devising a set of questions for each chapter, to get the reader to formulate their own ideas, but the business book market is still, by and large, a pretty conservative arena, and I wouldn't mark the book down too much simply because it follows the tried and tested path.

The tables and diagrams mainly add blend well with the rest of the corresponding section, and the exercises are appropriate, if obvious.

The main criticism I have of the book is that the author fails to examine the validity of some of the theories and models he espouses.
Most obviously, and perhaps mainly because (like most of his fellow writers on the subject) he sees coaching as nothing more than a variety of training, at no point does the author invite us to consider whether a manager can indeed function effectively as a coach.

At a more specific level, in Chapter 7 we are treated to a quite vacuous introduction to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular but seriously limited test of personality "type".  The problem is that we aren't told about any of the limitations.  For example:

• Is it realistic to subdivide the entire population of the world into just 16 personality types?  No.  These are mere approximations.
• Is it true that any individual always acts within the boundaries of a single personality type?  No.  All kinds of factors come into play - context, other people involved, other recent events, etc., etc.
• etc.

This failure to critique some of the models used is particularly marked in the case of Chapter 6, which focuses on the GROW model used to order the events in a coaching session.  We are told that GROW stands for:

• Set a Goal
• Check Reality
• Consider the Options
• Wrap up the session.

Yet in the accompanying story segment the company's CFO (Chief Financial Officer) comes into Alex's office and remarks:

"I can see that something is causing you a problem.  Perhaps I can help."
page 27.

Which sure looks like a reality check to me. Especially when Alex replies:

"I've been with the company for just over a year now, and find that I'm spending a lot of time running meetings.  But I can't seem to get the discussions to make as much progress as I'd like."
page 27.

And if that isn't a reality check, I don't know what is.
Of course the flaws in the GROW model have always been obvious.
Firstly, a genuine coaching session should be about something more than simply sorting out a problem.
Secondly, whilst having a pronounceable acronym for the process may make it more marketable, how, in this case, could you ever set the goal for a discussion if you haven't first done a reality check to see where action is required?

Far better - closer to reality - is the "6 Whats" model, based on the NLP problem solving strategy and on the "Skilled Helper" model devised by Professor Gerard Egan:

1. What is the current situation?
2. What situation do you want?
3. What resources (relevant to making the change) do you already have?
4. What additional resources do you require, if any?
5. What paths can you follow which would bring about the required situation?
6. What will be your first step towards bringing about the required situation?

It is interesting that, having championed the GROW model in Chapter 6, in Chapter 9 the author describes how Alex is shown a technique that closely resembles the "6 Whats" model - but apparently only because he is in a hurry!

My rating for this book is entirely relative.  Considered in isolation I would not be inclined to rate this book very highly.  When I compare it to the many other books on coaching that are deluging onto the market, however, I have to say it looks a lot better than most.
A qualified recommendation as one man's views on what coaching is all about.   *   *   *   *

Monsters and Magical Sticks
Steven Heller and Terry Lee Steele
New Falcon   ISBN 1-56184-026-2
If I could only ever read three books on Ericksonian hypnosis I'd choose Training Trances, by Overdurf and Silverthorn; My Voice Will Go With You by Erickson and Rosen; and this book, Monsters and Magical Sticks, by Dr Steven Heller and Terry Steele.

If I could only have three books on NLP I'd chose The Structure of Magic 1 and Frogs into Princes, both by Bandler and Grinder/Grinder and Bandler; and this book, Monsters and Magical Sticks, by Dr Steven Heller and Terry Steele.

Yes, I really do think it is that good, and though I could give you many reasons why I think so highly of it, one reason came head and shoulders above all the others from my point of view.

This reason is summed up in the following comment:

"Since, with hypnotic techniques such as anchoring, you can cause an individual to respond to a pencil with anxiety or to a facial expression with happiness, it would seem very important for you to stop trying to make sense out of nonsense. ... All you will need to do is develop the techniques to help the person respond in more useful ways.  This will be accomplished by recognizing (not analyzing) their belief system; which system (V-K-A) they need to develop; how to break the pattern; and what anchors (post-hypnotic suggestion) you need to neutralize; and what new patterns you need to install and reinforce."
page 186.

Which, to my mind, neatly sums up much (but not all) of what you will be learning as you read Monsters and Magic Sticks

"Monsters" is undoubtedly one of the most original works I have come across in the course of reading over 120 books on NLP and will, I think, be much appreciated by experienced hypnotists and experienced NLPers alike.  Yet it is written in a style that makes Heller's ideas entirely accessible to almost anyone. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if a complete novice found this to be an excellent introductory text to either, or both, of these fascinating subjects.

And having said all that, I must also include a word of caution.
Because it was written back in 1987, Chapter X - "Left Meets Right Meets Left" - which deals at length with the physiology of the brain. is based on research and knowledge about the workings of the brain as of 20 years or more ago.  In other words, before we learned most of what we now know about how the brain brain works.
This is not to say that the chapter is a waste of space, however.  Although the authors go into what is now referred to as the "left brain/right brain" myth, the chapter as a whole makes perfectly good sense if you simply ignore all references to left and right brain activities.
After all, what the authors didn't have, when the book was written, was nearly 20 years of research showing that whilst various parts of the brain have specific functions, these functions never work in isolation, as the left brain/right brain myth implied.  (Which explains why we need the vast network of nerve fibres in the corpus callosum which links the two halves of the brain.))

Apart from that one qualification I cannot recommend this book too highly.  Without a hint of exaggeration, it is one of that very rare group of texts that really do, as far as any book can, deliver the "magic" of NLP.
Highest possible recommendation:   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The Psychology of Persuasion
Kevin Hogan
Pelican   ISBN 1-56554-146-4 (Hb)
It's been a long time since I read a book as fast as I did this one.  That is not, however, a compliment.  I read it so fast because there is so little substance to it.

The book is divided into two parts, Part I: Patterns of Persuasion and Part II: Mastering Advanced Persuasion Technques.  Alternatively, the book is divided into three parts:

• Part 1: A mass of material that can be found in myriad other "influencing" books, especially Robert Cialdini's Influence (1985), and Dale Carnegie's classic How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), both of which are so much better that trying to compare them with The Psychology of Persuasion would be a waste of time,
• Part 2: An attempt to describe NLP in a nutshell which, though it isn't a complete disaster, isn't too successful, either,
• Part 3: Two appendices - Apendix A,   Ethics and Appendix B   Brainwashing - which are of such a comparatively high standard that it is hard to understand how they found their way into this otherwise mediocre volume.

The book starts badly with the kind of grossly exaggerated claims which put many people off the whole self help/self development genre:

"As we examine the persuasion process, you will discover more than just how to get people to do what you want them to do.
If you are a salesperson, your sales will dramatically increase.
If you are married, your bond will grow deeper.
If you are fearful and tentative, you will learn how to turn fear into power and tentativeness into confidence."
pages 12-13.

In fact massive hype appears to be this author's favourite "persuasion" tool.
This includes the instruction (warning?) that "It is important to note that this book contains the most powerful tools, strategies, and technologies of persuasion," and the quite outrageous claim (page 217) that: "What is taught in Part 2 of this book is understood by very few and practiced by even fewer."
I'm sorry?  Is this a claim that he basics of NLP, which is what Part 2 is all about, were/are "understood by very few" and "practiced by even fewer"?  Of course it all depends what the author means by "few", but I'd say this claim was insupportable in 1996, let alone in 2003.

But perhaps the overwhelming weakness of the book is the lack of genuine expertise.
On page pages 231-233 we are introduced to the meta program often known as the "Frame of Reference Sort", which is described here as being "how people judge the results of their actions" and is illustrated thus:

The latter part of the range is illustrated with an example in which a potential customer is asked: "How do you decide which car is best for you?"  The reply is:

"PROSPECT:   Well, we used Consumer Reports to narrow it down and now we'll pick out the one we want.
(DATA SORT with INTERNAL check)"
page 232.

What the writer seems not to understand is that the question asks for the customer's complete decision-making strategy rather than a single meta program.  And as Miller, Williams and Hayashi demonstrate in their excellent book The 5 Paths to Persuasion, there can be as many as a dozen meta programs at work in a single decision-making process.  And why does the author have the "prospect" describe their "convincer mode" (what form of evidence do you find most convincing?) rather than answer the question they've been asked?  What is even more puzzling is the fact that "refer to data" is actually listed on page 236 as one of the convincer modes!
(As though to compound the error, the text also fails to distinguish between convincer mode and convincer strength - how often do you need to receive the appropriate evidence in order to be convinced? - and describes them as though they were all part of one "Convincer Sort" metaprogram.)

By the same token, in the discussion of the "Necessity/Possibility Sort" (page 237) we are told that: "If a person does something because he feels he has to, you can't talk to him about all the possibilities of trying something else."  Yet at the end of the next chapter we are told (page 256) that one of the qualities of a "master persuader" is being "mentally capable of Precision Thinking" including "C.  Hears. 'I can't shouldn't, mustn't,' etc., and mentally responds, 'What would happen if you could?' or 'What stops you?' "
This is indeed the sort of reply NLP suggests in face of "I can't", "We've never done that before", and the like.  So why does it only appear nearly 20 pages after we've been told that there is no way of dealing with this kind of statement?  And why does our "master persuader" only respond mentally?  According to NLP - and common sense - the question needs to be asked out loud to get a useful result.

As I said at the start of this review, in my opinion the two appendices are far superior to the rest of the book, but they take up less than a dozen pages - out of more than 250 - and can hardly justify buying the whole book.
Any halfway decent introduction to NLP will give you more accurate, and useful information than you'll find in this book.
Recommendation: Don't waste your money on this twaddle.

NLP Workbook
Joseph O'Connor
Thorsons   0-00-710003-5
I have very mixed feelings about this book.  On the one hand I wish it were a bit more "electrifying", but I recognise that when you have to pack this much information into a single book then it is inevitably going to look a bit like a textbook.  And I don't necessarily agree with all of the points raised.  On the subject of the representational systems, for example, we are told that:

"Sometimes the olfactory [smell] and gustatory [taste] systems are treated as part of the kinesthetic system.  These two are less important in Western European and American culture."
(page 49)

In the first place NLP has apparently not yet come to grips with the fact that the senses of smell and taste are intimately interrelated (take one sip from a glass of wine and you can no longer smell the bouquet!). Secondly, our sense of smell is quite possible the most powerful anchoring rep system we have.  We most frequently use auditory and/or kinaesthetic and/or visual anchors not because they are the most effective but because they are the ones over which we can have the most direct control.

On an entirely different note, I personally would have omitted the section on so-called "neurological levels" altogether.- for reasons explained in detail in the FAQs section of this website.  And having said that, I recognise that what Joseph has very commendably set out to do here is present as full a description of NLP as possible, "warts and all".
Did I say "full"?  Well, maybe not quite.  For some utterly inexplicable reason this book totally ignores all description of the various meta programs.  Not even an abbreviated list.  I tend to regard the meta programs are one one of the most useful features in the whole of NLP, and I would much rather have seen the space that was wasted on so-called neurological levels given over to a discussion of the meta programs.

In the past I have always been inclined to settle on Seymour and O'Connor's Introducing NLP (included elsewhere in these reviews) as the best all-round introduction to the subject.  I think I'm going to have to switch to this book instead, for at least two reasons.
Firstly it includes a wealth of practical exercises the reader can do to get an experiential understanding of the points being made in the text.  Secondly, there's so much more of it.  Which means the book is able to offer more coverage of more subjects.

There's much more I could write here, but there is just so much in NLP Workbook we'd be here till way past my bed time if I tried to cover every aspect of this text.
Instead I'll content myself with saying that even without the meta programs this book is, in my opinion, a very useful addition to almost any NLPer's library, at an amazingly reasonable price, and I rate it:
Highly recommended   *   *   *   *   *   *