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The Coach's Casebook: Mastering the twelve traits that trap us
Our strengths can become our weaknesses. Our traits and habitual behaviours can become traps. In each chapter of The Coach's Casebook the reader follows a skilled coach working with a client who is struggling with one of the twelve traits which every coach will face in their coaching work - traits such as people pleasing, perfectionism, impostor syndrome, performance anxiety and procrastination. The coach shares their emotions, their thought processes and their reflections as they try to understand the psychological origins of these behaviours and to work out how to help their client. The Coach's Casebook includes inspirational insights from individuals who have triumphed over such traits and have succeeded in all walks of life figures such as Alec Stewart and Lewis Moody from the world of sport, Greg Dyke from the world of business, and Arctic explorer Pen Hadow. This book is above all designed to help you in your work as a coach. It gives you practical, tried and tested techniques which you can use today to help your clients to change the habits of a lifetime.
381 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 10, 2015
70 people are currently reading
531 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 30, 2021
A really solid read for any coach, at any point in their learning journey. This excellent book tackles 12 common coaching narratives, from imposter syndrome to the search for meaning (career planning?) and performance anxiety, to cite only a quarter of the common tropes you see in coaching. This is possibly in my top 3 coaching books for pure practical application - not only to give a coach hope that with time, the issue can be resolved, but to give some enormously useful practical exercises and tools to unlock the coachee's thinking. I will keep it to hand as I see certain issues presenting in my coachees and I've no doubt it'll get referred back to time and time again - thanks to my colleague Lucila for putting me on to this.
Two comments, though. As a coaching superviser in training, I now worry that coaches will expect incredible insight from supervision, as each case study seemed to have the stumped coach taking their conundrum to supervision and the superviser just knowing instinctively what was going on. I'm not sure my supervision will be quite so insightful or rapid, so for that reason, I don't want anyone I go on to supervise to read this at all :D
Finally - the narrative illustrations at the end of each chapter showcasing well-known, successful people who were able to work through the 'Trapping Traits' were overwhelmingly male, which was disappointing. There are a lot of successful women out there, the coaching space seems female-dominated in my experience, and a little more of an eye on the readership for the sake of gender balance would have probably won this book a fifth star from me.
Two comments, though. As a coaching superviser in training, I now worry that coaches will expect incredible insight from supervision, as each case study seemed to have the stumped coach taking their conundrum to supervision and the superviser just knowing instinctively what was going on. I'm not sure my supervision will be quite so insightful or rapid, so for that reason, I don't want anyone I go on to supervise to read this at all :D
Finally - the narrative illustrations at the end of each chapter showcasing well-known, successful people who were able to work through the 'Trapping Traits' were overwhelmingly male, which was disappointing. There are a lot of successful women out there, the coaching space seems female-dominated in my experience, and a little more of an eye on the readership for the sake of gender balance would have probably won this book a fifth star from me.
April 14, 2019
Essential book to any coach
March 24, 2021
Favourite quotes:
The ultimate goal of coaching is to help the client understand themselves better so they can find ways to make the most of the potential.
People with a strong, fierce independence trait rarely work for long in conventional corporate environments.
While we have a lot less control over the world than we would like, we actually have a lot more control over ourselves and our responses than we appreciate.
Change can be brought about at a behavioural level or at a belief level.
One way to help your clients take action is to help them create and evaluate two alternative potential futures that they can visualise and choose between.
Adaptive perfectionists manage to maintain healthy self-esteem, do not berate themselves excessively, regroup and try again. Maladaptive perfectionists often reach badly and ‘lash out’ at themselves and others.
We instinctively seek to protect ourselves from failure, often without realising we are doing so or acknowledging the consequences.
Procrastination can also be linked to a lack of assertiveness, which can lead clients to say ‘yes’ to too many things and too many people.
Procrastination can also stem from the client feeling a lack of control. The client may be delaying a task as a means of seeking to exert some autonomy over a situation.
Is my behaviour today taking me closer to my desired outcome or further away from it?
Whenever we are doing something that does not meet our values and needs, we are likely to feel unfulfilled.
The ultimate goal of coaching is to help the client understand themselves better so they can find ways to make the most of the potential.
People with a strong, fierce independence trait rarely work for long in conventional corporate environments.
While we have a lot less control over the world than we would like, we actually have a lot more control over ourselves and our responses than we appreciate.
Change can be brought about at a behavioural level or at a belief level.
One way to help your clients take action is to help them create and evaluate two alternative potential futures that they can visualise and choose between.
Adaptive perfectionists manage to maintain healthy self-esteem, do not berate themselves excessively, regroup and try again. Maladaptive perfectionists often reach badly and ‘lash out’ at themselves and others.
We instinctively seek to protect ourselves from failure, often without realising we are doing so or acknowledging the consequences.
Procrastination can also be linked to a lack of assertiveness, which can lead clients to say ‘yes’ to too many things and too many people.
Procrastination can also stem from the client feeling a lack of control. The client may be delaying a task as a means of seeking to exert some autonomy over a situation.
Is my behaviour today taking me closer to my desired outcome or further away from it?
Whenever we are doing something that does not meet our values and needs, we are likely to feel unfulfilled.
February 17, 2020
It would be 3.5 out of 5, neither 3 nor 4 stars. I liked it because it presents 12 different cases and, in my experience, I found some similarities to many colleagues I had or currently have. All the explanations are simplified to "non-coach" people and it's good, but I understand for some people it's not enough. I liked the tools and techniques sections, although I know in some cases I'm not going to do any one because I'm not a coach and I don't have the tools and the required knowledgement.
To sum up, I would have written a shorter and more incisive book. However, I've got some valuables notes which I think will be useful for my carrer. I believe I'll check some chapter from time to time. It's a really good reference to coaching tools for non coaching people.
To sum up, I would have written a shorter and more incisive book. However, I've got some valuables notes which I think will be useful for my carrer. I believe I'll check some chapter from time to time. It's a really good reference to coaching tools for non coaching people.
March 30, 2022
The Coach's Casebook is a fascinating deep dive into those traits that make it hard for us to move forward in our professional and personal lives. The use cases are based on real examples and the techniques described to work on those issues are things that anyone can apply. The book is easy to follow and definitely a must-read for everyone!
November 4, 2018
An excellent format which ensures that concepts are well understood and reader is given tools and techniques to use. Very interesting, well constructed and enjoyable.
April 11, 2019
Fantastic!
July 9, 2019
Very straightforward, useful reading for any coach!
October 26, 2019
Very cool book!
April 15, 2021
Interesting tools, easy reading and powerful mentoring.
March 29, 2022
Great book, used almost as a bible. full of ideas and ways to deal with specific cases
November 2, 2022
Interesting set of case studies with some models thrown in for good measure. I used the audiobook version and it went down a treat.
January 2, 2024
I'm not a coach or looking to become a coach, so I cannot review it from that angle. However, I am interested in this sort of thing and I found this book to be insightful and well-written.
February 19, 2024
Brilliant book. Essential read for anyone interested in coaching or already a coach of some kind.
March 20, 2017
I'd give this book 6 stars if I could. It's well written, concise and full of useful material for anyone who wants to understand the nuances of coaching both in theory and by example. Not only is the book a great resource for learning how to coach others in a professional or personal setting, but it has also allowed me to reflect on the twelve traits within myself and provided tools for improving on them. I'm sure "The Coach's Casebook" will remain a reference resource I'll turn to often in years to come.
September 12, 2023
Well structured book with 12 cases. Each case is told with a vignette of the coaching sessions, interspersed with supervision sessions with the coach's supervisor. Additionally there are the tools/techniques described for each case and lots of great coaching questions interspersed here and there.
I give 3 1/2 stars because while I liked the book, it didn't keep me up at night with passion. And I didn't feel like the real-life interviews at the end of each chapter added to the (slightly fictionalized) cases, so I skipped them. But I can imagine keeping this book on my shelf for future reference.
I give 3 1/2 stars because while I liked the book, it didn't keep me up at night with passion. And I didn't feel like the real-life interviews at the end of each chapter added to the (slightly fictionalized) cases, so I skipped them. But I can imagine keeping this book on my shelf for future reference.
July 7, 2015
This book gives coaches the gift of sitting on the shoulder of a super-coach and experiencing powerful coaching, reflection and self-supervision. Case studies are presented with transparency, authenticity and humour. A valuable learning tool for any coach wanting to continue to learn, develop, grow and polish their professional aptitude. Highly recommended. Jayne Morris
September 7, 2015
One of the best books that I have read, recently. A lot of tools for coaching yourself and your teams
December 22, 2015
One of my best books I ever read, awesome stories and the supervision helps a lot to apply the techniques presented in the book.
July 24, 2021
I finished this a while ago and was encouraged by the practitioner & client dialogue. It was insightful as well as useful to apply in my coaching venture.
November 26, 2017
Great book! The stories area fascinating and there's so many insights and techniques to use, it is certainly THE book to read if coaching is part of your job.
April 12, 2017
Enjoyed taking my time and understanding some of the traits and coaching techniques used whilst comparing it to Clean Language
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews