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The Coaching Effect: What Great Leaders Do to Increase Sales, Enhance Performance, and Sustain Growth
The most effective leader behaves more like a coach Authors Bill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth have spent a decade researching the activities, behaviors, and performance of leaders. After studying more than 100,000 coaching interactions in the workplace, primarily of sales teams, they have been able to determine how coaching affects team outcomes and growth. The authors share three critical performance drivers, along with the four high-growth activities that coaches must execute to build a team that is motivated to achieve at the highest levels. Through both hard data and rich stories, Eckstrom and Wirth demonstrate how leaders can measure and improve their coaching to lead their teams to better results. The Coaching Effect will help leaders at all levels understand the necessity of challenging people out of their comfort zone to create a high-growth organization. Leaders will learn how they can develop trust relationships, drive accountability and leverage growth experiences to propel their team members to the highest levels of success.
205 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 2, 2019
129 people are currently reading
382 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 15, 2020
As a new sales director I found very helpful information in this book. I just finished and have yet to implement the things I learned but I'm excited to give them a try.
3/15/20 update - after reading this one I bought the audio book so I can listen to it while out in the field. I just finished the audio and picked up a few things missed the first time through. I have implemented a couple of ideas from the book into my sales management and look forward to seeing the results.
3/15/20 update - after reading this one I bought the audio book so I can listen to it while out in the field. I just finished the audio and picked up a few things missed the first time through. I have implemented a couple of ideas from the book into my sales management and look forward to seeing the results.
August 3, 2019
I would have rated this book higher but there were time it was just a little bit dry. However, I must say it has impactful information if applied. All great coaches challenges other to stretch themselves in order to reach the best results and for the recipient to get to their full potential. This book teaches you how to do it in practical ways. Good information.
April 19, 2020
The high growth chapters presented in this book are straightforward no-nonsense activities that are well laid out. Simple coaching process that any company leader can employ. All that is needed is the commitment of the time and effort to effectively put these tasks into place and follow through for results.
July 10, 2022
The focus of this book is on the coaching aspect of management, so it's particularly useful for new managers. I found it really resonated with me. Having just finished a book which was highly anecdotal, I found the research based approach much more appealing. I'm fascinated by the idea of measuring management performance. It seems like an obvious and important way to measure improve management skills.
Some reasons I like this book:
* Concise. 4-5 hours to read.
* The advice is based on research.
* Focusses on the elements of management which are highest impact. One to ones, feedback and career development.
* Advocates measuring the effectiveness of managers as a way to baseline and improve performance.
Some drawbacks:
* It's partly an advert for the services of the authors company. Admittedly I didn't feel this detracted from the content. But, I would have liked the tools to be freely available.
* The author started his career in sales, which is typically makes it easy to measure performance of individual contributors. E.g. Have you reached your sales targets? A software engineers performance is more difficult to measure.
Some reasons I like this book:
* Concise. 4-5 hours to read.
* The advice is based on research.
* Focusses on the elements of management which are highest impact. One to ones, feedback and career development.
* Advocates measuring the effectiveness of managers as a way to baseline and improve performance.
Some drawbacks:
* It's partly an advert for the services of the authors company. Admittedly I didn't feel this detracted from the content. But, I would have liked the tools to be freely available.
* The author started his career in sales, which is typically makes it easy to measure performance of individual contributors. E.g. Have you reached your sales targets? A software engineers performance is more difficult to measure.
April 9, 2020
Based on the ratings and reviews, I was expecting more. Overall, not bad, but repetitive and longer than it needed to be (quite a bit of unnecessary material). On the plus side, the suggestions were specific and clear, and I plan to implement many of them.
April 7, 2019
This book is amazing! It has not only useful, but relatable advice. I would never have thought to compare leadership to coaching, but the strategies make sense. Highly recommend!
April 3, 2019
This book has been a life-changer for me. The Coaching Effect is one of those rare reads that gave me insights on how to improve my leadership abilities in the workplace, improve my interactions with family and friends and understand how and why coaching makes all the difference in how a team performs. I highly suggest this book as a must-read in 2019!
April 5, 2019
Only a few pages in and I love it. The “Growth Ring” mindset, something that not only appeared on the viral Ted Talk, but also a chapter of this book is a mindset and layout that each and every person should have to opportunity to learn about and apply in life. Can’t wait to read more!
July 21, 2020
Good read
It was a good read but wanted to get that bit more on how to make my coaching practice more effective. Felt that it described the problem but was light on the solution.
Would recommend it thoroughly as it challenges the notion that managers known what they are doing.
It was a good read but wanted to get that bit more on how to make my coaching practice more effective. Felt that it described the problem but was light on the solution.
Would recommend it thoroughly as it challenges the notion that managers known what they are doing.
July 15, 2019
Quite insightful and could have made little longer to explain how to do things more in detail. In the end it sounded little like a sales pitch as well but a good book for every leader.
May 6, 2021
Well, I suck at my job and need to seriously rethink my leading style!
October 24, 2021
It had some good takeaways. Some good interaction with the author as well in the 2 day zoom training.
November 10, 2022
The book weaves concepts of coaching and the importance of using it our team engagements and customer interactions. The concept of the growth rings is powerful.
March 28, 2025
Not only is this book so well done, but the in person Coaching Academy the authors discuss is incredible. The people who work for EcSell embody these positive traits.
April 3, 2019
Applicable for anyone who leads, manages, or coaches a team in really any industry. The stories are super engaging and the research is like none other. I also really appreciate how the authors give step-by-step, practical information on how to become a high-performing "coach" (aka: leader). Highly recommend!
January 28, 2026
Meh. Got this at work.
April 3, 2019
Expertly written. Finally a book that gives practical ideas to deal with every coaching situation. The supplemental tools provided with this book are priceless. I immediately felt more confident working with my next client after I finished reading this book. It really challenged me to evaluate myself and my coaching style. Allowing me to define areas in which I could grow as a coach, this providing a note valuable coaching experience for my client. This is a must read for anyone in the coaching industry. Absolutely fabulous!
April 7, 2019
I came to this book as a professional coach, rather than as a manager, interested in different coaching models and approaches and how they might be used.
“The Coaching Effect” falls into the basket of “challenging coaching”, that is a model that proposes moving employees out of their comfort zone to create a high-growth organization. The model proposed is well-researched and the authors provide some rich stories and examples as illustration of how it works. And while the book is primarily focused on coaching sales teams, I found the theory of Growth Rings an insight that could be useful in any organisation or circumstance (including our personal lives).
The authors also challenge coaches to measure their own performance. They place the success of the team firmly at the coach’s door. Measuring inputs (coaching contacts) and outputs (changes in outcomes) seems like common sense but was an aha! moment for me (as I suspect it will be for most team leaders) because I had only ever done this through peer review. How to do this using “The Eyes of the Team” in a systematic way is explained in Chapter 3 and is well worth reading for any team leader or professional coach.
The book also provides some useful advice for those without a formal coaching background on how to conduct effective one-on-one coaching sessions/meetings, team meetings and performance feedback. Feedback is a particularly difficult area for most managers and the book is worth buying for this chapter alone. It provides a practical, easily implemented approach to feedback that any manager can implement no matter what sort of team they are leading.
However, I think the coaching model itself needs to be used with some caution. Those put under too much pressure/discomfort may not be strengthened – they could well break or run – and this may not be a desirable outcome. Unfortunately, managers are not psychologists and may not see this coming. A chapter on how to recognise the team member being left on the sidelines – and how to respond to this – would have been a good addition.
“The Coaching Effect” falls into the basket of “challenging coaching”, that is a model that proposes moving employees out of their comfort zone to create a high-growth organization. The model proposed is well-researched and the authors provide some rich stories and examples as illustration of how it works. And while the book is primarily focused on coaching sales teams, I found the theory of Growth Rings an insight that could be useful in any organisation or circumstance (including our personal lives).
The authors also challenge coaches to measure their own performance. They place the success of the team firmly at the coach’s door. Measuring inputs (coaching contacts) and outputs (changes in outcomes) seems like common sense but was an aha! moment for me (as I suspect it will be for most team leaders) because I had only ever done this through peer review. How to do this using “The Eyes of the Team” in a systematic way is explained in Chapter 3 and is well worth reading for any team leader or professional coach.
The book also provides some useful advice for those without a formal coaching background on how to conduct effective one-on-one coaching sessions/meetings, team meetings and performance feedback. Feedback is a particularly difficult area for most managers and the book is worth buying for this chapter alone. It provides a practical, easily implemented approach to feedback that any manager can implement no matter what sort of team they are leading.
However, I think the coaching model itself needs to be used with some caution. Those put under too much pressure/discomfort may not be strengthened – they could well break or run – and this may not be a desirable outcome. Unfortunately, managers are not psychologists and may not see this coming. A chapter on how to recognise the team member being left on the sidelines – and how to respond to this – would have been a good addition.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews