It was really difficult for me to rate this book in a decent manner. I land somewhere between 3 and 4, 3.5 would be best probably, but it's not that plain.
As an experienced manager I do truly find merit in advice given by the author, and I see a big point in the method itself. I'm really all for empowering and giving ownership. I was looking for ways to do it and found one of those ways in the book. It is really worth reading, analysing, digesting, and finding one's own way of implementing a big chunk of it. But on the other hand... it was really hard for me to get through to that merit. Maybe it's my cultural background (my no-bullshit thinking got very much in the way), maybe it's my taste in words, but there were a number of issues with the text that made it mildly annoying half of the time.
The advertising feel: it felt like reading a very long booklet promoting the services of a company who offers... coaching for coaching. Like the stuff you can find at the back of a shampoo bottle. It's just pure praise of own method and multiple messages more less saying "like and subscribe", "buy our lessons, invite our consultant and be a happy employer forever", "here is the link to our workshop, website, services, etc". It was almost like nagging me to buy their product. And those percentages all over the place, with no real clarity to what they referred to... (99% increase in the volume of your hair).
Connected to the above - lack of real analysis of pros *and cons* of the offered solution. I have not found a single point discussing where it perhaps wouldn't work. It's simply wonderful, perfect, flawless... but is it? The book really focuses only on a chosen type of people and situations. I know from years and years of work that there are also people who are not shy nor trying to build ownership but just lacking enough courage, whose only obstacle to self-growth is the approach of their manager, etc. It may come as a surprise to the author but there are people who are really not skilled enough, perceptive or clever or willing enough. There are those who completely relentlessly aim at working 9 to 5, enjoy silent quitting, taking the line of least resistance, no matter what you tell them. These people are not addressed with powerful questions, and giving them independence will not necessarily lead to the described miracles. Luckily it's not the majority, but I don't like the message that coaching is a panaceum for all Universe's problems.
The writing style. Lots of blabby mumbo-jumbo known from some town hall meetings, success stories and propaganda videos (which, in certain parts of Europe, we know from rather painful experience). And when it comes to the dialogues... OMG. They were supposed to be helpful but I ended up feeling like slapping one or another person - for example Michelle, the supposedly ideal manager, or her employee team leader Sam. The way how the 'exemplary' conversations were held, which was supposed to illustrate the empowering effect of coaching on people, felt like treating them like idiots. Oh, the obvious discoveries these employees made, and the joyful childish enthusiasm in which they followed up! Normal people don't even speak that way, they don't use such wording in casual speech. I had to translate these dialogs in my head into something that one could really say without getting weird looks, because in the first reflex it made me WTF most of the time. People in the workplace are usually more than that. I know these were just examples, but please...
Insufficient practical advice, except for the GROW model, which was good. But in general, as mentioned above, many things were a bit detached (like the visualisation exercises) or simply not there. In the sea of generalisations, as a manager/leader I did not find too many pragmatic points that would actually help me in my work.
Such things made it a little difficult to simply go through the whole book. I was stubborn, I did it, and at the end I was rewarded with some worthwhile reflections about life, with which however not everyone has to agree. These felt actually quite authentic (the book after all advises authenticity, which is good), though not always universal...
I still think it's worth to read it, though some filtering is needed most of the time. I genuinely think that there are several good points of advice, especially those about withholding own expert opinions and allowing people to find their ways, asking them questions instead of giving quick answers and instructions, active listening, treating others as partners and giving them space and a non-judgemental helping hand, breaking the old but persistent stereotypes of management etc. It's worthwhile. But I wish it was served differently. It would be so much easier to ingest.