Book review: Coachability – The Leadership Superpower by Kevin D. Wilde
While you could fill a large Waterstones with books written about coaching, there is little written from the perspective of the other party, i.e., those who would be coached – or would they? Coachability: The Leadership Superpower gives great insight into this different perspective.
Book title: Coachability: The Leadership Superpower Author: Kevin D. Wilde
Rating: ***** Category: Well-rounded read
What’s it about?
Wilde explores the leadership behaviours and attitudes associated with being ‘coachable’. Leading his readers on a journey through the idea that lack of coachability, particularly as one progresses in their career, has a direct correlation with the likelihood of failure or ‘derailment’ as he calls it. Building a convincing case based on experience and research, he describes how coachability relates to levels of overall leadership effectiveness.
The detail
“I mean how hard is it to be coached?” Wilde poses us the reflective question. “Surely you just show up and the magic happens?”
“The clue to the mistake we make…” he continues, “…is the passive nature of the verb: ‘be coached’.”
The first two chapters set the scene and bring the reader closer to the seemingly inevitable conclusion that coachability really is a super-power. Chapter 3 explores a roadmap of coachability traits – what does a coachable leader do and how do they act? From there the book becomes a more interactive tool, bringing to life each of the traits followed at each step by ‘how to’ strategies and tools – enthusiastically encouraging the reader to pause and make notes, using the framework of the book to start the journey to coachability while you work through the remainder of the book.
The model roadmap of a highly coachable leader in action is someone who continues to:
- seek feedback and ways to improve consistently
- respond when given feedback openly
- reflect on the message and its value meaningfully
- act on the decision to improve skilfully.
Summary
Thought-provoking and very readable. It really feels like the book is about you, as well as everyone else. The roadmap is simple, but also obvious, so why then is this a super-power? Because knowing it is one thing and doing it is something else entirely. Wilde cleverly gets readers into action, so that the super-power is already taking hold.
Who would benefit from reading this book?
Coaches, coachees, talent and development professionals. Leaders who want to explore whether coaching may be for them and indeed anyone who is interested in personal and professional development – oh and their bosses!
What we liked about the book
Engagingly well written including a little story woven through the book about one of Wilde’s career moments which led to his curiosity for this subject. The structured approach and roadmap work well, without being overly academic or clinical. Powerfully thought-provoking but straightforward. Lots of take-aways for my own coachability development and ideas for sharing these insights with clients and colleagues.
What we didn’t like
By the time we got to the first chapter we had high expectations, there are pages of praise and validation from business personnel and development gurus, before we hear from the author at all. It’s not that we didn’t like this, but some may find it over-hyped. For us it just whetted our appetite.
More about the author, Kevin D. Wilde
At the time of writing, Kevin D. Wilde was an Executive Leadership Fellow at the Calson School of Management teaching applied leadership. Previously he had a long and successful corporate career in leadership and talent development. He continues in various advisory capacities and also has a website www.thecoachableleader.com
Other books by this author
Dancing with the talent stars: 25 moves that matter now 2011
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