3 Leadership Coaching Books to Help You Get Better at Your Craft 

The art and science of coaching can be rather subjective – it changes slightly from coach to coach, depending on the background and experience that they come with as well as their own perceptions, beliefs, and ideologies. Formal training and set competencies also add another layer of depth to a coach’s approach. 

And finally, every niche or specialisation of coaching (such as leadership coaching) has its own nuances that a coach picks up with experience or learns from the wisdom of those who have walked a similar path. 

All this considered, we wanted to bring in some expert perspectives and advice that leadership or executive coaches, new or veteran, will find useful to hone their craft. 

With recommendations that come from senior executive coach Venkat R. Gopalan (Who has more than a decade-long experience coaching big corporates with large teams), we hope this small list of leadership coaching books adds much weight to your coaching journey! 

1. The Art & Practice of Leadership Coaching: 50 Top Executive Coaches Reveal Their Secrets  

What better way to learn the nifty wisdoms of leadership coaching than from the best in the business? The Art & Practice of Leadership Coaching (authored by Howard Morgan, Phil Harkins, and Marshall Goldsmith) curates useful perspectives and best practices for coaching leaders in organisations from 50 top executive coaches! 

Leadership coaching has become vital to the functioning of most successful organisations, with more catching on to the coaching train after seeing the research on the benefits of executive coaching. This book, thus, serves as a guide on what some of the best coaches do to get the most out of the leaders they coach. Not just that, this 300-page resource is packed with core philosophies, critical capabilities, as well as the secrets of coaching success! 

“We advocate for coaching that is done in the spirit of the moral responsibility—responsibility that the people and organizations affected by our work deserve. Coaching, unlike management science, academic theory, or consulting, is an exciting interpersonal journey. Coaches and clients form strong bonds built on trust, openness, confidence, and achievement.”

The 50 contributors have individual essays that dive deep into topics broadly divided into five categories: behavioural, leadership development, career/life transitions, organisational change, and strategies.  

You can find topics such as ‘choosing the right coach’, ‘maximising the impact of coaching’, as well as ‘leveraging the latest trends & strategies’. On top of that, coaches can even find useful tools such as checklists and performance assessments. As far as executive coaching books go, this one is quite comprehensive. 

For anyone who wishes to master the art & practice of coaching leaders, this book is a great resource! 

2. Coaching Competencies & Corporate Leadership  

There’s a common saying that goes “leaders are born, not made”, and this is one of the leadership coaching books that challenges that very notion! One can find practical advice on how coaching executives can use a competency-based approach to become more effective leaders.  

“Many competencies can make coaches effective; some are obvious. If you were the one being coached, you would want someone who was a thoughtful listener and who seemed to care about you and your concerns.” 

Weiss T., Kolberg S 

The book contains case studies, interviews with senior executives from leading international companies, and extensive research & experience to demonstrate how coaches can successfully make use of a core competency coaching program with their clients. 

3. Leadership Team Coaching: Developing Collective Transformational Leadership 

This leadership coaching book is a great value addition to coaches who specifically coach teams in a corporate setup. It can serve as a roadmap for coaches who wish to help individuals responsible for developing a leadership team. 

As you flip through the pages, you can expect to find a thorough explanation of the key elements of team coaching as well as practical tools & techniques to facilitate optimum performance across virtual teams, international teams, executive boards and other teams. 

“The key feature of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is its focus on what currently works well as a starting point for improvement and change. The assumption is that at some time, for instance in using it for team development, there have been experiences or moments when the team have worked well which they can identify and build on to vision how they want to work together well in the future. This grounds the vision of the future in the present and has a powerful effect in amplifying what works well through stories told of these experiences.” 

Peter Hawkins

The latest edition covers topics such as the five disciplines of team performance, how to select team members, how the relationship of the coach and the team develops through stages, how CEOs can foster effective teams with shared leadership, how to choose the best team coach and many other aspects to help facilitate effective leadership teams. 

We know you’ll enjoy reading these leadership coaching books, and we hope they add great value to your day to day as a leadership coach! 

If you’d like more coaching book recommendations, not specifically executive coaching books, we’ve got you covered. These 8 books listed here are a good read! 

FAQs 

1. What are some good coaching books to build a strong foundation? 

In the process of coaching clients as a newly-certified coach, books are a great way to supplement the learning coming from those sessions and coach training material. Co-active Coaching, The Life Coaching Handbook, Life Coaching for Dummies, and Transformational Life Coaching are popular amongst coaches to help enhance your learnings of the coaching profession. To know more in detail, check out this blog of the top 8 recommendations of coaching books to build a strong foundation.