To Grow a Coach: A book Review
Darby A. Ingram-Justus
Department of Life Coaching, Liberty University Online
LIFE 501: Introduction to Life Coaching
Professor Mario Garcia
September 6, 2022
This book review is of author and Coach Keith Webb’s
This book review is of author and Coach Keith Webb’s guide titled The COACH Model. Webb’s
book guides those who intend to learn the foundation and dynamics of the coaching process,
while differentiating the difference between coaching and counseling. In chapter one on page 23,
Webb gives his definition of coaching: Coaching: An ongoing intentional conversation that
empowers a person or group to fully live out God's Calling. The COACH model is highly
relative to the five stages of change used by the American Association of Christian Coaches
(AACC). When used in unison, the COACH model and five stages of change will be the fuel that
feeds the growth of a successful coach.
If you are leader who places a high price tag on the development of other leaders, then create
some space to read9The COACH Model: Powerful Leadership Skills to Solve Problems, Reach
Goals, and Develop Othersby author and leadership consultant Keith Webb. Defining coaching
as “an ongoing intentional conversation that empowers a person or group to fully live out God’s
calling,” Webb provides a very thoughtful, easy-to-follow construct for the coaching process.
Personally speaking, this book has added several valuable tools to my coaching toolkit.
The COACH Model is a radically different approach to leading people. Rather than provide
answers, leaders ask questions to draw out what God has already put into others. ICF
Professional Certified Coach and speaker Keith Webb teaches Christian leaders how to create
powerful conversations to assist others to solve their own problems, reach goals, and develop
their own leadership skills in the process. Whether leaders are working with employees,
teenagers, or a colleague living in another city, they'll find powerful tools and techniques to
increase leadership effectiveness. Based on first-hand experience and taught around the
world,9The COACH Model for Christian Leaders9is packed with stories and illustrations that
bring the principles and practice to life and transform leaders' conversations into powerful
results.
The Coach Model9is a radically different approach to leading people. Rather than provide
answers, leaders ask questions to draw out what God has already put into others. ICF
Professional Certified Coach and speaker Keith Webb teaches Christian leaders how to create
powerful conversations to assist others to solve their own problems, reach goals, and develop
their own leadership skills in the process. Whether leaders are working with employees,
teenagers, or a colleague living in another city, they’ll find powerful tools and techniques to
increase leadership effectiveness.
These days there are many books on coaching. Some of them are targeted for the professional
life coach, some for the manager or leader who realizes the value of coaching to build
relationships and develop team members, and others for the person who wants to build coaching
skills as a part of relationship building. We have read and reviewed a number of books from each
of these categories over the years. Another good coaching book that I would recommend is9The
COACH Model for Christian Leaders9by Keith E. Webb. It has a subtitle of “Powerful leadership
skills for solving problems, reaching goals, and developing others.” From the title and subtitle
it’s clear that this is a book targeted at building coaching skills for the leader or manager. But it
also presents some great tips for the individual that wants to build a coaching mindset for
everyday life. Also, while the book is described as a resource for Christian leaders and is built
upon some Scriptural wisdom, the concepts apply to anyone.
According to the author, most of us suffer from what he calls “know-it-all-ism”, the desire to
give our opinion, solution, or knowledge. But coaching is quite the opposite. Coaching involves
listening to others, asking questions to deepen thinking, allowing others to find their own
solutions, and doing it in a way that makes people feel empowered and responsible enough to
take action. To interact with another person in a coaching role requires a mindset, a skill set, and
a tool set. The first three chapters of the book provide a nice description of the coaching mindset.
While the book’s primary objective is to equip leaders for coaching team members, this
description of coaching could be especially helpful to people who simply want to incorporate the
coaching mindset into all of their relationships.
The central part of this book is a coaching process for leaders to use as they seek to develop
people within their sphere of influence. The process is the COACH Model, which includes the
following steps:
Connect9– the connect step has two components. First, engaging or re-engaging with the
coachee and second, following up on action items and previous discussions.
Outcome9– the second step sets expectations for the outcome from the present
conversation. This allows both the coach and coachee to know the path that the
conversation is expected to follow and for them both to measure along the way to assure
that they are on track.
Awareness9– this step is the heart of the conversation wherein together, with the coach
asking questions and the coachee reflecting and discovering, they seek insights,
connections, and perspectives surrounding the topic and desired outcome.
Course9– Having explored and reflected, the fourth step is the development of an action
plan. Given what the coachee has discovered through the conversation, what are the steps
for growth and development between today and the next discussion?
Highlights9– the final step is a summary, but it has a greater purpose than just
documenting the coaching session. By effectively summarizing, the discussion is
consolidated into learning that is more likely to be retained and have impact.
While this might seem like a script for a coaching meeting, throughout the five chapters on this
process the author builds further on the coaching mindset and provides practical advice on using
these various steps in different situations. He wraps up the book with advice on incorporating
these coaching tools in every relationship and in every part of our life. In describing the benefit
of using the coaching mindset in all of our relationships, the author says the following:
“In our fast-paced world we too often cut short conversations that require exploration. We’re
looking for easy answers that don’t create more work. Instead, encourage exploration by asking
questions that will cause the other person to reflect more deeply. Then you’ll find underlying
issues, meaning, and new learning.”
