Abstract
Any text that suggests that it is a critical one is always a must read for me. As both a coaching and mentoring practitioner and teacher, I am always looking for texts that analyse both the theory and practice of coaching and mentoring in a critical way. I was pleased to be able to review this book but also had a sense of trepidation, worrying that it may call itself critical but that it may not end up being critical enough, so setting itself up for a more critical review! I was also interested to read this book as I was aware that the author had written a critical text about leadership too, and I was interested to see how leadership, coaching and mentoring may be discussed together or clearly distinguished.
The author explains his personal, extremely emotional journey while writing the book, in the dedication at the start, and this sets the scene for expecting emotion and openness throughout this book. As all good coaches, the author is prepared to share a little of himself, in order to encourage and support us to reflect on our own selves. The author does this as he works through the book. He is prepared to share his examples, reflections and feedback from others he has worked with, and I feel this gives real credibility to his writing.
In the introduction, there is clarity at the start that coaching and mentoring are not easily distinguishable and that the term coaching will be used throughout (unless a specific distinction is needed later.) I think this makes the stance of the author very clear but wonder whether there is room for some more discussion and debate about the different perspectives here. To be fair, there is a bit more discussion about this in Chapter 2, looking at the typologies of coaching and mentoring and recognising that there are fuzzy boundaries and even again in the epilogue, but I think I was left wondering whether it really was that simple. Some authors are very clear about the differences, and I wonder whether they may be put off by the very early acceptance of the similarities, at the start. For instance, the introduction leads on into the history of how coaching emerged, but it does not necessarily discuss how differently mentoring, in business, for instance, has evolved. I will declare early that this was my only real criticism of the book and on reflection, perhaps it says more about me than the book. And I leave myself wondering why I hold this strong belief and what does it say about me and my beliefs (a question posed by the author on page 19!). I guess I feel that if we are to be critical about coaching and mentoring, then we need to be critical about both and even be critical of those who agree or disagree that it is the same thing.
The chapters are split into Parts I to IV. Part I looks at the growth of coaching, together with a discussion of four critical frames of coaching (and mentoring): the emancipatory approach, depth analysis, looking awry and network analysis. These frames not only help us to look critically at coaching but are also helpful lenses to view our own coaching practice. There is helpful framework on page 39, and I particularly like the notion of praxis declared in this section too, reiterating the importance of practice being informed by theory and vice versa. This strikes me as the whole essence of the book: discussing the practice using the theory in order to inform the theory and the practice in return. To me, this is a true critical approach. Part I also looks at the different types of mentoring and coaching including reverse mentoring, life coaching, business coaching, team/group coaching, recognising that there are many varieties and this just touches the surface. I like the suggestion by the author that these cannot be categorised into similarities/differences, as they are such hybrid activities and all so varied. This fits well with me, in relation to the notion of recognising differing discourses and declaring difference even within the term coaching (let alone mentoring!).
Part II discusses a brief genealogy of coaching, its rise and connections with other helping relationships. Friendship is mentioned from a variety of different perspectives, and I agree that this is often overlooked or only lightly mentioned in the coaching and mentoring literature. Yet as this book suggests, friends are often the first place we go to when we need help and support. I really enjoyed the discussion about premodern, modern and postmodern friendship, and I feel this is an important contribution of the book. After all, we like and trust our friends, we share common ground with our friends and we open up to them. This is the crux of any effective coaching/mentoring relationship. The author also cautions about friendships affecting the focus and professionalism of the relationship and mentions keeping the correct distance between the emotional and the professional.
Part III is concerned with the dominant discourses of coaching: the inner self (the soul guide), the outer self (the Psy Expert), the role self (managerial) and the connected self (the network coach). Spirituality and religious references are entwined throughout the book but its influence is discussed in Chapter 6 in more detail. In this section, the author shares an exercise that he does with his own clients, whereby he takes them to an art gallery and asks them a series of questions to encourage them to associate with the art work and consider who they are, what makes them feel located and grounded, what does not, what their body is saying and so on. This and other examples from the author’s practitioner experience are used throughout, and this I think really helps to ground the ideas and demonstrate how they may play out in practice. This is good advice, without even trying. The Psy Expert coach is discussed in this section too, and a good balance is given between the strengths and challenges of taking on this role. It concludes that a ‘therapist wearing a coaching mask is doing poor therapy and poor coaching. Coaching will be informed by the Psy Expert Discourse but must not be totally colonized by it’ (p.176). Managerial discourse is discussed and interestingly, although the author has another book about leadership, he is quick to distinguish the two and focus on the managerial mindset only. Finally, in this section, the network coach is discussed as the new zeitgeist of our times, as an emerging yet little discussed theme. Connecting to a wider network within and outside of coaching seems an obvious area to explore, but this is disproportionate to the other three discourses. At present, it is a marginalised area with limited research to support it, which may be why the author is developing and sharing his own network coach model later on. This section ends with a very helpful discussion on how these discourses are connected and overlap (with some helpful diagrams and a table). This helps to synthesise and crystallise the key components of this section and shows how the different perspectives are connected.
Part IV reflects on the future of coaching. This section discusses the problems with developing coaching theory so far and proposes a meta-theory beyond the current theory. The author offers his own model based on micro and macro practices with the coach and coachee at the heart of the process. The four discourses mentioned previously are underpinning the central core. I found this model extremely helpful to capture the whole essence of the book as it began to draw the key arguments to a close, while recognising the importance of the micro and macro context. I enjoyed not only the intellectual arguments in this book but also the simplicity of the diagrams. Coaching pedagogy is discussed in this section too and made me reflect on our own university’s approach to ‘teaching’, coaching and mentoring. The book ends with some final thoughts from the author, leaving us with ‘some yeast in the dough’ (p. 292) and an outline of a network approach he is developing, the analytic-network coach.
As a coaching and mentoring practitioner, I particularly liked the discussion of the four discourses and the acknowledgement of the friendship elements to coaching. I also enjoyed reading about the author’s experiences and techniques throughout. I will look at the Tate Modern in a different light now!
As a teacher on university coaching and mentoring programmes, I particularly liked the early discussion of the rise of coaching and the critical nature of the discourse discussions, and of course, the handy diagrams to help synthesise the key elements for my students. I can see how I will be able to use the theory to inform their (and my) practice and vice versa, not to mention the huge and helpful reference list at the end.
The book starts by declaring that its aim is to be thoughtful yet polemic and that it is a book of ideas. This it does. I enjoyed the thread of the ongoing arguments throughout the book and the interception of various quotes, ranging from key coaching and mentoring authors to religious and anecdotal to workplace examples (e.g. Google). This helps not only to break up the text but also to lighten and clarify the key points being made. It is a book about bringing ideas from all different perspectives together and sharing the author’s opinions throughout as well. The dedication is heartfelt at the beginning and somehow it feels heartfelt throughout; it feels like a book that strongly represents the vast knowledge and experience of the author. It seems like the author has been through such an emotional and intellectual journey and he is encouraging us to do the same. I enjoyed reading it and will definitely use it with my postgraduate students, to unlock their thinking and provide further critical perspectives on coaching (and mentoring) too.
This book is aimed at coaching and mentoring practitioners, experienced or new to the profession or area of study. As such I think it is an ideal book for postgraduate study. It is an enjoyable read and provides ideas and critical perspectives that very few other coaching and mentoring books do. It is written clearly, it guides you to additional key authors and has practical examples throughout, which all help to crystallise the key points made. There are few critical books on this subject and so this one will be a must read for those in education/training related to coaching and mentoring.
In summary, this was a very interesting book to review for Management Learning. It says it is a critical text and so it is. It is heartfelt and it is personally written. It is easy to follow and covers many different perspectives. My only criticism is that there could be more of discussion about mentoring, similarities and differences at the start or referenced throughout, but then I am from the school of thought who still thinks there is a difference, perhaps I am behind the times!