30th September 2017
A Handbook of Coaching – but you will need two hands
I am currently reading “The Sage Handbook of Coaching” edited by Tatiana Bachkirova, Gordon Spencer and David Drake. It is an ambitious undertaking, seeking as it does to present “an account of this fast developing discipline, to map out where it is going, and to identify the key debates and issues that are influencing coaching practice and its accompanying research,” (p1). At just over 750 pages, it is costly in time and money (in fact I was able to acquire it on inter-library loan, though plan to buy it). But it is a valuable resource which brings together much of the thinking over the last few decades, provides a real sense of how coaching fits in among many disciplines and looks ahead to what is to come. I highly recommend it, but it might not quite be bedtime reading, given how heavy it is!