Self as Coach, Self as Leader: Developing the Best in You to Develop the Best in Others

This was truly inspirational and relatable. I highly recommend it if you’re a leader of others regardless of industry. Highly applicable to our healthcare realm.

Since I am doing more team leadership coaching these days, a colleague suggested Pamela McLean's new book, "Self as Coach, Self as Leader: Developing the Best in You to Develop the Best in Others." Especially in this VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous), "the price of counterproductive leadership behavior is unimaginably costly and even the best of leaders face challenges that are daunting. The coaches equipped to successfully work with leaders in these changing times need nimbleness, understanding of complexities, ease with ambiguities, and deep familiarity with their own internal landscape."And while the intended audience is for full-time coaches, I found the information to be equally useful for any team leader. After all, they coach their team as well!McLean's premise is that today's coaches need to know themselves in order to be great coaches. Team leaders also need to know themselves in order to be great leaders as well.I started my journey of self-awareness with a business coach back in the mid-90's when I first started my business. I then did a bunch of training with the Landmark Forum. Since then, most of my self-discovery has been through discussions with mentors, friends and my post-divorce therapist. :-)Some books have been helpful, but this book far surpasses my expectations! McLean is an authority in coaching and has distilled her myriad years of practice into several models along with practical self-reflection exercises. Normally, I just buzz through a book and then come back (maybe) to do a few of the exercises. This book is different. After each chapter, I wanted to stop, reflect, do the exercises and then chat about it with my husband, Joe.I love the way the author takes a case and "applies heat" giving three different scenario/responses. Of course, you may intellectually gravitate toward the best answer, yet emotionally, you may respond differently.It's an intellectually and emotionally stimulating book - I highly recommend it if you want to increase your self-awareness and ability to coach and lead others.

Pam McLean has provided the 'next generation' of critical insight into the field of coaching, never needed more than now in our current world. This is big work in our ever changing world and invites us all to become 'twice born leaders and coaches.' Her new book, 'Self as Coach, Self as Leader' takes the history, theory and development of Leadership/ Executive Coaching to a profound place of mindful attention to the 'self' in the process. What a wonderful culmination of the history of the field and understanding of self introduced in her previous book, the 'Revised Handbook of Coaching,' enhanced in this current book, the detailed self-awareness and depth and how that plays out in the role as Leader/Coach.Watching Pam from the early days of the formation of the Hudson Institute with her late husband Frederic, taking the organization and the field to a new level when he was diagnosed with Alzheimers, (here lies the first lesson of twice born leadership), providing direction and vision for the next phase of the organization, developing the first Coaching Supervision program, and continuing to grow and expand herself as a twice and thrice born leader, she models for us and stays true to her passionate commitment to a much needed contribution the coaching field. Her unselfish and dedicated work, brilliance and thoughtful knowledge of theory and approaches, is again extended through this work.I think that Pam's insightful, wealth of knowledge and experience, and addition of her own examples of her personal journey, describes the coach commitment to ongoing development and deep insight into one's self when entering and developing in this profession. This is a book for those that are passionate about coaching and see it as a calling, for leaders that love to lead, and for those that want to grow in their own self-awareness and understanding of their impact on others. As a coach, a leader, a developer of coaches, this should be part of the library and recommended reading for all coaching schools. Thank you Pam for your wisdom, sharing your vulnerable self, and your Leadership in the field for many, many years. Understanding the 'self' as the key 'tool' in coaching, simple, yet profound.

McLean’s new book is a tour du force, compellingly written, ably summarizing major psychological theories relevant to coaching, and making them come alive with compelling coaching case studies and her personal reflections. And, if that were not enough, the book is short and a good read. In it, McLean calls on coaches not only to continually learn but also to continually grow as people, a process that can be supported by stretching to meet the differential needs of each client. Grounding her thinking in the impact of early life on any of our continuing patterns, she also reveals how to break those patterns in order to become more whole as a person and complex in one’s thinking. I learned a great deal from this book, and recommend it not just for coaches, but also for mentors, educators, leaders and anyone at all who interacts with other people and seeks greater self-awareness.Carol S. Pearson, author of Awakening the Heroes Within