The best 66 Coaching books

In The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner explain how anyone can become a better leader. Citing various examples from their 25 years of experience and extensive research, the authors present their theories on what makes a successful leader, and give practical advice on how to learn good leadership behavior.

Challenging Coaching argues that traditional coaching is limited by its therapeutic origins. Blakey and Day introduce a better alternative for the twenty-first century business environment: the FACTS approach. Its emphasis on demanding challenging Feedback, Accountability, Courageous Goals, Tension and Systems Thinking drives a client to achieve their full potential.

A Year with Peter Drucker (2014) offers a treasure trove of the management guru’s most essential insights, known as “Druckerisms.” Over decades, Peter Drucker (who died in 2005) developed a groundbreaking philosophy of leadership and success, teachings blissfully free of the jargon that dominates management studies today.

With global sales of over 13 million, The One Minute Manager is a classic that’s still changing the workplace. It explains how managers can get outstanding results from their employees while spending as little time actively managing them as possible. A one minute manager needs just three simple tools to boost productivity – and transform their company.

Thanks for the Feedback is about learning from people and experiences, whether at home or at work. It sheds light on different types of feedback and their importance, and how you can take any kind of feedback in a positive, constructive way and use it to better yourself in your career and relationships.

Many people today are frustrated with their day-to-day jobs, because deep down they know that they’re not really living the life they desire. Dream Year helps you identify your dreams, and offers practical advice on how you can go about starting your own business to pursue them.

Flawless Consulting (second edition, 2000) gives you an inside look into the art of consulting with a step-by-step guide to all the phases of a professional consultation. Whether you’re a consultant just starting your career or a business leader working with consultants, this book will show you how to successfully manage consultant-client relationships.

A Team of Leaders (2014) provides companies facing internal problems, such as lost productivity, high turnover and low employee commitment, with a powerful solution. These blinks outline practical methods and tools, including the five-stage team development model, to guide you toward an engaged and high-performance work environment.

Growing Great Employees (2006) is about coaching, management and leadership. Using gardening as metaphor that runs throughout the book, consultant and CEO Erika Andersen cleverly explains how to successfully develop thriving and productive employees.

Simple Rules (2015) contains the ultimate rules of thumb that’ll guide you to your goals in your professional life, and your personal life too. The tips provided in these blinks will help you rediscover simplicity in an increasingly complex modern world, without committing you to a crazy checklist that takes over your life.

Unlocking Potential (2014) outlines practical coaching tools to help leaders, managers or supervisors better engage their teams and transform their organizations. It’s simply the most comprehensive guide to becoming a great coach!

In Leading (2015), one of the world’s most celebrated soccer coaches shares lessons he learned about teamwork, leadership and incredible athletic performance. His observations and experiences provide timeless insights into success in the sporting world and beyond.

Co-Active Coaching (2011) is about designing an effective, empowering relationship between the client and the coach. The authors outline the cornerstones of collaborative coaching, providing applicable examples of how to achieve a successful and trusting coach-client relationship.

Attitude Reflects Leadership (2015) exposes why the modern world of work is rife with bad bosses. These blinks illuminate the elements of leadership that drive top performance, from knowing the difference between managing and leading to fostering the right attitude in your team. You’ll learn that while exceptional leadership is rare, it is something you can learn.

The Leader as a Mensch (2009) is a guide to becoming a great leader. Learn the importance of caring for those you lead, and how reflecting on yourself will bring you closer than ever to becoming the best leader you can be.

The Coaching Habit (2016) breaks down the elements of coaching and explains how to coach effectively. Contrary to what you might think, coaching isn’t about giving advice but instead about guiding employees to find their way to success. These blinks show how you too can become a great coach.

High Output Management (1995) is a guide to the most important skill for any entrepreneur: managing a business. These blinks explain how a leader can encourage employees to deliver their best performance.

Doing the Right Things Right (2015) cuts to the core of successful leadership. It teaches you how to manage a team and how to work with others to achieve profitable and productive results. Get ready to feel confident and lead your team to success.

Learning Leadership (2016) proves that leaders don’t have to be born with a talent for great leadership. Like any other skill, leadership is something that can be learned and improved upon. And with the help of just five fundamental strategies, you too can learn what it takes to be an effective leader. These are great tips for those who are just stepping into a leadership position or for seasoned pros looking for a fresh perspective.

The Eight Essential People Skills for Project Management (2018) is a hands-on guide designed to help team leaders diagnose and solve people problems in today’s increasingly horizontal workplaces. The fruit of years of first-hand experience, Zachary Wong’s playbook for effective leadership is packed full of actionable advice on how to boost motivation, confront underperformers and push through fear of failure.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree (2017) explores the divide between the extremely successful and the rest of the pack. These blinks draw on science, statistics and surprising anecdotes to explain the factors that determine success – and how almost anyone can attain it.

The Leader Habit (2018) details an approach to leadership development that favors practice and habit learning over rote learning of knowledge. By looking at the ways habits are developed, and by breaking down the skills necessary for successful leadership into microbehaviors, these blinks offer a structure for becoming a better leader through short training exercises.

Good People, Bad Managers (2017) argues that the culture of the modern American workplace is perpetuating bad management without our being aware of it. The current management culture of self-preservation leads to behavior that actively harms well-being, productivity and motivation. Culbert explores why so many good people are trapped in the cycle of bad management, and makes a case for cultural change in our workplaces.

No Bullsh*t Leadership (2019) dispels the myths we often hear about what makes a great leader. Whether you’re managing a company, school or sports team, the principles behind effective leadership aren’t rocket science. Nor do they require impressive titles or expensive suits. In this timely volume, experienced leader Chris Hirst explains how any of us can learn the philosophy behind great leadership if we put our minds to it.

The Making of a Manager (2019) explores what new managers can do in their first three months and beyond to ensure their team gets excellent results. From meetings to recruitment and managing a growing team, these blinks examine the opportunities and pitfalls that all new managers face, and demonstrate that great managers are made, not born.

Trillion Dollar Coach (2019) pays homage to Bill Campbell, a coach and mentor whose advice and insights helped some of Silicon Valley’s brightest lights build multi-billion dollar companies. In these blinks, Google leaders Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle chart Campbell’s remarkable life, from the Columbia University football field to the Californian boardrooms in which the digital revolution was planned and rolled out. Along the way, they shed light on Coach Bill’s leadership philosophy.

Feedback (and Other Dirty Words) (2019) is a smart and practical guide to something many of us fear: seeking, giving and receiving feedback. It explains how we can avoid the negative psychological reactions many of us have to feedback, and offers practical tips for how we can all build a positive and helpful feedback culture. 

The Coach’s Survival Guide (2019) explores how you can become an even better coach. Whether you’re a life coach, an executive coach or working in a niche area, you’ll find these blinks packed with both insight and solutions for the challenges you face.

Lead Like a Coach (2018) is a how-to guide to the coaching model of leadership. Packed with advice and insight, these blinks are the perfect companion for any leader looking to up their game. Making a clear case for the benefits of coaching over older managerial styles, they explain why coaching is so relevant today and why many organizations are opting to switch to this model.

Leading without Authority (2020) explores how non-managerial employees can drive change and influence their coworkers. These blinks outline simple techniques for making a big impact in the workplace, regardless of your official title.

The Fifth Discipline (1990) is a comprehensive guide to creating learning organizations – workplaces that nurture innovation and personal growth. The author argues that, in our rapidly changing world, companies can only succeed if they change the way in which they deal with problems. In his view, a reactive approach, based on constantly putting out fires, no longer works. Instead, businesses need to adopt what he calls a systems thinking method. This method is proactive, and its purpose is to identify underlying patterns and generate innovative solutions. But this approach only works if you have motivated staff who share the company’s vision. 

The Agile Leader (2018) explores how leaders can steer traditional organizations in the fast-paced digital world. These blinks show that agile working can help corporate teams to compete with start-ups, and to keep up with ever-changing customer expectations.

Serve Up, Coach Down (2018) is a corporate leadership guide for middle managers. It empowers workers to “master the middle” by sharing the strategies they need to effectively manage both their team and their boss.

The Making of a Leader (2020) is an invaluable trove of leadership wisdom. Drawing on interviews with seven coaches at the peak of their profession, it explains not only what a great leader is but how you can make yourself into one.

Great Leaders Have No Rules (2019) challenges leaders to adopt a contrarian approach to managing people and their time so that they succeed more easily and quickly. By identifying the flaws in traditional or typical leadership practices, it reveals why going against the grain results in better outcomes.

Staring Down the Wolf (2020) is a leadership guide to forging great teams in the face of adversity. Drawing upon the teachings of the Navy SEALs, one of the world’s most elite military units, it shows what it takes to command an elite team.

Mastering Leadership (2015) explores the link between personal development and great leadership. It reveals the mindset needed to lead effectively, and explores how insights from classical mythology can help managers find their inner heroic leader. 

Lead Like It Matters to God (2021) is a reminder to Christians that work isn’t just about money and status. Stearns uses his own career experiences to offer guidance to Christians in leadership positions. He outlines the key values to prioritize and gives practical suggestions for improving organizations and creating a more positive working environment.

The Promises of Giants (2021) offers a series of strategies that will transform you into an extraordinary leader. Regardless of what you do or where you are on your career journey, this series of practical tips will expedite your success while empowering those around you. 

Permission to Glow (2021) provides managers with a roadmap to lead with intention and purpose so that everyone can reach their full potential. By embracing its four permissions, it shows how leaders can maximize outcomes and personal successes by first tapping into their own power and then guiding others to do the same.

Everyone Deserves a Great Manager (2019) provides business leaders with six crucial practices that will transform team members into high performers. Offering practical solutions, it fills in the gap many new managers encounter when they’re promoted without receiving any leadership training. 

Remarkable (2021) is a playbook for professionals looking to advance their careers. It’s not about getting ahead by any means, though. Covering topics like self-promotion, mistakes, and disagreements, it makes a compelling case that the best way to move forward is by staying humble and working with – and for – your team. 

Driving Performance Through Learning (2019) is a guide to help learning and development professionals understand the full breadth of possibilities for learning in the modern workplace. It explains the benefits of learning during the natural flow of work, encouraging a wide range of innovative methods.

Brilliance by Design (2011) is all about creating learning experiences that bring out the brilliance in every student. Targeted at coaches, teachers, mentors, and anyone who spends time in a classroom, it provides a handy and helpful model for high-impact instructional design that will inspire and motivate learners. 

Shift Into a Higher Gear (2021) uses the metaphor of a motorcycle to deliver some inspiring lessons on pursuing your dreams, achieving self-growth, and living your life to the fullest. Drawing from the author’s years of motorcycling experience, its teachings are equally applicable to your personal and professional lives. 

The Leader Lab (2021) is a handbook for anyone who wants to improve their management skills fast. Through extensive research, and training more than 200,000 managers, the authors have identified the core behaviors and skills that all great managers share. They offer simple, practical tips, and methods that can be applied for rapid results.

You Coach You (2022) is a guide to being your own coach for maximum career success and happiness. With practical guides, questions that help you think about who you are at work, and fun exercises, the authors show you how you can be your own best cheerleader and guide. 

The Handbook of Strategic 360 Feedback is a guide to the pros and cons of 360 Feedback, including detailed guidance on how to implement the process as well as how to avoid pitfalls such as unconscious bias or people who try to game the system. 

Empowered (2020) is a written master class that guides ordinary people to create extraordinary products. Discover how to create profitable products that consumers love!

Buy Back Your Time (2023) teaches entrepreneurs how to hire the right people for the right tasks, so they can free up the time they need to build their empire. Practical advice and success stories guide those who feel stuck in their busy lives out of the tedium of small chores and into the limitless field of pure production.

Leadership: Theory and Practice (2015) is a popular textbook exploring the topic of leadership. It discusses the main theories of leadership, explains the popular types of leadership style, and offers practical advice on improving your own leadership characteristics.  

The Wisdom of the Bullfrog (2023) draws on the experiences and leadership challenges faced over the 40-year career of a former American naval admiral to provide timeless guidance on what it takes to be a successful leader.

Next! (2023) is an inspiring guide to personal reinvention. With insights from scientific research and real-life success stories, it provides practical steps to implement meaningful change in life and work.

Raising Men (2016) is a powerful exploration of life-changing military lessons, emphasizing the importance of boldness, accountability, and bonding. Via real-life stories from Navy SEALs, this captivating narrative will teach you how to build strong relationships with your son and raise him with discipline, leadership, and grace.

It Worked for Me (2012) imparts Colin Powell’s practical wisdom on becoming an effective leader. It’s largely based on his time in the military and public service, and the insights he gained from his experiences in these positions. 

Mixed Signals (2023) sheds light on the power of incentives, drawing on behavioral economics research to explore how various factors like money, social status, and external nudges can influence our choices. It explores how incentives often have complex and counterintuitive effects, offering an understanding of these dynamics to improve decision-making and outcomes.

Coaching for Performance (2009) is the foundational text which launched the multimillion-dollar business coaching industry. The 25th anniversary edition brings new life to the hallmark GROW model, and revisits the methods after a quarter-century of learning in performance coaching. It’s essential for leaders and coaches globally.

Primal Leadership (2013) argues that the fundamental task of any great leader is to engage the emotions of their followers and guide them in a positive direction. Offering up an emotionally intelligent, resonant style of leadership, it delves into the skills and qualities needed to become a better leader and bring out the best in your team.

Bowerman and the Men of Oregon (2006) is a riveting tale about track and field coach Bill Bowerman’s relentless drive to produce the best athletes from his base in his native Oregon. Through innovation and sheer force of character, he inspired a community to fall in love with running, and in the process co-founded Nike.

The Ultimate Guide to Great Mentorship (2023) demystifies the art of being an effective mentor. It walks prospective mentors through the entire mentoring journey – from setting expectations and goals at the outset to tracking progress to ending on a high note.

Elevate Your Team (2023) presents a framework to optimize team performance and drive company growth, while safeguarding employees against burnout. By implementing this strategy, leaders can guide their teams to reach their full potential, so that both they – and their company – thrives.   

The Purpose Effect (2016) combines motivational psychology, organizational culture, and the pursuit of meaning to explore how shared purpose can change the world. What happens when company and employee goals align? How can we foster a culture where we pursue work that really has an impact? This deep-dive is your guide to finding the sweet spot of shared purpose.

When They Win, You Win (2022) is your guide to being a great manager. This playbook reveals the simple leadership principles that unlock your employees’ full potential, create happy, engaged teams, and drive better business results.

Influence and Impact (2021) offers a practical guide for professionals seeking to build their influence within organizations. Drawing on proven coaching techniques, it provides frameworks, stories, and solutions to help you evaluate your strengths, develop critical skills, and determine what roles will maximize your effectiveness.

The Blueprint (2020) is a transformative journey and a practical manual for aspiring leaders. It offers six manageable and incremental steps designed to fit within the hustle of modern life, aimed at revolutionizing leadership approaches. It explores the paths of envisioning, reflecting, studying, planning, practicing, and improving to achieve career success, joy, and fulfillment. These steps, coupled with realistic and practical exercises, provide a foundation for meaningful change in various organizational settings.

10 Leadership Virtues for Disruptive Times (2021) provides a framework for leaders navigating major change, concentrating on core virtues such as kindness, humility, and respect. Ziglar’s insights advocate for a Coach Leadership style that cultivates each team member’s unique dreams and abilities, ensuring that businesses thrive even in difficult times.