Book Review - Coaching With NLP

If you are done with reading the latest summer beach blockbuster and are ready for something that will help you on your coaching journey then Francoise Orlov has kindly reviewed  Joseph O’Connor and Andrea Lages ‘s book Coaching With NLP... 

“Coaching with NLP” is a must-read book. My assessor recommended it to me, when I was looking for resources about NLP and how to refine my coaching style and enrich my coaching practice. And this book definitely exceeded my expectations.

Written by James O’Connor and Andrea Lages, both global authorities in their field, “Coaching with NLP, How to be a Master Coach – A practical guide to getting the best of yourself and others” is fascinating and a gold mine of learning and resources.

Below is my feedback, written from a student coach’s perspective, studying the Life Coaching Diploma, and with no NLP training

• Very enjoyable read. The style is nicely fluid, almost written like a dialogue between the authors and the reader.
  
  
• Very clearly structured in four parts and ten chapters. The first part is dedicated to what coaching is, how it compares with other techniques such as counselling, therapy, training, teaching, consultancy and mentoring. 
  
  The second part covers the structure of coaching, its process (from beginning to end), and the areas of coaching (goals, values, beliefs) from the authors’ perspective. 
  
  The third part is entitled "Coaching in practice". Although brief, it integrates tools and ideas previously introduced, supported by examples of coaching dialogues, which enhance the reader’s learning. The last part provides generous “Coaching with NLP” resources on a general basis as well as chapter-focused ones.
  
  
• The chapters are just about the right length to my taste. Each of them ends with a summary as well as defined and successive action steps to be taken by the coachee, being either oneself or a client.
  
  
• Very useful glossary, bibliography and index can be found at the back of the book.
  
  
• Outstanding source and attributes of powerful and challenging coaching questions, coaching and NLP tools and exercises.
  
  
• Core competencies, which we as coaches need to master, are covered with a lot of subtlety throughout the book, so that we can conduct great coaching sessions that flow organically.
  
  

This book is not about coaching, it is not about NLP either. As its title says, it is about coaching with NLP, and about the “art of coaching”. Acting is one of the NLP presuppositions that coaching implements, which makes coaching so distinctive from other techniques. “If you want to understand, act” is the mantra of the book. So true.

It is a challenge to capture in a brief review the learning one can get out of “Coaching with NLP”, from reading it and from practicing what it suggests. Also, each coach, with their background and personal history, will grow at their own pace. I specifically enjoyed the chapter dedicated to transition and the “transition model”, which shows the complete coaching cycle and put into light the issue of loss and the role of habits or “anchors” as known in NLP.

I also got a lot of insight into how to use some NLP concepts and tools, especially calibration and language, more precisely during the intake process and the reality phase. They are so vital to build rapport and trust, “which are prerequisites of a good coaching relationship”, and they help generate those creative options in the early stages of the coaching relationship and also further down the line.

In summary, I strongly recommend this book. It will benefit the reader from the start of their training and throughout their learning and practice. This book stays close to me, so that I can consult it when I need to or when I feel like it.

Enjoy!

Reviewed by Francoise D. Orlov