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The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
Business Life Mentoring & Coaching
What if becoming a better manager starts with saying less and asking better questions? In *The Coaching Habit*, Michael Bungay Stanier shows how coaching can become a natural part of everyday conversations, helping managers develop their teams without adding more work to an already busy day. Built around seven essential coaching questions, the book offers practical ways to uncover challenges, focus conversations, encourage independent thinking, and turn advice into lasting habits. Drawing on research and real-world coaching experience, Bungay Stanier presents a simple, engaging approach to helping people unlock their potential and make a greater impact.
- Release Date
- 2016
- Length
- 240 pages
- Publisher
- Box of Crayons Press
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Our Review
About the book
Michael Bungay Stanier distills managerial coaching into seven questions designed to help leaders talk less, ask more and avoid jumping in with advice. The short book combines behavioral habit-building tips with practical guidance on using each question in everyday conversations.
Our review
Seven questions, one stubborn habit to break: the advice reflex. A compact book that changes how meetings feel.
Bungay Stanier’s insight is that most managers do not need a coaching program; they need to stop rushing to fix things. The seven questions, starting with a simple prompt about what is on someone’s mind and ending with what they found most useful, are easy to remember and surprisingly powerful. Because each chapter pairs a question with habit-formation advice, the book is built for practice rather than admiration, and it reads in an afternoon.
The breezy design, with sidebars, cartoons and asides, will charm some readers and irritate others. The framework is deliberately minimal, so experienced coaches may find little new, and the questions can sound scripted until they become natural. But for first-time managers or anyone whose one-on-ones turn into advice monologues, it is one of the most immediately useful leadership books available.
What we loved
- Seven memorable, immediately usable questions
- Built-in habit-change advice for real adoption
- Short enough to finish and reread quickly
Keep in mind
- Playful design and asides can feel gimmicky
- Thin for experienced coaches seeking depth
Read it if you like
new managers, readers of Radical Candor, fans of The Advice Trap
The verdict
Small, smart and practical; perhaps the best quick-start guide to coaching-style leadership.
