This book is designed for a wide readership – in human resources, management, training, or indeed anyone interested in the application of emotional intelligence. The authors take the reader through a series of chapters that can be read as a sequence or as individual units. What it adds to the coaching literature is the way emotional intelligence can be integrated into established coaching techniques and as a prerequisite for effective line management coaching. The book presents its own model of emotionally intelligent coaching that comes with its own EICOACH acronym. Many, if not most people working as coaches or trainers will already demonstrate emotional intelligence, even if they don't label it as such. For some managers and HR professionals the insistence in this book that it is emotional intelligence that has be developed first, before coaching techniques can be effective, may come as an interesting surprise.
Chapter 1 takes us through the question “What is emotional intelligence?” (EI). It's about interference (as in the formula: performance=potential−interference). EI is “using thinking about feeling (and feeling about thinking) to guide your behaviour. There's a section on how brains work and the danger of emotional hijacks.
Each chapter contains anecdotes and dialogues to illustrate what can go wrong, and how to put it right.
The issue for coaching is how EI can be measured and changed. There is a later chapter on 360‐feedback techniques, with sample questionnaires provided. “Developing EI will impact on all areas of your life” is the authors’ title for one section of this first chapter. There is a danger that the writers get a bit evangelical in their claims for emotional intelligence. They clearly feel passionately about the subject. The extent to which you feel irritated or driven by the style will depend on how much you agree with this.
What else is EI about? Positive self regard, regard for others, self management, relationship management and the application of the KASH (knowledge, attitudes, skills, habits) model.
Chapter 2 is “What is coaching?” A chapter with this title seems to be a compulsory component of any book on coaching. (When will that cease to be necessary, I wonder?) A distinguishing feature of this one is its neat explanation of the difference between coaching, mentoring, counselling, consultancy and training. This is pitched at managers and HR specialists. Its main message is that emotional intelligence is a key ingredient for great coaching.
Chapter 3 is “The importance of emotional intelligence in coaching”, and offers a way to evaluate how successful coaching is in your organisation. It relates emotional intelligence coaching to concepts that coaches and trainers will most likely already be familiar with – I'm OK, you're OK; the persecutor‐victim‐rescuer triangle; and using self as instrument. Using an EI framework to present these ideas, whether familiar or not, offers a different perspective on how to make coaching effective.
Chapter 4 is “The fast track to performance and profitability”, and makes the economic argument for coaching using a KASH model. There are examples of how the authors and their associates have introduced effective coaching programmes into organisations and how the impact was measured – how they have answered the ROI question (where ROI is return on investment).
Chapter 5, “Developing your emotional intelligence”, has a number of questionnaires and other activities that can be done by self and others. The activities presented are based on self‐regard, regard for others, self awareness and awareness of others – the things identified earlier as key components of EI. The questionnaires and activities are simple, i.e. not overly complex, and can be used by individuals on themselves, or by coaches or trainers as part of a development programme.
The authors also suggest, rather contentiously, that it isn't necessary to qualify as interpreters for proprietary diagnostic instruments. These simple questionnaires that are self‐explanatory are quite sufficient.
Chapter 6 is “Understanding and working with values, beliefs and attitudes”. It starts with three questions:
- 1.
What really motivates you? What are your values?
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What are your key attitudes that create your daily behaviour and habits?
- 3.
What kind of beliefs do you hold – are they positive and inspiring you to take action or do they hold you back?
The questions are answered with an exposition of both individual and organisational values, attitudes and behaviours. This is then used to define the emotionally intelligent coach and the emotionally intelligent organisation.
Chapter 7 is on “Core coaching skills” – listening, questioning, empathy and rapport. This is where the EICOACH acronym is unpacked. It stands for emotions, intelligence, current (i.e. what's going on right now?), opportunities, action, change measure and how do you feel right now. One of this book's strengths is that is full of lists, models and anecdotes that make its message very accessible and easy to retrieve when used as a reference manual. Whether the profession needs yet another acronym to tell you how to sequence a coaching session is another question, of course.
“How goals flow from values to action” is the topic of Chapter 8. The significant difference between this chapter and its predecessors is in its extended dialogues between example coachees and their coach. It illustrates how elusive an objective can be if it is not aligned to both organisational goals and an individual's values. Coaching on values, to get ownership of goals is the message here.
Chapter 9 summarises the techniques and models that have been presented thus far under the rubric of “The coaching toolkit”. There are some further useful checklists and activities for coaches and coachees to help plan coaching sessions and improve emotional intelligence.
The final chapter is on “Coaching ethics and best practice”, and contains a list of professional issues for the prospective coach. The emotional intelligence element to this is summarised as “the coach's OK Corral”. The essence of good coaching is for the coach to feel OK about themselves and for the coach to believe that the coachee is OK too. Only an I'm OK, you're OK position will lead to good coaching, and the essence of emotional intelligence is for the coach to help both parties reach that position.
Emotional Intelligence Coaching manages to succeed in having something to offer all its intended wide readership. I suspect that professional coaches who are wanting to know if emotional intelligence coaching offers a significantly different approach will be either reassured or disappointed – probably a mix of the two. There are additional insights and techniques here but it isn't radically new. This book is more likely to be really useful for those who are wanting to develop coaching skills in leaders and managers within organisations. If an organisation is to develop a coaching culture, as many aspire to, then that coaching culture will require a high level of emotional intelligence in those who work there. This book manages to avoid the trap that some coaching textbooks fall into, of suggesting that a set of skills is sufficient for successful coaching. As captured in the KASH model, it's about knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits, and the knowledge is as much about yourself and your own emotional makeup as it is about external factors.
