Is part of my job to be a psychotherapist? I know that I need to foster a desire to improve and help people adjust to change, but should I also be trained to deal with people’s neuroses too? We are all strange and have our idiosyncrasies, but if someone is a chronic people pleaser, obsessive, perfectionist, cynic, procrastinator, etc, is it really something that I should deal with, or should I leave that to the shrinks?
In their new book, The Coach’s Casebook: Mastering The Twelve Traits That Trap Us
, Geoff Watts and Kim Morgan engage us with situations that these characteristics have arisen in their coaching appointments. Each of the twelve chapters comprises three parts: a case study, tools and techniques to deal with the situation, an interview. The twelve chapters look at:
- Imposter syndrome
- People pleasing
- Going to excess
- Fierce independence
- Cynicism
- Desire by fear
- Ostrich syndrome
- Perfectionism
- Procrastination
- Performance anxiety
- Searching for fulfilment
- Dealing with loss
It’s a thoroughly engaging book and one which I urge any scrum master, deliver manager or coach to read, not just for the knowledge and tools that they impart, but because it makes you question the skills you should have to do your job. The authors acknowledge that some situations require you to refer clients to a specialist, but it drives home how fine the line is between managing change, business coaching and therapy. It also makes you realise how we, in our roles, need to be well-equipped to deal with a multitude of situations, and how we too benefit from getting the help of a supervisor or coach.
The Coach’s Casebook: Mastering The Twelve Traits That Trap Us by Geoff Watts and Kim Morgan is available from Amazon in paperback priced £16.99 and on Kindle priced £24.99