Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work Paperback – October 16, 2007

Good coaching is simply helping people with their thinking, according to the author. I agree. David Rock explains principles of effective coaching and its powerful impact on and in the brains of people we coach, and his explanations have helped me learn new approaches to use in my professional work as a corporate coach.Two faults with the book: First, the title "Quiet Leadership" misses the potential audience of coaches (as professional coaches don't lead you but rather help you discover possible paths from which you choose your way forward), and the emphasis on QUIET may be unappealing to the often bold and noisy leaders who would most benefit from learning how to lead while coaching to better performance. Second, at times it seems the author is trying to impress me with how smart he is, and the "war stories" get in the way of getting to the meat of the techniques to use.Still, I found great value in the book and highly recommend it to coaches and aspiring coaches, along with works by John Whitmore, Alan Fine, W. Timothy Gallwey. This book will help you learn better coaching questions to ask, help you better understand what goes on within your client's/coachee's mind and brain when you coach well, and get better at noticing your client's/coachee's reactions to your coaching efforts. I'm a better coach from having read and applied things David Rock presents.

Leaders at all strata of organizations should be brain literate and this book offers clear explanations, metaphors, stories, models and exercises to do just that. It also offers a coaching perspective and that’s a perspective leaders often lack in their quest to fix problem and treat employees as pieces on a game board rather than slow down and understand the complexity of behaviors as driven by the brain. This book will confirm many insights you already have but with clearer explanations than you may have in your own.

I thought this book would be valuable, I didn't however think it would take me this long to fully read, participate, engage, and complete. Don't let that statement scare you. I read through this real fast. But to truly read - means to apply - and in my case I took my time and enjoyed the read.If you are serious about the books title - I would implore you to do the same.

This book was written for anyone committed to improving performance - either of self or of others. It's for leaders, executives, managers, HR people, and for coaches. Its focus is Improving Thinking - something you might agree would be a great benefit to all those other people in the world who could use a little improvement - David's a champion of the discovery process- where a coach could help his client discover what he's been been dying to tell him.Personally, I'm a coach and a blurter - if I see something, I blurt it out, following Thomas Leonard's proficiency - "Shares what is there!" But David Rock makes a very good case for less overt coaching. There's very little which replaces the joy and exhilaration of discovery! And David wants me to keep my mouth shut and guide my client to his own delight, rather than indulge my own!A major contribution of the book - 6 Steps to Transforming Performance. If you're a weary connoisseur of 5. 6, 7, and 8 step processes, these are good, they make sense, and they're worth chewing on, and understanding.Neat one-liners pepper the book: my favorite is P=p-I, where P is Performance, p is potential, and I is Interference - i.e. where your interference keeps your potential from equalling your performance!This is a thoughtful book and an authoritative one. The author has a detailed idea of how leadership should optimally work, has practiced and has taught this process to many.Buy it if you have performance issues, or know others who do!Craig Jennings, Business Coach

I LOVE this book. I’m only 35 pages in but anticipate I’ll be able to read, front to back, in a weekend. The book is written in a thoughtful and engaging way.

Rock's book articulated leading/ mentoring principles that I have known and felt for decades. But it is that one thought... "Help them find their own answers"... that transformed my work with my organization. I am, by nature, one who enjoys problem solving, and finding answers, and alleviating pain. But my overarching goal, with those for whom I serve as mentor/ coach, it that THEY become strong, competent leaders themselves. This book was on the shelf of a B and B where I vacationed. I "borrowed" it, because I couldn't bear to not finish it ( Yes, I repaid the owner by sending a new one). I have recommended the book to my emerging leaders. It is better than most on the subject of servant leadership.

I think everyone in a leadership position should read this book.