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Start giftingPositive Provocation
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Learn moreHone your skills and strengthen your practice with this series of twenty-five fresh and provocative questions for reflection that challenge the conventional wisdom in the coaching profession.
Like any established profession, coaching is full of unexamined assumptions. These need to be regularly questioned and tested to keep the profession vital and valuable. Coaches need to engage in the same kind of scrutiny and self-examination that offers such powerful benefits to their clients.
In Positive Provocation, coaching thought leader Robert Biswas-Diener asks a series of twenty-five provocative and sometimes playful questions that take a fresh look at some of coaching's most cherished beliefs. What if coaches had agendas? Why are ethics so boring? What's so great about interrupting? Can we trust eureka moments? What if we used less empathy?
This is not an attack on the coaching profession-Biswas-Diener writes with a light, conversational, and often humorous touch. These are positive provocations, meant to stimulate your curiosity, engage you with the latest research, and invite you to see your practice with new eyes.
Biswas-Diener covers philosophies of coaching, communicating with clients, common coaching concepts, coaching interventions, and a big final provocation: should coaching be informed by science? This book will give you a richer understanding of the coaching process, make you more articulate about your own beliefs, and allow you to feel more engaged with the craft.
Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is a leading authority in Positive Psychology on strengths, culture, courage, and happiness and known for his pioneering work in the application of positive psychology to coaching. He is known as the "Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology" because he has researched happiness and other positive topics with groups such as the Amish, the Inuit, and the Maasai. Robert has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed academic articles and chapters, two of which are "citation classics" (cited more than 1,000 times each) and has authored seven books, including The Courage Quotient, the 2007 PROSE Award winner, Happiness, and The Upside of Your Dark Side.
Reviews
Being provocative, at its best, invites us to open our minds, to rethink established norms, and ultimately to become better versions of ourselves in the process. Robert Biswas-Diener has delivered another master class in provocation here-challenging some of the most conventional practices in professional coaching with fresh questions, research, and artful storytelling. If you are a coach looking to grow, this book is for you.-Joshua Steinfeldt, PCC, Coach Community Manager, BetterUp
What rules need to be followed, and which ones is it time to break? Robert Biswas-Diener brings exactly the right type of provocation to how we practice coaching.
-Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit
This book is unique. Robert Biswas-Diener challenges the status quo in coaching and positively provokes the reader to question some ideas that are usually taken for granted. A must-read for novice and advanced coaches.
-Dr. Andrea Giraldez-Hayes, Programme Director, Master of Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, University of East London
This is the most engaging and thought-provoking book about coaching that I have ever encountered! Robert Biswas-Diener, the field's most daring provocateur, poses insightful questions that challenge deeply held assumptions about coaching practice. Engaging with these provocations will surely support you to reflect on and enhance your coaching practice!
-Christian van Nieuwerburgh, Professor, Centre for Positive Psychology and Health, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
If you want to turn your brain inside-out and take an utterly new look at what you think about coaching, this is the book for you.
-Dr. Carol Kauffman, founder of the Institute of Coaching, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School Expand reviews
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