*UPDATED* The Top 15 Coaching Books to Make You a Better Coach!

This coaching book is a fabulous overview of coaching, key skills, with ideas, inspiration, exercises and more.

Called, “The bible of coaching guides” by Stephen R. Covey, this is a book about the true dance of coaching with tips, ideas, advice and suggestions – wrapped in a coach-like writing style that both soothes and inspires. It contains exercises, practices, examples and concrete advice – and is easy to read.

2nd Edition

The Co-Active Coaching model highlighted here is a powerful communication process that anyone can use to build strong(er) relationships.

NOTE: The two latest editions of this book have been “extensively revised” to look at coaching and leadership – which seems to be a hot topic at present. So if you’re a life coach, you may want to consider getting the second edition.

Updated in 2017 (25th anniversary edition), this is an excellent book that summarises the art of coaching in an organizational context. I still regularly return to it as a reference for Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – and it has a great introduction to the GROW Model.

The goal of the book is to explore how to use coaching to maximise people’s potential and performance. It delves into what coaching is, why it works and where it came from. And it gives ideas for how coaching can help with motivation, finding a sense of purpose as well as getting things done

Later editions of the book explore emotional intelligence and high performance leadership.

It’s clearly laid out with short powerful chapters, easy to read, and I believe it should be one of the first three books every coach reads.

This is possibly the book to help you become a better and more effective coach!

Jam-packed with concepts, this is a book you’ll want to read with a pen and notebook alongside – to jot down the thoughts and ideas you have for your current clients – and more.

There are lots of great examples to illustrate the difference the Laser Coaching method can make to 1) what the coach focuses on and 2) the outcomes that can be achieved as a result. And I loved that we are asked questions throughout the book to help us reflect on what we’ve personally taken away.

As someone who has been coaching for a number of years, I loved the concepts shared. I agreed with many, AND I have also been given some fresh, extremely practical ideas to try!

I couldn’t not include this fun and inspirational book by one of the forefathers of coaching, and the founder of Coach University.

This fun book has lots of ideas and things to do with your clients – and it’s great for coaches to use personally too.

The book is broken up into 28 easy-to-read chapters – each based on a principle. Each principle has 10 ways to implement each chapter concept. With quotes, distinctions to draw and “How to know you’re making progress with this principle” in every chapter, it’s a great book to just pick up and read a page at random for inspiration at any time.

If you’re a fan of positive thinking, if you believe that beliefs drive who we are and how we live our lives, and if you like to find a better way – this is a book for you.

PS. And if you need a crash course in copywriting just read his chapter headings!

In this book, Marcia shares examples, tips and techniques to take coaches beyond transactional, purely results-focused coaching to breakthrough coaching.

All we need to be masterful coaches is full-body presence and courage – and so we are encouraged to listen with our full bodies – from our head, heart AND gut.

With tips to help clients see through long-standing blind spots, how to summarise our own courage and allow our clients to be uncomfortable – because this is where the transformation happens…

NOTE: This book is not intended as a model for every coaching conversation, instead this is a book to help you help your clients have a shift – a breakthrough – when the timing is right. It is about finding and utilising “Discomfort Zone” opportunities to help our clients grow.

All too often Marcia sees coaches “checklist coaching” or trying to find the “perfect coaching question” which takes us away from being present and responsive to our clients.

This book is about helping coaches use reflective inquiry with our clients to be more present – and effective.

A book in 3 parts, Marcia first looks at why coaching is so powerful, and some unhelpful (“crazy”!) coaching beliefs. Then she looks at 5 essential practices including Active Replay, Goaltending and the titular Coach the Person, Not The Problem. Finally Marcia wraps us by sharing 3 important mental habits for us as coaches to embrace.

Full of tips and techniques, examples and more, this is a coaching skills book with lessons and thought-provoking distinctions that should help all coaches “dance in the moment” for more powerful and transformational coaching.

Jennifer Britton is a leader in both team and group coaching and more recently virtual coaching and remote-working.

If you’re planning on working with groups – in any way (including webinars, workshops, team or group coaching), this book is your bible! And to be honest, if you’re a coach, it’s pretty likely that you’re going to work with a group at some point.

With explanations of what group coaching is, explaining the different dynamics that occur in groups, core skills and best practices, a great chapter on how to design your own group program and so much more!

This book has checklists, an appendix with group exercises you can do as well as practical examples, tables and innumerable tips for anyone coaching groups.

The only slight “fault” is that this book is from 2010 – and still references phone coaching and teleseminars, when technology has obviously moved on to video. But the advice still stands whether you’re on the phone or video, and the practical, structured help and advice in this book is so invaluable I still recommend this book wholeheartedly.

NOTE: This book is not written for coaches, instead it’s written FOR managers and leaders to  move them to a coaching style of managing and leading. However, it’s short, fun and easy to read as well as being jam-packed with ideas – and reminders about what it is to be a coach.

“The Coaching Habit” revolves around 7 Powerful Essential Questions that Michael shares, chapter by chapter. At the end of each chapter there is a section on creating a new “habit” based around the question’s core purpose. In addition, each question has a follow-on “Masterclass” chapter that takes the reader deeper into the why of each coaching question.

For more information, check out our BOOK REVIEW here >>

Written by coaching pioneer Myles Downey, this is the first book about coaching I ever read. It’s like a mini-handbook of coaching – sharing where coaching comes from, why it works, what it is, how to manage a session, key coaching skills and much more.

And for a small book, it packs a powerful punch. Enjoy!

There is also another edition focused on business coaching called “Effective Modern Coaching: The Principles and Art of Successful Business Coaching” published in 2015. This is available on Kindle and as a paperback.

While there are lots of books for leadership, executive and business coaches, there aren’t many books just for life coaches.

This book covers life coaching basics, with definitions, distinctions and lots of tips and techniques for improving coaching skills – including beliefs, language patterns, reframes, metaphors, NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) basics, and more.

It has a little on building a coaching business, but it’s basic, has UK references and is somewhat out of date. But that’s not why you would buy this book.

I recommend this book for life coaches just starting out to get ideas, inspiration, an overview of some coaching techniques you may not have already been exposed to – and coaching questions to play with.

Newly added—by request—as this is the book I most get asked to add to this list of best coaching books!

This updated edition takes you from your first session to the final wrap-up session. Filled with practical tips, tools and techniques, this book will help you build strong belief in yourself as a coach, ask powerful questions, overcome obstacles and boost your coaching confidence.

Sir John Whitmore (who wrote Coaching for Performance) says: “The most comprehensive book on the practice of coaching that I have come across. If anyone wishes to become a one-to-one coaching and only reads one book about it, this could well be that book.”

And Marshall Goldsmith says: “The definitive resource for aspiring as well as seasoned coaches. No one has brought to life the nuts and bolts better than Julie Starr.”

Newly added on request. This is the coaching book I want to read next!

Introducing the concept of Somatic Coaching, this book offers practices and advice on how to use the body’s experiences and feelings to access deep-seated habits and behaviours for powerful, lasting change.

This is an area I am deeply interested in. In our cultures today we don’t pay enough attention to our bodily feelings and intuitions. Yes these powerful signals that let us know what we’re really thinking and feeling—and also by paying attention help us process, learn and grow: when we can’t create change at the level of thinking, we need to go deeper—into our bodies.

This is another great coaching book added by request.

And if you like coaching models you’ll love this book. Strongly grounded in theory, this book combines creative images and diagrams with scenarios to help you understand and put these ideas into practice.

Intended to be used as a reference and to get you up to speed fast, this book is the perfect companion as you look for new ways to build awareness with—and grow your clients.

This is the final coaching book updated by request.

If you love case studies, this may be the book for you!

Each chapter is detailed case study of a skilled coach and their relationship with a client. And each chapter covers one of the 12 challenges we all come across in our work—traits like people pleasing, perfectionism, impostor syndrome, performance anxiety and procrastination.

We see ‘inside the coach’s mind’—their emotions, thoughts and reflections from coaching supervision as they try to overcome their challenges and figure out how best to help their client.

This book is on my reading list, new out in 2023 and by a wonderful human being: Eric Maisel.

He is a dedicated writer, journaler and master coach with many books under his belt.

And in this book are 13 weeks of short daily lessons that share the nuts and bolts of coaching—including how to ask great questions and how to ‘manifest the spirit of coaching’.

He shares how it’s important to understand yourself so that you can better understand others, prepare for your coaching sessions, handle common client issues like defensiveness and limited progress.

Each lesson wraps up with exercises and a journal prompt.