The Art of Self-Coaching (Public Course)
After Stanford moved all classes online in response to COVID-19, I created a version of my course for the public. The webinar videos, my slides, and all course readings are posted here, so you can take the course at your own pace.
Newsletter Signup and Archives
Each monthly issue includes a personal essay, a post from my archives, recommended reading from an author I admire, a one-minute video of the natural world, and some miscellany that brings me joy.
Coaching and Feedback Tools for Leaders
A compilation of more than 15 years of work on these topics, along with a reading list of related volumes.
Startup Leadership
A compilation of posts on themes I see regularly in my practice, all relevant to startup leaders & some specifically focused on challenges unique to high-growth, early-stage organizations.
Resources for Tough Times
I talk with leaders every day about the impact of the current environment on their organizations, their employees, and their own lives, and much of my recent writing has been aimed at helping them address these challenges.
Reading List
Books that have informed my approach to coaching and consulting, along with links to related posts.
For Further Reading
A number of themes come up repeatedly in my practice, and over the years I've written about many of them. After a coaching session I'll often refer a client or student to one of these posts for further reading.
The Art of Self-Coaching (Stanford Archive)
The course I teach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which I designed and launched in 2015. This archive includes my syllabus, slides and links to readings. I'm also writing a book on the subject.
Interpersonal Dynamics
I was involved in the GSB's most popular elective, known to everyone as Touchy Feely, for over a decade, and I taught the course in 2016 and 2017. This archive includes my slides and links to readings.
The HBR Guide to Coaching Employees
I wrote the introduction and contributed several chapters to this hands-on guide for leaders and managers, first published by HBR in September 2013 and revised in December 2014.
20 Tools for Coaching and Teaching
While I make use of these resources in my work at Stanford and my practice, almost all of them can be applied by a leader or manager within their organizations or by any individual seeking to self-coach.
My Decks on SlideShare
Includes my slides for the classes I've taught at Stanford, The Art of Self-Coaching and Interpersonal Dyamics.
Don't Break the Chain
A simple and powerful motivational tool that I use personally and recommend frequently. Create a calendar for any activity or practice you'd like to pursue on a regular basis, and when you're successful just click on that day to fill it in and extend the chain.
Vocabulary of Emotions
This 1-page PDF lists eight primary emotional states--angry, caring, embarrassed, excited, happy, inadequate, sad, scared--and 52 synonyms. (Psychologist Paul Ekman defines the six basic emotions as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, while the late Sylvan Tompkins believed there are eight: anguish, disgust, fear, joy, interest, rage, shame, and surprise. For more on basic emotions, see Chapter 5 in Joseph LeDoux's The Emotional Brain.) I've adapted this list from one originally developed by David Bradford, Mary Ann Huckabay and Carole Robin at Stanford.
VIA Survey of Character Strengths
I'm generally skeptical of personality tests, and I employ them sparingly in my work as a coach and teacher. One of the few instruments I use in my coaching practice and in The Art of Self-Coaching at Stanford is the VIA Survey of Character Strengths. This instrument, commonly called the VIA, was developed in the early 2000s under the leadership of Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson.
Photo by John Cooper.
