One of the most important things for us here at J21 Coaching is to stay up to speed with industry trends, hot topics, and the rise of popular areas of business coaching, mentoring, relationship coaching and personal coaching across the UK and abroad.
One of the easiest ways of keeping on track is by extensive industry reading – so with that in mind, here’s our top reading on coaching for you for 2013:
1. The Power of the Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy
I would whole-heartedly recommend this book because it raises people’s awareness as to just how powerful the mind is if we could just learn to access this source of immense power. Joseph uses a number of short stories or case studies to emphasize certain points. The power of what we say to ourselves on a regular bases was brought home to me when a man whose daughter had suffered years of a debilitating disease which remain un-diagnosable and incurable by specialist doctors. The father of the girl remained distraught and often vented his anger with the words “I’d give my right arm to see my baby daughter cured”.
One day the family were all out for a drive when they were involved in an accident with another vehicle; the father lost his arm whilst the daughter suddenly lost all her symptoms that had been associated with years of her deliberating illness.
2. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey
I like this book because of the wisdom it brings to all us in a holistic manner. Emphasis is on living your life with integrity and honesty with yourself and others. He helps raise our own awareness of such topics such as leadership and you do not have to be an aspiring leader to benefit from these tips: – “Begin with the end in mind.”
How easy is that to say!
How easy is it to forget!
Read this book and remind yourself of the need to drop poor habits and replace them with good ones.
3. The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles
My copy had a much brighter cover than the picture above, more like a fiery orange cover that really stands out. Not a particular easy read as one or two of the concepts I needed to read again but the chapters are small and it is one of those books that you could just decide you want to read before you go to bed. If you are any doubt as to your entitlement to being wealthy then you should read this, but don’t question it!
I found the advice about not giving to charity particularly difficult but I understand why Wallace takes this stance; I have spent a good number of years supporting charities so it was inevitable that I would be in conflict with this statement. On the face of it Wallace is right, it’s not that we have been helping people, which is wrong, it’s that we have not been helping people to help themselves so we have been providing the wrong sort of help.
As a society we have been far too focused on providing people with more ‘things’ which has just raised their expectations and just leaves them despondent when they can no longer be delivered. What we need to concentrate on is helping people to help themselves.
4. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki
This is an excellent book that will make you cringe if you are a middle-class tax payer. They even have Rich Dad Poor Dad Seminars, which is a selling platform for their 3-day course where they take the concepts and put them into practice. I liked the many references to the life-coaching techniques but like a lot of books I think you would probably not agree to everything he suggests. I don’t agree with paying for goods and services at the last possible moment.
You don’t create wealth by holding onto money – it is the flow of money that creates wealth.
5. The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive by Brendon Burchard
Brendon is very highly charged and you would have to be living on another planet not to get infected by his enthusiasm for life. He nearly lost his life in a car accident and since then he has been on a mission to cultivate business opportunities to get his message out.
Brendon is very keen on systems and processes and he is right. You have to be organised if you are going to be able to take advantage of all the systems and tools that are available and that can help you with your business.
6. Brilliant Selling: What the Best Salespeople Know, Do and Say (Brilliant Business) Tom Bird & Jeremy Cassell
So you’re not into selling, are you? Sorry but you are now, we are ALL into selling whether you like it or not and if you don’t then it is likely that you will be considerable poorer, because we all need to be sell ourselves. People don’t by things they buy things from people and the buy is an emotion – you need to make sure that you are part of the positive buying emotion.
My version has a green and silver cover and this and the slightly newer version is a blue and silver. This is a very easy read and a very good reference book, one I would highly recommend for everyone.
I believe that one of the most important lessons here for me was the need to deal with objections as they arise. People who fail to deal with objections as they arise will lose they sale later on when it raises its ugly head again and you have spent considerable more work on the proposal. This book gives you a step-by-step approach to selling and I recommend that everyone should read this book.
7. Think and Grow Rich: The Original Classic by Napoleon Hill and Tom Butler-Bowdon (23 Apr 2009)
What a classic – a book to read time and time again, if every business owner was just to take 15-20 minutes a or read perhaps one chapter a night and then they took just three things from each of those chapters what a difference it would make to their business.
I was particularly fascinated by the clear message that everybody needs a purpose/mission and for them to become successful they need to think about this all the time. I also loved the stories and these can be used to help prove to people that the same success that Henry T Ford and Andrew Carnegie enjoyed is open to us all.
8. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris
A great read even if you do not want to work just for 4 hours a week; I love what I do so I cannot imagine limiting my working life to a four-hour-week but it does make you consider your effectiveness. If you wanted to help someone improve their business then I recommend this book to them but before you do make sure they know the difference between efficiency at effectiveness!
I believe that there are some businesses which do not fully appreciate the difference. Their efforts could well be misdirected and they may not achieve a long-term and sustainable change that may be required for their longevity.
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