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View our brochure for the year ahead

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Welcome to the Book Club for Coaches

 

Remaining dates for 2023 (all UK times):

Dates for 2024

Some of the questions we use to discuss the books:

• Did you read the book? Why? Why not?

• How did you read this book?

• How did it make you feel?

• What does it offer that I can apply in my work?

• What questions does this book evoke in you?

• What sentence or paragraph are you drawn to and why?

• What’s new or different about this book?

• What did you disagree with?

• Who is the author?

• What do they have to offer me?

• Why should I read it?

• Where has this author come from (which background / school of thinking) ?

• What body of evidence is it based on? How wide? How specific?

• Can I believe in the message of this book?

• How does this fit with other approaches I use?

• What do other people say about this book?

Useful Links

  • For previous session recordings (2022 and 2023) click here
  • You can access our Facebook group here
  • You can access our current shortlist of books for this year here
  • And for our regularly updated calendar of dates and books to be discussed, click here

To get in touch with us, please put ‘Book Club’ in the email header and send your request via info@cleancoaching.com. Thank you.

We meet on the third Wednesday of every month, alternating between lunchtime and early evening sessions.

Hosts

Sessions are currently hosted by Angela, Susie Kong and Helle Browne.

About Susie:

Susie Kong is a Health Coach based in Surrey, UK. She has an executive coaching and life coaching background and has trained with Coach University, Coachville and Ashridge and has coached well over 100 people. Susie is now studying with the School of Applied Functional Medicine. She has a successful record of helping people understand their health symptoms and issues so that they can permanently resolve them and live their lives with amazing energy and joy. You can find out more about Susie at www.healthyhappyhuman.uk

 

Previous Sessions – what we have done before

2023 – books discussed:

  • Jul 19, 2023 12:30 PM
  • Aug 16, 2023 06:30 PM
  • Sep 20, 2023 12:30 PM
  • Oct 18, 2023 06:30 PM
  • Nov 15, 2023 12:30 PM
  • Dec 20, 2023 06:30 PM

2022 – Books discussed

Dates for 2021 (all UK times):

Weds Jan  20th: 12.30pm  Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta 

Weds Feb 17th: 6.30pm:  The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Weds March 17th: 12.30pm:  Open discussion – please come ready to discuss a book you have recently read

Weds April 21st: 6.30pm : Will it Make the Boat Go Faster? – Ben Hunt-Davis and Harriet Beveridge

Weds May 19th: 12.30pm: The New Long Life  – Lynda Gratton

Weds June 16th: 6.30pm: Open discussion

Weds July 21st: 12.30pm: The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart-Smith.

Weds August 18th: 6.30pm: Coach the person, not the problem – Marcia Reynolds

Weds September 15th: 12.30pm: Open Discussion

Weds Oct 20th: 6.30pm: Non-Violent Communication – a language of life – Marshall Rosenberg

Weds Nov 17th: 12.30pm:  Overwhelmed and over it – Christine Arylo

Weds Dec 15th: 6.30pm: Open Discussion

Reading list / books to discuss for 2021:

Click here to access our shortlist for books to read in 2021. you can add more and/or vote for your favourites through our Facebook page here or by emailing Susie Kong with your suggestions.

Previous session recordings:

You can access our shared space for 2021 book club meeting recordings here

Plus the previous year’s meeting recordings are still available here

2020 Dates – scroll down for more information on previous meetings

  • Weds 15th January – 12.30pm to 1.30pm UK time
  • Weds 18th March – 6.30pm to 7.30pm UK time
  • Weds 20th May – 12.30pm to 1.30pm UK time
  • Weds 15th July – 6.30pm to 7.30pm UK time
  • Weds 16th Sept – 12.30pm to 1.30pm UK time
  • Weds 18th Nov – 6.30pm to 7.30pm UK time – No book this time – Open Discussion

We invite you all to pass on the word about the Online Coaches Book Club so we can grow this group and ensure a good turn-out for every meet up. Thank you!

Recap on previous meetings / books discussed:

Nov 2020

The Coaches Book Club met on 18th November and we had a great discussion about books we are currently reading and books we would like to read next. There were 5 of us: Angela, Yana, Susie, Helle and Brian D. Here are some of the books we discussed:

  • The obstacle is the way (covered in one of our meetings this year)
  • Dialogue – William Isaac
  • Overwhelmed and over it – Christine Arylo
  • Sand Talk – Tyson Yunkaporta
  • The language of life – Marshall Rosenburg
  • The sourcebook of coaching history – Vicky Brock
  • Stressaholic – Heidi Hanna
  • You Squared – Price Pritchett
  • Coach the person, not the problem – Marcia Reynolds (Brian F recommends)
  • Effortless Living – Jason Gregory

We decided on the following book for our next meeting on 20th January at 1230: “Sand Talk” by Tyson Yunkaporta https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sand-Talk-Indigenous-Thinking-World-ebook/dp/B07RS4LQFL/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1605780248&sr=8-1

Sept 2020

Six of us met on Wednesday 16th Sept to discuss the book: “Work like a Woman” by Mary Portas.

Susie and I co-hosted the event, and we had a great conversation about this book, as well as suggestions and recommendations for a range of others.

The session was recorded and you can access it here (search by the date):

https://spaces.hightail.com/space/ot8iYNhNBW

In general, as a group we found the book interesting but maybe not what we expected given the title (eg more autobiographical than any kind of ‘how to’ guide).

I have started a Word document of books mentioned by the group (I kept it to non-fiction, although we discussed a few good fiction books too!)

Maybe we can build on this list next time and use to vote on our top choices for next year’s reading list?

 July 2020

The Coaches Book Club last Wednesday 15th July to discuss the book: “Wilful Blindness” by Margaret Heffernan.

The session was hosted by Yana, was well attended and can access the recording through this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/wcFecb3W2jhOfZHt9ECCaIhmH6G4aaa8hiIX-vtbmBmhAyiAQLBlwm3QpF-nBeaa

Here’s was Yana said about the session:

“….a pretty good call – helped by the fact that it was a larger group to keep the conversation going.  A couple of people commented this was a very interesting time to have been reading the book with all that is going on in the world currently. We discussed how as coaches we could help people to be less blind. A valuable comment made at the end was: ‘I was just curious about the idea of collective wilful blindness which could also mean there is a collective raising of awareness and then what do we do with that privilege / knowledge. How do we use it to support and help others? So more people are aware and have independent thought to question and find their own conclusions?’

Much food for thought I think!

May 2020

Open discussion

March 2020

We had a great meeting last night to discuss the book: ‘Authentic: How to be yourself and why it matters’ by Stephen Joseph’

It was almost unanimously considered a fantastic read!

Please access the recording if you’d like to know more:

https://spaces.hightail.com/space/ot8iYNhNBW

You will need to search for it by the date – 18th  March 2020o

January 2020:

During the call we talked about our top reads for 2019, and what we would like to read in 2020.

The books we discussed were:

A trio of AC (Association for Coaching) books:

‘Excellence in Coaching’
‘Mastery in Coaching’
And
‘Leadership Coaching’

You can investigate all of the AC books through their online bookstore:
(As well as through Amazon, etc)

‘The Heart of Supervision’ by Eve Turner was mentioned (more relevant for Coach Supervisors, but also for coaches aspiring to becoming a supervisor).

‘Willful Blindness: Why we ignore the obvious’ by Margaret Heffernan was suggested as a book club read, and we all liked that idea. Link here to buy.

However in the end we decided to go with the front runner on the voting list on Facebook, which is: ‘Authentic: How to be yourself and why it matters’ by Stephen Joseph:

We would like to put forward ‘Willful Blindness’ as a top recommendation for next time, though!

We also shared our top reads not necessarily directly related to coaching, but books that inspired us. What came up was:

‘Sapians: A Brief History of Humankind’ by Yuval Noah Harari

‘The Prison Doctor’ by Amanda Brown (And here’s an article on it : https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/08/prison-doctor-amanda-brown-compassion-medicine )

And ‘Go, went, gone’ by Jenny Erpenbeck

Book Club sessions in 2019:

NOVEMBER 

Weds 20th November at 12.30pm.

This was a focused discussion on the following book:

“The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday.

It’s available on Amazon Kindle for just £3.14 currently. Click here for details.

We discussed the above book and had a go at using the questions below (see October) to shape our conversation:

You can access a word document here of all those proposed during 2019.

OCTOBER:

The Coaches Book club met on Wednesday this week and this time it was an open discussion rather than a focus on a specific book.

Yana hosted the session and we each shared what we have been reading lately and what we would recommend to the group.

We will compile a list of all book suggestions for us to chose from for next year, meanwhile if you want to know more about what we talked about, then please listen to the recording, which you can access here.

The session was 45 minutes long.

SEPTEMBER:

Our choice for September’s book club discussion was:

The Art of Somatic Coaching: Embodying Skillful Action, Wisdom, and Compassion by Richard Strozzi-Heckler

    The small group who attended had a lively discussion about this book, and we also came up with a list of questions that help us to reflect on a book and share our opinions. These may be useful to use in future meetings as a guide to our discussion? Please feel free to add your own questions to this list:

    • Did you read the book? Why? Why not?

    • How did you read this book?

    • How did it make you feel?

    • What does it offer that I can apply in my work?

    • What questions does this book evoke in you?

    • What sentence or paragraph are you drawn to and why?

    • What’s new or different about this book?

    • What did you disagree with?

    • Who is the author?

    • What do they have to offer me?

    • Why should I read it?

    • Where has this author come from (which background / school of thinking) ?

    • What body of evidence is it based on? How wide? How specific?

    • Can I believe in the message of this book?

    • How does this fit with other approaches I use?

    • What do other people say about this book?

     

    JULY MEETING

    This session was on Weds 24th July with a small group and was not recorded on this occasion. It was an open discussion without a specific book chosen this time.

    JUNE MEETING

    This session took place on Weds 19th June and was hosted by Yana, We discussed the book:

    “Challenging Coaching: Going Beyond Traditional Coaching to face the FACTS by John Blakey and Ian Day.

     MAY MEETING

    We met on Weds 22nd May and the book we discussed was Clean Approaches for Coaches by Marian Way. This was a really popular book and many of us had read it for a second time to come and share our thoughts. We all spoke about what aspects of the book we realty liked, which included the overall quality and ‘feel’ of the book as well as the layout. The content is pretty good too, and we shared what part of the book we particularly liked. 

     During the session we also briefly looked at a couple of other books, including a sneak peak at next month’s chosen book “Challenging Coaching” and an old classic “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” By Steven Covey.

     

    APRIL MEETING

    The April meeting took place at the later time of 6.00pm (UK time) on Weds 24th April, hosted by Yana Tsyganova.

    This time, we had no specific book to review and instead was an open discussion about any and all books you were all currently reading. Also, an opportunity to share thoughts on any book previously chosen for the Coaches Book Club.
    Yana shared that overall feedback on the open type session was positive with everyone saying that it is nice to be able to have “unplanned” discussions. Some felt it would be good to have more opportunity to discuss each other experiences as coaches.

    In terms of books – it was suggested to read a Clean Language book for the next book club session. Everyone was quite keen on this since most of us are connected within the book club through Clean language it could turn out to be a good discussion. (see chosen book in May’s meeting above).  

     

    MARCH MEETING

     Our March call took place on Weds 20th March at 12.30pm.

     Our chosen books for the month were:

      • ‘How will you measure your life’ by Clayton Christensen

     • ‘Authentic: How to be yourself and why it matters’ by Stephen Joseph

     • ‘The Listening Space’ by Tamsin Hartley

     We had a smaller turn-out than previously. Just five people which was disappointing as many more had registered to attend. But inspiring as with smaller numbers, we were able to have a deeper discussion about the books.

     We discussed two of the three books chosen last time:

     • ‘How will you measure your life’ by Clayton Christensen

    • ‘Authentic: How to be yourself and why it matters’ by Stephen Joseph

     The session was recorded and you can access a video recording (large file!) through this link:

     https://spaces.hightail.com/space/ot8iYNhNBW

     

    FEBRUARY MEETING

    Here’s an update from the Coaches Book Club who held their second meeting this week on Weds 20th February.

    As well as sharing our reviews on the two chosen books ‘Time to Think’ and ‘Humble Inquiry’, we also shared feedback and recommendations on a wealth of other books we are reading / have read.

    Isabela sent me this apt quote which nicely sums up our group:

    “For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.” Karl Lagerfeld

     

    JANUARY MEETING:

     Our first meeting took place on Wednesday 30th Jan, from 12.30pm to 2.00pm. There were 13 of us who attended.

     In this session, everyone shared their top recommendations from books they had read last year, or all time favourites. Plus most made suggestions based on what we have on our book shelves ready to read in 2019.

     We have set up a shared space here where you can see a summary of all the books discussed and recommended. Plus you can download an mp3 recording of this session.

     BOOKS CHOSEN TO READ FOR FEB’S MEETING:

     We agreed to TWO suggested book reads for February, we can choose between these:

      Humble Inquiry by Edgar H Schein    Amazon link 

      Time to Think by Nancy Kline   Amazon link