Here are the top books I recommend on the following topics: Changing Careers, Developing Yourself, For Business Owners, For Coaches, Leadership, Managing and Developing People, Relationships
Bolles, Richard Nelson (2002) What Color is Your Parachute?, Ten Speed Press, ISBN 1-58008-123-1
Bronson, Po (2003) What Should I Do with My Life?, Random House, ISBN 0-375-75898-4
Edwards, Paul & Sarah (2003) Why Aren’t You Your Own Boss?, Prima, ISBN 0-7615-1537-2
Pierson, Orville (2005) The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search: The Proven Program Used by the World’s Leading Career Services Company, McGraw-Hill, ISBN-10: 0071464042
Managing and Developing People
Blanchard, Ken et al (1996) Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, Berrett-Koehler, ISBN 1-57675-153-8
Buckingham, Marcus & Clifton, Donald O. (2001) Now, Discover Your Strengths, The Free Press, ISBN 0-7432-0114-0
Buckingham, Marcus & Coffman, Curt (1999) First, Break All the Rules, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-85286-1
Flaherty, James (1998) Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others, Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN-10: 0750699035
Gallwey, Timothy (2000) The Inner Game of Work, Random House, ISBN 0-375-50007-3
Hargrove, Robert (2000) Masterful Coaching, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, ISBN 0-7879-4755-5
Harvard Business Review (2002) On Becoming a High Performance Manager, Harvard Business School Press, ISBN 1-59139-129-6
Harvard Business Review (2003) On Motivating People, Harvard Business School Press, ISBN 1-59139-132-6
Whitmore, John (1992) Coaching for Performance, Nicholas Brealey, ISBN 1-85788-303-9
Bryan, Mark & Cameron, Julia & Allen, Catherine (1998) The Artist’s Way at Work, Quill, ISBN 0-688-16635-0
Carter-Scott, Charlie (1999) If Life is a Game, These are the Rules, Broadway, ISBN 0-7679-0388-9
Chopra, Deepak (2000) The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Bantam Press, ISBN 0-593-04083-X
Demartini, Dr John F. (2002), The Breakthough Experience, Hay House, ISBN 1-56170-885-2
Harris, Bill (2007) Thresholds of the Mind, Your Personal Roadmap to Success, Happiness, and Contentment, Centerpointe Research Institute.
Jeffers, Susan (2000) Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Vermilion, ISBN 0-7126-7105-6
Leonard, Thomas (1998) The Portable Coach, Scribner, ISBN 0-684-85041-9
O’Connor, Joseph and Seymour, John (1990) Introducing Neuro-linguistic Program, Thorsons, ISBN 1-85538-344-6
Palmer, Harry (1997) ReSurfacing: Techniques for Exploring Consciousness, Avatar, ISBN 0-9626874-9-9
Palmer, Helen (1998) The Enneagram, Harper Collins, ISBN 0-06-250683-8
Richardson, Cheryl (2000) Take Time for Your Life, Bantam Books, ISBN 0-553-81301-3
Ruiz, Don Miguel (1997) The Four Agreements, Amber Allen, ISBN 1-878424-31-9
Tolle, Eckhart (1999) The Power of Now, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-73350-0
Hendrix, Harville (1988) Getting the Love You Want, Owl Books, ISBN 0-8050-6895-3
McGraw, Phillip C. (2000), Relationship Rescue, Hyperion, ISBN 0-7868-8598-X
Gerber, Michael E. (1995, 2001)The E-Myth Revisited, Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, Harper Collins, ISBN 0-88730-728-0
Beckwith, Harry (1997) Selling the Invisible, A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, Warner Books, ISBN 0-446-52094-2
Morgan, Sharon Drew (2003) Buying Facilitation, The New Way to Sell that Influences and Expands Decisions, www.newsalesparadigm.com, e-book
Silverman, George (2001) The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, AMACOM, ISBN 0-8144-7072-6
Fairley, Stephen & Stout, Chris (2004) Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching, How to Create a Thriving Coaching Practice, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISBN 0-471-42624-5
Goldsmith, Marshall and Lyons, Laurence S. (2005) Coaching for Leadership: The Practice of Leadership Coaching from the World’s Greatest Coaches, 2nd Edition, Jossey-Bass, ISBN: 0-7879-7763-2
International Association of Coaching (2007), IAC Coaching Masteries E-book. A clear and complete description of the criteria used to recognize masterful coaching including the behaviours required, measures of it and more.
International Journal of Coaching in Organizations, www.ijco.info
Lapid-Bogda, Ginger (2009) Bringing Out the Best in Everyone You Coach: Use the Enneagram System for Exceptional Results, McGraw-Hill.
Laske, Otto E. (2006) Measuring Hidden Dimensions, The Art and Science of Fully Engaging Adults, Vol. 1, ICM Press, ISBN: 0-9776800-0-2. This is a difficult read, but it provides a crucial understanding of the level of development/maturity necessary for effectiveness in coaching.
Lee, Andrea (2004) Multiple Streams of Coaching Income, MP Press, ISBN 0-9728940-3-9
Rock, David (2006) Quiet Leadership, Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work, HarperCollins. An excellent guide to fundamental coaching methods based on neuroscience.
Sieler, Alan (2003) Coaching to the Human Soul, Vol 1: The Linguistic Basis of Ontological Coaching, Newfield Australia.
Sieler, Alan (2007) Coaching to the Human Soul, Vol 2: Emotional Learning and Ontological Coaching, Newfield Australia.
Underhill, Brian et al (2007) Executive Coaching for Results, The Definitive Guide to Developing Organizational Leaders, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc., ISBN: 978-1-57675-448-1
Zeus, Perry & Skiffington, Suzanne (2002) The Coaching at Work Toolkit, McGraw-Hill Australia, ISBN 0-074-71103-2
www.coachinghk.com A Hong Kong based non-profit organization whose mission is to assist people to become effective professional coaches. Organizes professional development and networking meetings for coaches and promotes coaching to the general public.
Also see the article “Coach Training in Hong Kong” for links to more forums and resources.
Collins, Jim (2001) Good to Great, Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, HarperCollins.
Heifitz, Ronald, Leadership Without Easy Answers. I find this one very inspiring in terms of what leaders do to move whole societies. There are lots of examples from American politics and since it involves influencing change in deeply embedded societal issues.
Jaworski, Joseph, (1998) Synchronicity, the Inner Path of Leadership. This book is very personal and at times moving, and it touches on what truly makes the biggest difference in leaders, far beyond just management skills. This is for advanced leadership.
Senge, Peter M. (2006) The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Revised and Updated, Currency, Doubleday, Random House.
Arbinger Institute (2010) Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box,Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN-10: 1576759776
Joiner, William B. (2006) Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership), Jossey-Bass, ISBN-10: 0787979139 See my review here.
Lencioni, Patrick (2002) The Five Dysfunctions of a Team