Coaching seeks to optimise personal functioning and well-being by developing the best in people. Its widespread appeal has seen it grow rapidly over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, coaching practice has run well ahead of related theory and research, leaving the coaching industry without solid foundations and little support for the claims often made about its effectiveness. This book outlines a diverse body of work designed to further the development of evidence-based coaching. It commences by discussing important issues related to the professionalisation of the industry, before moving on to compare the impact of individual and peer-based coaching programmes. The second half of the book examines the role that awareness and attention play in self-regulation and tests the efficacy of a coaching framework that integrates mindfulness training and cognitive-behavioural, solution-focused coaching. The research presented in this book should interest both coaching practitioners and researchers, or any one else interested in using coaching methodologies to enhance personal and/or professional functioning.

The SAGE Handbook of Coaching presents a comprehensive, global view of the discipline, identifying the current issues and practices, as well as mapping out where the discipline is going. The Handbook is organized into six thematic sections: Part One: Positioning Coaching as a Discipline Part Two: Coaching as a Process Part Three: Common Issues in Coaching Part Four: Coaching in Contexts Part Five: Researching Coaching Part Six: Development of Coaches It provides the perfect reference point for graduate students, scholars, educators and researchers wishing to familiarize themselves with current research and debate in the academic and influential practitioners' literature on coaching.