Coaching for Leadership: How the World's Greatest Coaches Help Leaders Learn.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Review

Marshall Goldsmith, Laurence Lyons and Alyssa Freas, editors. Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 304 pages. $39.95.

Anyone interested in culling the collective wisdom of dozens of renowned executive coaches could do a lot worse than pick up Coaching for Leadership. The editors have assembled more than 30 essays from more than three dozen top coaches, dividing the broad subject into four distinct subsets: foundations, role and identity, moments and transitions, and coaching techniques. A fifth section examines what the authors call "expanding situations," such as becoming a global leader, coaching free agents and coaching amid workplace diversity.

The editors concede at the outset that putting the book together meant taming a "vast and eclectic" subject that they believe has proven its worth as "a preferred and tested route to achieve...