To stay on top, you need to do more than just tread water -- you need to grow. And that means that you need progressively to develop and improve your skills. As a manager, you may find yourself being encouraged constantly to improve employee performance through effective coaching, but you may not have the time -- or the knowledge -- to do it successfully. Anne Loehr and Brian Emerson have spent years showing some of the country’s top companies how to develop their most promising employees. This concise guide for busy managers gives you the tools you need to coach your people, and yourself, through any work situation. A Manager’s Guide to Coaching takes you through the entire coaching process from discovery, through clarifying wants, problem solving, defining action, and developing accountability. It provides specific, powerful questions to ask when coaching and motivating employees to peak performance, and supplies  sample conversations, responses, and different ways you can follow up on them. With compassion and honesty, the authors offer invaluable advice on:

• The top 10 tips every manager should know before he or she starts to coach
• How to handle difficult conversations, conflicting priorities, and problem team members
• How to hold follow-up meetings
• Sample questions you can adapt to various situations
• Examples of common problems and how you can use coaching to address them.

Clear, practical, and straightforward, this is the secret weapon that will help you take your employees from good to exceptional.

Anne Loehr and Brian Emerson are certified executive coaches and co-founders of Safaris for the Soul, leadership development retreats around the world. Anne Loehr specializes in the hospitality industry and has managed successful hotel and “green” businesses in Europe, Africa, and the United States for the past 15 years. She has worked with key players at the Away Network, the Nature Conservancy, and Carlson Destination Marketing Services. Brian Emerson has advises clients such as PBS, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Natural Resources Defense Council on leadership development and effectiveness. They live in the Washington, D.C. area.