---
title: "The Coaching Bible: Coaching for Performance"
description: Coaching for Performance by John Whitmore is considered a 'must-have' for every coach's library and toolkit.
---

[Knowledge Centre | Human Performance Technology by DTS ](https://blog.hptbydts.com)

# [The Coaching Bible: Coaching for Performance](https://blog.hptbydts.com/the-coaching-bible-coaching-for-performance)

 Written by [Theo Winter](https://blog.hptbydts.com/author/theo-winter) | Apr 7, 2012

In 1978, John Whitmore, a former professional racing car driver, set up a tennis, golf and ski school in the UK based on *Inner Game* principles that he had adopted from Timothy Gallwey (an Elite tennis coach and best selling author of *The Inner Game of Tennis*). 

He realised that sports coaching had great potential to be applied to business and thus Coaching for Performance was penned in 1992. *Coaching for Performance* by John Whitmore is considered a 'must-have' for every coach's library and toolkit.

## Highlights

- The bestselling bible of the coaching industry.
- Popularised the most influential model of coaching: the GROW model.
- Over 500,000 copies sold worldwide.

## Key Reasons for Popularity

- John Whitmore worked with Timothy Gallwey, who are both considered the co-founders of modern business coaching.
- Written in simple, common sense language.
- Applicable for any manager in business.

## About the 4th Edition

50 pages longer than the third edition and over 100 longer than the first in 1992.

## Divided into 4 Parts

1. The Principles of Coaching.
2. The Practice of Coaching.
3. Leadership for High Performance.
4. Transformation through Transpersonal Coaching.

Whitmore begins with **self-awareness** and **responsibility** as the foundation stones. Coaching is based on the ancient Socratic principle that you can never really teach a person something, they must learn it for themselves. It is about helping them to become aware of how they do things, and to increase their willingness to be responsible. A traditional boss will tell an employee what they need to do, but a coach-boss will ask brief questions about what is happening in order get the employee to think about it for themselves.

Coaching is really about a way of seeing things: always seeing people through the lens on their potential, not their current performance (and even if the performance is good, you can always get better).

Whitmore introduces a 4 stage coaching model:

1. **G** - Goals.
2. **R** - Reality.
3. **O** - Options.
4. **W** - Will.

Once you are aware of what is possible **(Goals)** and where you are currently at **(Reality)**, you are ready to explore the alternative routes and strategies **(Options)** that can get you to your goal. The final set of questions to be answered involve action: once a path has been chosen, who is going to be involved and when will it be done **(Will)**?

In summary: believe in the potential of people; raise awareness and maintain responsibility through questions and listening; and follow the GROW model. All are the essence of good coaching.

[View full post](https://blog.hptbydts.com/the-coaching-bible-coaching-for-performance)

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