Greg Giuliano’s fourth leadership book, Coaching for (a) Change: How to Engage, Empower, and Activate People, draws heavily on his experience as a coach and consultant to senior executives, his fourth career, following academia, business, and therapist.

Leaders, he believes, should implement management principles based on a coaching model to build trust both within teams and between managers and staff. “People are not assets,” writes Giuliano. “People are not resources. People are not capital. People are people…. They are skilled contributors who want to be led.” This human-centric approach illustrates Giuliano’s outlook, which posits that empathy, encouragement and connection create an environment conducive to workplace thriving.

To this end, he has built the “A3” model (Aim, Align and Act), which seeks “to help Leaders [sic] and teams to Aim [sic] before they fire.” Within this, he offers the “GR8 Coaching Framework,” an approach that asks leaders eight key questions (such as: “Where are you stuck?”; “What’s the best possible outcome?”; “How might you be getting in your own way”?). He includes useful self-surveys at the end of chapters and scripts for how to best engage struggling employees.

Giuliano’s prose is clear and his advice easily digestible; he uses simple examples from his own career and from media (Ted Lasso vs. Succession’s Logan Roy is a favorite) to explain his ideas. The frequent questions for self-examination make this an effective match for readers looking for a workbook for growth. He argues for coaching as the purest form of leadership, and indeed at the end makes a pitch for his own coaching program.

This is hardly novel advice, but Giuliano’s easygoing tone and straightforward framework are likely to speak to many. Overall, this would be a helpful addition to the toolbox of a leader eager to improve his or her team, if not a game changer in terms of new ideas.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.