Reviews and Endorsements

This page offers selected reviews and the complete endorsements for Presence-Based Coaching.  Click here to download the endorsements; scroll down to read reviews. Enjoy!

A Ground-Breaking New Coaching and Leadership Book!
by Anne Davidson

Doug Silsbee's new book Presence-Based Coaching breaks important new ground, not only for coaches, but also for leaders, facilitators and consultants.  Doug moves beyond basics to share the wisdom and techniques that sustain his reputation as a leading coach whose clients achieve lasting results.  As a peer, student and former client, I can attest to the power of his work.  Now I can use this book to more skillfully apply presence-based principles to my own continuing development and to my work with my clients.

This book offers a well-crafted combination of practical tools and core concepts.   It clearly outlines how people develop though a process of self-observation, realization, reorganization and stabilization.  Within that context, Doug distinguishes how coaches and leaders must first do their own inner work to be able to powerfully and authentically guide the growth of others.  He provides examples, exercises, stories and suggested practices to guide the cultivation of presence in mind, body and heart.  From that strong grounding, he illustrates specifically how to work with others in relationships that support personal transformation and skillful action that makes a real difference in the world.  This is an important guide for anyone who wants to masterfully guide professional and personal development.

Anne Davidson
Roger Schwarz and Associates

Two Thumbs Up!

By Doug Gray

Doug Silsbee's newest book, Presence-based Coaching: Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders Through Mind, Body, and Heart, teaches me that PRESENCE is the key determinant of a coach's success.

More than credentials, related experience, or even passion, PRESENCE is now a column in my hiring framework. As a manager of corporate and entrepreneurial coaches, I have the good fortune to meet many talented coaches. Together, we develop excellent practices and remain focused on the self-generative needs of leaders, our clients. However, there was something else, something essential that I wanted to attract to our team of great coaches. Now I realize that my focus was too limited.

Now I know that PRESENCE can be developed. And Doug's book teaches me that we need to practice such skills in order to be great coaches. Amid the fast-paced changes in our culture and our relationships, self-generative leaders are essential. We all need to exhale, then focus on our breathing and daily actions, as we serve others.

I strongly recommend this book if you care about developing your influence, leadership skills, or your connection to others.

Respectfully, Doug Gray, PCC, VP Learning and Development, Rich Campe International, author of Passionate Action: 5 Steps to Creating Extraordinary Success in Life and Work

If  You Want to Take Your Coaching to the Next Level...
By Julie Harris, Riverbend Coaching LLC

Doug Silsbee's new book is a rare achievement: it's both a conversation about the role of presence in creating the outcomes of coaching, and a meta-conversation that invites you to discover how present you are in this moment, and what impact your presence has on your ability to enter into new possibilities and take effective action. The quality of Silsbee's own presence is palpable on the page. He creates an environment of dialogue and relationship with the reader that models what coaching is all about.

Presence-Based Coaching is deeply grounded in Silsbee's own work in coaching, somatics and spiritual practice. It is filled with practices and exercises that the reader can try, as well as masterful examples of coaching that clearly differentiate the outcomes of presence-based coaching from the outcomes of traditional coaching. If you are looking to develop a deeper and more impactful approach to coaching, and are game to accept Silsbee's invitation to engage on the journey into presence, then this book is for you.

Valuable Insights on Presence and Coaching
by Les Landes

In his new book, Presence-Based Coaching, author Doug Silsbee goes beyond philosophical principles and provides a practical guide to tapping into the innate ability all people possess to be fully present in whatever are doing. Silsbee claims that "It is through practice that we become different people, capable of responding to inevitable difficulties in new and creative and resourceful ways." This ability, he says, provides both the promise and the imperative for developing presence as an essential aspect of leadership.

The key, of course, is practicing the right thing in the right way. The book offers numerous reflective exercises and concrete practices that Silsbee has designed to help people increase their ability to draw on presence spontaneously when needed. The practices strengthen what he calls the "muscle of awareness" that is essential in order to be fully present in coaching others.

Silsbee takes a broad developmental view, and grounds it in a pragmatic vision of how coaches can greatly accelerate the development of the very leaders that we need in these challenging times. "The central challenge in development is to move beyond an identity that no longer serves us," he says. "Development is about engaging intentionally in the business of transcending an existing definition of our identity in order to literally conceive of ourselves in a different, new sense. We learn to loosen the grip of our conditioned way of being - our habits, stories, ways of interpreting the world, and customary response - in order to act consistently with new and more generative commitments."

One of the important distinctions in Silsbee's approach is his emphasis on leaders preparing for future challenges, not merely coping with the crisis of the moment using the same old set of time-worn tools. "We can choose to live with a less desperate focus on achieving competence for current circumstances and a greater explicit commitment to our growth, change and evolution," he says.

But that's only half the story of this book. Silsbee also illustrates at length how to apply presence in the practice of coaching. Importantly, this book offers less of a philosophical perspective, and more of a pragmatic approach for people in the business of developing leaders through coaching. To Silsbee, presence is "focused on practical ways to self-regulate our inner state so we are as effective and available as possible for other people." In keeping with the book's emphasis on the practical application of core principles, Silsbee also includes numerous coaching dialogues and scenarios from real business situations; they are laced with revealing commentary that illuminates how to put his innovative ideas into practice.

In the final analysis, Silsbee's approach to coaching is not about fixing people. Rather, Presence-Based Coaching offers a robust and inclusive developmental alternative to the traditional approach to business coaching relationships. It shines a beacon that illuminates the path for people to shape their leadership with clarity, compassion and conviction.

East Meets West in Presence-Based Coaching
by Dr. Patrick Williams

Doug Silsbee has crafted an elegant book that is for coaches, leaders and anyone who has a desire for optimal living. Doug has masterfully woven in skills for Eastern traditions and martial arts, such as mindfulness, meditation, and focus in a very practical manner.

The profession of coaching has evolved due to a shortage of real connection in our busy world, and the ability to be present is key....for both the coach and the person being coached. But what is really beautiful in this book is that it is a journey into self coaching,and self generative transpersonal development. Although this will never replace the power of a personal coach, the preparation and self development will make the coaching as powerful as a laser.

Dr. Patrick Williams, co-author of Becoming a Professional Life Coach

Powerful!
by Don Carroll

Right at the start Doug Silsbee makes clear in this book that he is trying to take you beyond the limitations of print media. Those limitations are huge for a book about presence because, as the author shows us, the way into presence is not for Westerners primarily intellectual understanding, but more through the body and the heart. Given the limitations of the medium, what the author is able to achieve is a huge success.

First, a disclaimer -- I know Doug, he is a colleague and a friend, but we have never hesitated to be rigorous with each other in assessing what we offer and I provide this review in that spirit.

Doug’s book is an invitation for coaches to approach coaching (for anyone to approach life) not from a place of mastery of technique but from a place of mystery -- the mystery of the nature of human presence. If Doug were not meticulous and logical in thought processes and presentation it would be easy for a book like this, despite its best intentions, to drift into fuzziness. This does not happen. Doug is able to set forth clearly an understanding of how to move into a deeper place of being and from that place how to cultivate one’s own presence so that as a coach you can more readily help create that space in the clients and leaders you are coaching. The limitations of the book will be those that the reader brings, who simply reads the volume, and does accept the author’s invitation to actually engage in the processes to develop presence that the book presents.

Coaching is not therapy, but what is relevant from the therapy world is that there are many, many studies about the efficacy of therapy. They all find that the single most important factor in whether the client is helped, is not the psychological theory used or the techniques involved but the quality of the relationship between client and therapist. If you want to be an effective coach for your client (or if you want to effective in your personal relationships or as a leader in your organization) this book helps you understand that the quality of the relationships you build is dependent upon your presence. Doug’s book provides both practices and inspiration for how to build your self presence.
There are many fundamental insights in this book. One is that learning new ways of opening to the world occur most advantageously through freedom. As he succinctly puts it, “Pressure reduces the bandwidth for learning.” This is a touchstone in coaching and leading and comes when the coach or leader is sufficiently embodied to be able to coach and lead without the need to control. The practice of presence is the practice that builds that embodiment.

Overtime we all become more and more of what we do, as our habits become us. So key to coaching that leads to the change clients desire is as Doug stresses practice. So quite importantly the book offers a menu of practices that you can choose from to strengthen the part of you that you are trying to bring more into being. And it is not all dry stuff – there is a kissing practice.

If Doug were living 2500 years ago, this would not be a book, but an invitation to join a Mystery school that would transform you into a more vital, connected, present and joyful human being. I for one could not refuse the invitation.

Tap Into Your Purpose
by Kevin M. Zachary, Bravo Zulu Consulting, LLC

I love Doug's book because it provides such a wonderful guide for helping me stay in touch with why I am a coach and consultant. I do this work because I want to help people live more powerful, playful, and passionate lives. In those moments when my own internal dialogue threatens to get in the way of my effectiveness, I now have a way to reconnect with my inner source of power and refocus my attention on making a difference for my clients. Doug's book has actually allowed me to feel more at ease during the coaching process. I do not worry as much about "doing a good job" or "providing value." Instead, I center and let my inner purpose be the source of my contribution. Putting the elements of Presence-Based Coaching into practice will not only help you become a more effective coach or leader, it will help any relationship flourish.

Intelligent, Experiential, and Practical
by Elizabeth A. Powell

Doug Silsbee maps the territory of presence-based coaching and leadership with extraordinary rigor and nuance. Business educators will be intrigued by these insights into learning and practice, acquired in the crucible of the coach-client relationship.

Silsbee's approach is profoundly experiential and practical. Of special interest is Silsbee's model of self-generation, which is essential for the resilience leaders and for coaches depend on to not only do their work but renew and grow over time. Making the model concrete and actionable are numerous stories, exercises and practices, designed to move Silsbee's ideas off of the page and into the minds and lives of his readers.

A Significant Contribution to the Field of Coaching
by Dale Schwarz

Doug Silsbee's book Presence-Based Coaching is a significant contribution to the field of coaching and valuable for anyone wanting to enhance their ability to become more present in their life and work. Through simple, yet profound practices Doug guides readers through understanding and most importantly experiencing presence as the book unfolds. He has artfully brought the ancient wisdom of mindfulness, meditation and body awareness and applied these practices to coaching. He carefully describes presence in all it's subtleties through illustrative client examples, showing how connecting with body awareness and meditation practices and other practices can bring us into presence.

As a coach, long time meditator and student of body work, I found this book valuable as a way to fine tune my practices, therefore I
think it is a useful for practitioners of all levels, as well as those for whom this approach is new. This is a book that I will refer to time and time again to deepen my work with my clients.

Dale Schwarz, coach and co-author of Facilitative Coaching: A toolkit
for expanding your repertoire and achieving lasting results.

An Excellent Book Not Just for Coaches but for Leaders and Educators
by Rey Carr
This review first appeared in Training Media Review

At the outset I have to state that I'm not sure if I can be as objective in writing a review of Doug Silsbee's book, Presence-Based Coaching: Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders Through Mind, Body, and Heart, as I have been on other reviews I've done for Training Media Review.

I've known Doug Silsbee for many years. He's been a dedicated member of and active contributor to my own organization, The Peer Resources Network. I've seen dozens of rave reviews of his coach training retreats; I've known many coaches who highly value what they've learned from him; and my own interactions with him have always been productive and enlightening.

I also read and greatly admired his first book, The Mindful Coach: Seven Roles for Helping People Grow, and have recommended it many times as one of the best guides for learning how to be an effective coach.

The coaching world has grown considerably since I first became acquainted with Doug's work. There are now dozens of coaching associations; more than 450 coach training organizations; and an estimated 80,000 coaches practicing worldwide. To some degree I can tell that he has played a significant role in enlarging that world. From the person who wrote the foreword in his current book to the 20 testimonials that accompany the book, Doug is connected to and has had an influence on a veritable "who's who" in the coaching arena.

While beginning coaches could benefit from this book, it is mostly addresses both coaches and leaders who want to deepen their understanding of themselves and fully develop what Doug calls "presence."

The majority of the book is dedicated towards helping readers look inside themselves. Doug teaches the reader to "cultivate and discover" the role of heart, mind, and body "in generating our capacity to learn and develop."

Presence, he believes, "is central to our capacity to be self-generative," and, "in fact, our ability to facilitate lasting, sustainable development in others absolutely rests on the presence that we offer to the relationship."

The foundation for Doug's book, and a statement that can be treated like an axiom in the helping professions, is we must first work on our inner selves before we can hope to deliver "what coaching often promises."

The principles that Doug is referring to that are essential for developing presence have long been the practices that have made a significant difference in my professional, personal and leadership work. Like Doug, I too have seen the impact that presence can have in acting as a catalyst for change.

Doug has taken the knowledge he has gained from working with thousands of clients and leaders, mentoring other coaches, and learning from the participants in his training and has identified and articulated concepts, growth exercises, practical tools, examples, and illustrations from the business world to help others become "grounded in a solid understanding of how we grow and change...."

While this book isn't exactly a how-to treatise, he provides many details about the methodology of presence-based coaching and provides examples of dialogues or conversations to illustrate how accelerated growth takes place using a presence-based approach.

In virtually every one of the 12 chapters in this book, Doug includes practice exercises designed to maximize learning the principles and ideas described with such precision in each chapter.

In some ways this can be a difficult book to get through. It's not the language, the concepts, or the ideas that make it slow going. It's the challenge to the reader to engage in the particular exercise. Doug intends for the book reader to experience presence while he or she is actually reading the book.

The exercises, therefore, can challenge an existing viewpoint or belief system. He provides guidance for dealing with these challenges and recognizes that moving too quickly through an exercise can be "an excellent way to protect what you already know."

He suggests that readers take his advice an engage in a "presence pause" in order to entertain "possibility."

There are some additional touches that make the book worthwhile. Throughout the book Doug has included quotes from well-known sources. Each one acts as a succinct and meaningful statement about what the chapter will be about. He provides a summary at the conclusion of each chapter that acts as a review of the key points.

And while other books provide a bibliography of references or citations from each chapter, Doug has gone one step further and included an annotated bibliography of that particular reference giving the reader a more thorough understanding of the content of the cited sources.

Recommendation
Presence-Based Coaching is an excellent book not just for coaches but also for leaders and educators. Its focus on authenticity, reflection, and self-renewal will help anyone in those fields become a master in their work and life. But be sure to write your name and address in your copy because, if you loan it to someone, they probably will want to keep it for a long time.

Doug Has Done It Again!
by Deb Denis

In his first book, The Mindful Coach, Doug Silsbee provides an invaluable guide to help the coach focus their active listening and powerful questioning skills in service to their clients. It was and remains an incredibly powerful resource for me in my own practice.

Now Doug has done it again. With Presence-Based Coaching, Doug has published a must-read for any Professional Coach who wants to take their practice to the next level. Providing simple yet incredibly powerful exercises, Silsbee's coaching moves are powerful tools for your own development as well as your clients'. Doug has written this book to help you, the coach, be more present with your client -- involved, listening on all levels, engaged and authentic. Doug provides guidance to help you, as coach, cultivate this level of engagement in others.

Crazy-busy? Bringing presence into your work and life can help you focus so that you are better able to tap into that rich data pool around you and put it in service to your clients, your family, yourself and others. Doug helps you engage with your whole self--mind, body and heart. If it's time to take your coaching to a deeper level then this book is for you.