Unlocking Potential: 7 Coaching Skills That Transform Individuals, Teams, & Organizations - Softcover

Michael K. Simpson is one of the world’s preeminent business leadership experts and executive coaches, having spent more than twenty-five years on the vanguard of management development as an author, speaker, and senior consultant at FranklinCovey—where he taught at their Executive Leadership Summit with Dr. Stephen Covey and Dr. Ram Charan—and as a management consultant to top corporations including Marriott, GE Capital, Frito-Lay, Lilly, Nike, HSBC, John Deere, ExxonMobil, and Coca-Cola.

In addition to his practical business experience, Michael brings academic acumen to his work, having been an adjunct professor at Columbia College’s School of Business, guest lecturer at BYU’s Marriott School of Management, and professor at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, China. His published works include: Ready, Aim, Excel with Marshall Goldsmith and Kenneth Blanchard; Your Seeds of Greatness, Talent Unleashed; The Execution-focused Leader with PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Building Team and Organizational Trust, coauthored with Stephen M.R. Covey.

When he’s not busy consulting and coaching top executives to optimize their team and organizational performance, Michael enjoys traveling, skiing, tennis, and spending time with his family in the beautiful Wasatch Mountains of Utah.

"Michael Simpson has done it! He has written the definitive guide on coaching for today’s leaders. Unlocking Potential is clearly the right coaching book at the right time for any manager or leader. Michael simultaneously offers deep insights along with very practical coaching tools for leaders to develop the right mindset and skills to help engage their teams and transform their organization. Above all, this book will help you find your personal greatness—and then will lead you to help others find theirs. This is what Michael was meant to do. I give this wonderful book my highest possible recommendation.” —Stephen M. R. Covey, #1 bestselling author of The Speed of Trust and coauthor of Smart Trust

“Michael Simpson’s Unlocking Potential is a skillfully written treatise about how you can be a great coach. Follow Michael’s advice in this great book. He’ll give you guidance on holding coaching conversations with individuals, conversations where you listen carefully and fully commit to helping them succeed.” —Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, author/editor of thirty-four leadership and coaching books, including the bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

"In Unlocking Potential, Michael Simpson does more than just deliver a primer on impactful and effective inquiry-based coaching based on trust. He offers a comprehensive process for the modern leader with tested approaches for strategic planning, execution excellence, performance management, and talent development based on experience working with hundreds of leaders. I am grateful to say that I have benefited from Michael's coaching over the years with tremendous impact on both my personal and professional lives." —Alex M. Azar II, President of Lilly USA

“This is the best coaching text book for general management! Managing people is situational as ‘one suit does not fit all people.’ This book puts a clear coaching process in place to bring clarity to the complexities of management and how to best influence high performing teams.” —Walter Levy, CEO/President of NCH Corporation

“We have utilized Michael as a consultant and coach for a number of years. His book, Unlocking Potential, serves as an insightful and practical guide for coaching at all levels of any organization. He clearly articulates what it means to be a great coach. Thank you, Michael, for sharing your amazing insights and experiences in this book. I recommend it to anyone who is trying to help their teams and organizations reach their potential.” —Matt Oldroyd, President/CEO of Partsmaster

"It's easy for me to endorse Unlocking Potential, as it resonates so strongly with my experiences as a leadership coach and consultant. It is troubling to observe that many capable people are performing well below their ability because they either are afraid to engage in open dialogue with their leaders or their leaders are unwilling to have enabling conversations with them about discovering and developing their potential. Michael beautifully illustrates powerful principles and practices with real-life examples. Most importantly, he emphasizes how important it is to address the whole person, rather than simply focusing on one aspect of a person's life. Any leader who reads Michael's book will clearly understand the potential power they have to significantly enable others' effectiveness as well as to unlock and increase their own personal potential." —Walter L. Ross, Ph.D., Former MSOD Program Direction, Pepperdine University's Masters of Science of Organizational Development

“Whether you like it or not—if you are a leader, you ARE a coach. Those you lead are absorbing and being influenced by your weaknesses as well as your strengths. This solid, principled, and practical book will help you do it intentionally, skillfully, and transformatively. Make Unlocking Potential your most treasured management guide.” —Joseph Grenny, coauthor of the New York Times bestselling books Crucial Conversations and Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change