1971 Book – Coaching, Learning, and Action

Bill C. Lovin and Emery Reber Casstevens wrote this reference book about on-the-job coaching for all managers and supervisors to learn the necessary skills to develop their subordinates. What is interesting about this book is that it specifies that the writing is “without psychological jargon” and addresses how adults learn.

A cartoon on page 162 describes “if he deliberately plans his daily efforts to change the habitual behavior of his subordinates, he is a coach.” Six major strategies of day-to-day coaching in business are identified as:

1. Change the envrionment

2. Reward and punish

3. Prescribe and supervise key points

4. Make joint plans

5. Control the rate at which the employee takes on responsibility

6. Coach the extremes

Lovin and Casstevens state that any on-the-job coaching device can be expected to succeed if it sticks to the fundamentals of adult learning and if it fits the situation.

Each week I will outline key points from an early coaching book.