Where to Start with Michael Bungay Stanier
Michael Bungay Stanier has spent decades studying what makes coaching work in everyday leadership. He founded Box of Crayons, a company that has trained managers at some of the world’s largest organizations to be more coach-like in their daily interactions. In 2019, he was named the number one thought leader in coaching globally. His books have sold over a million copies, and his approach is distinctive for its radical simplicity: he believes coaching does not require certification, jargon, or even a formal session. It just requires better questions and the discipline to stay curious a little longer.
Start here
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
Michael Bungay Stanier · 224 pages · 2016 · Easy
Themes: coaching questions, leadership habits, one-on-one conversations, asking vs. telling, management skills
The book that made coaching accessible to anyone who leads, manages, or works with other people. Michael Bungay Stanier distills the practice of coaching into seven essential questions that you can start using in your very next conversation.
Why Start Here
The Coaching Habit is Bungay Stanier’s breakthrough work, and it remains his most impactful. Built around seven deceptively simple questions, the book teaches managers and leaders to resist the urge to jump in with advice and instead stay curious longer. The kickstart question opens real conversations. The AWE question deepens them. The focus question cuts to what actually matters.
What makes this book stand out is its understanding of behavioral change. Bungay Stanier does not just give you questions to ask. He explains why you default to giving advice in the first place and how to build new habits that stick. Drawing on neuroscience and behavioral psychology, he shows how small changes in conversational patterns can transform the way you lead.
The book has sold over a million copies and topped the Wall Street Journal bestseller list because it works. Readers report that the seven questions change not just their management style but their relationships across the board.
What to Expect
A fast, practical 224-page read with no filler. Each chapter covers one question, explains the thinking behind it, and gives you a concrete plan for using it. The tone is warm, direct, and occasionally funny. You will finish it in a weekend and start using it immediately.