Fearless Consulting
Author Erik de Haan
Price £24.99
From John Wiley
Contact www.wiley.com
This could become one of the definitive business books of the decade.
Erik de Haan, director of Ashridge’s Centre for Coaching, has pulled together various intellectual threads from literature, philosophy and the arts to explain the unspoken inner dialogue of what goes on in the contact between consultant and client.
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De Haan’s aim is to identify and eliminate the blocks to ‘fearless’ discourse. This is defined as open and honest speech, which has its roots in the ancient Greek term parrhesia. This was the pure form of speech used by philosophers in the presence of kings.
De Haan offers a fascinating and thoughtful approach, which takes in the shifting patterns of the relationship between client and consultant.
Anyone who enters into any type of consulting relationship, whether as a client consultant, coach or mentor, will find this an invigorating read.
Useful? four of the five
Well written? five out of five
Value for money? four out of five