43 Best Life Coaching Books To Read Today

As life coaches, we love to learn about self-improvement and the human brain. We continuously search for books, podcasts, and anything that helps us change our clients’ mindsets.

Although we have a keen interest in the latest research on how the human mind works, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all the information and latest research. Here, we have picked the best books on life coaching for you, plus podcasts and resources to make that much easier.

Inspired by these reads? Turn some of your new insights into coaching solutions for your clients with Quenza’s $1, 1-month trial.

Top 10 Life Coaching Books To Read

Let’s start off with the best life coaching books.

We recommend these books because they cover a mix of topics such as maintaining a successful coaching practice, coaching techniques, self-care for the coach, time management, and marketing.

1. The Inner Game of Work – Timothy W. Gallwey

This book is your client’s guide to removing internal and external interference to increase their performance.

It explores how great coaching can make transformative differences in their impact on an organization and shows them how to navigate change to achieve their goals.

Find the book on Amazon.

2. Working with Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

Emotional intelligence is a key skill for any coach, and Daniel Goleman is one of the world’s leading experts on the topic.

This book on coaching will help you up your EQ game so that you can improve your professional impact, and can also be a useful resource for your clients.

Find the book on Amazon.

3. The Mindful Coach – D. K. Silsbee

This coach book will teach you how to bring out the best in people, including your clients.

In it, Doug Silsbee introduces a “Septet Model” that differentiates seven roles that anyone can use to conduct coaching conversations with executives, leaders, and other professionals.

Find the book on Amazon.

4. Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff

When you’re a life coach, you often spend time focusing on problems faced by your clients.

But it’s equally important to be self-compassionate because this can contribute to your coaching presence and how you turn up for your clients.

Find the book on Amazon.

5. The Discomfort Zone – Marcia Reynolds

A life coach’s job entails offering clients observations, intuitions, and inconsistencies.

This book guides you on how to have difficult conversations with your clients.

Find the book on Amazon.

6. The Four Tendencies – Gretchen Rubin

This book is all about how different people can be held accountable for their commitments.

Gretchen Rubin suggests that most people fit all into one of four types of tendencies, Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels, which influence every aspect of our behavior.

Find the book on Amazon.

7. Atomic Habits – James Clear

A key component of coaching is habit formation.

This book provides easy and proven ways of breaking and forming habits.

Find the book on Amazon.

8. Change Your Questions, Change Your Life – Marilee Adams

In a world where we’re used to providing answers and solutions, this book helps us ask better questions.

Author Marilee Adams uses a storytelling approach to illustrate how a technique called “Questions Thinking” can encourage innovation, productivity, and more rewarding relationships.

Find the book on Amazon.

9. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything – Ken Robinson

Finding their passion can change everything for your clients as their lives will begin to align when they’re aware of their true passions.

This book is all about creativity, innovation, and pursuing your goals, which makes it a great read for life coaches with a leadership coaching specialty.

Find the book on Amazon.

10. Learned Optimism – M. E. P. Seligman

This book draws on years of clinical research to demonstrate the benefits of an optimistic mindset.

It offers simple exercises and techniques that your clients can use to experience a more positive internal attitude and dialog.

Find the book on Amazon.

Best Selling Life Coach Books on Amazon

A good place to find some of the best-selling books on life coaching right now is Amazon. Here are a few of the titles that your peers are probably reading.

1. Coaching Questions: A Coach’s Guide to Powerful Asking Skills – Tony Stoltzfus

Master coach Tony Stoltzfus shares valuable questions, coaching models, and exercises in this best-selling life coaching book.

He explores the top ten mistakes that life coaches make and how to correct them, alongside a suggested training schedule to help the reader improve their “asking” skills.

This book also includes a handy overview of 15 popular life coaching niches plus examples of questions to ask for each.

Find the book on Amazon.

2. The Coaching Habit – Michael Bungay Stainer

This book helps make coaching a regular and informal part of your daily routine.

Michael Bungay Stainer introduces you to seven essential coaching questions to illustrate how you can develop coaching methods that drive successful results.

Find the book on Amazon.

3. The Life Coaching Handbook – Curly Martin

This comprehensive but easy-to-read life coaching book aims to be a step-by-step guide on everything involved in being a coach.

It introduces a range of progressively more advanced life coaching techniques, including how to plan a coaching session, how to communicate with coachees, how to engage clients, and more.

Find the book on Amazon.

Top Workbooks For Coaches [& PDF]

If you’re too busy for a full-length book but ready to transform your life coaching practice, our 30-page online coaching guide gets straight to the essentials.

Coach, This Changes Everything unpacks some of the key mistakes holding coaches back from growing their practices, then shows you how to fix them to scale up your business and impact.

This guide will show you:

• How to organize, centralize, and streamline your digital life coaching practice
• How to client engagement at a maximum with less work, even as your client base grows
• How to increase your coaching revenue with passive income streams, and
• How to help more clients without working more unbillable hours.

Click here to download your free life coaching workbook and learn from our expert coaches.

16 Best Audiobooks And Podcasts Of All Time

As the world of coaching updates every day, the success of your practice will depend on how quickly you absorb the latest information. There are many audiobooks and podcasts that can help you stay up to date on coaching techniques and the latest findings.

Here are some of our favorite audiobooks and podcasts.

1. The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
   This audiobook discusses 12 breakthrough practices for bringing creativity into clients’ lives.
2. Huberman Lab with Dr. Andrew Huberman
   This podcast discusses all things neuroscience.
3. The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes
   This podcast features experts that can help you make a bigger impact and live better.
4. Feel Better, Live More with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
   The aim of this podcast is to simplify health advice.
5. 1 Insight with Rich Litvin
   Want to hear an experienced coach, coach other coaches? This is the podcast for you.
6. Unlocking Us with Brene Brown
   Best-selling author Brene Brown explores ideas, stories, books, and experiences on this podcast.
7. The Life Coach School Podcast with Brooke Castillo
   These podcast episodes help you learn, grow, and become a certified life coach through the School.
8. Mastering Coaching Skills with Lindsay Dotzlaf
   Want to learn from the experiences of a fellow coach? If so, you can sharpen your coaching skills by listening to this podcast.
9. Coaches Rising with Coaches Rising
   This podcast features discussions on transformational coaching.
10. Life Coaching Toolbox with the Transformation Academy
    These bite-sized podcast episodes offer quick insights and proven tools.
11. The Everything Life Coaching Podcast with Lumia Coaching
    This life coaching podcast offers deep dives into positive psychology, new coaching techniques, and business advice.
12. Let’s Get Real with Coach Menachem with Coach Menachem Bernfeld
    An inspiring podcast by a fellow coach.
13. Free Hypnosis and Coaching with Joseph Clough
    This podcast will help you work on your limiting beliefs and keep you motivated as you go along your coaching journey.
14. The Art of Coaching with Brett Bartholomew
    This podcast allows you to keep abreast of new developments in the coaching industry.
15. The Habit Coach with Ashdin Doctor
    This podcast is all about creating simple habits that are hard to skip.
16. The Grief Coach by Brooke James
    If you coach clients facing grief, this podcast may help you understand their needs better.

Books on Life Coach Techniques & Training

1. The Heart of Coaching by Thomas Crane
   This book delves into the heart of transformational coaching, a method of coaching that works on significant improvements and changes for the client.
2. Get Clients Now! by C. J. Hayden
   Getting new clients is mandatory to running a successful and profitable coaching practice. This is your guide to a 28-day marketing program.
3. Co-Active Coaching by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phil Sandahl
   This book shows practitioners how to coach in a way that creates truly collaborative and respectful relationships with their clients.
4. The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry by Sue Annis Hammond
   Appreciative Inquiry trains your mind to focus on what’s working in a client’s situation and to build on the positives.

10 Self-Help Life Coaching Books For Your Clients

1. How to Invest Your Time Like Money by Elizabeth Grace Saunders
   Managing time is one of the top stressors for our clients as well as ourselves. This practical guide can help you pick up some neat tricks on managing time, like money.
2. Authentic Happiness by M. E. P. Seligman
   This book on coaching uses positive psychology principles to define authentic happiness.
3. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tole
   This is a classic on mindfulness and can help you and your clients stay in the present moment.
4. Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson
   We all have a Gremlin that keeps us trapped in our comfort zone. This book on coaching will guide you on how to work with your Gremlin and help your clients do the same.
5. Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
   Flow is a state of mind that engages one fully. This book discusses how we can attain flow in our day-to-day lives.
6. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
   Most clients don’t take action because of their deep-rooted fears. This book will guide you on how to coach others in a way that influences them to take action.
7. I Will Not Die an Unlived Life by Dawna Markova
   This book follows the author’s path to finding deeper meaning and passion in life.
8. A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
   Coaching is as much about the right brain as it is about the left brain. In this book, the author discusses vital right-brained skills required for the “new” world.
9. The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz
   This book provides a powerful code of conduct that can transform clients’ lives to attain happiness, freedom, and love.
10. The Leadership Wheel: Five Steps for Achieving Individual and Organizational Greatness by Clinton C. Sidle
    Everyone is a leader in their own lives and in their communities. This leadership coaching book discusses different types of leadership styles required for different situations.

Final Thoughts

We hope you found our list of life coaching resources helpful. Be sure to check out our Virtual Life Coaching guide if you’re looking to get started, and happy coaching!

We invite you to start your $1, 1-month trial of Quenza and learn more about how the Quenza portal enables you to access a host of life coaching resources.