This articles is based on: "So you're player. Do you need a coach?" by Betsy Morris, originally published in Fortune, February 2000; "Business coaching catches on", by Jennifer Martin, originally published by Crain Communictions Inc. December 2000; "Executive coaching: the route to business stardom", by Steve O'Shaudhnessy originally published in Industrial and Commercial Trainning. vol. 33 n.6 2001; Forty things every manager should know about coaching", by John O. Burdett, originally published in The Journal of Management Development, vol. 17 n.2, 1998. The Morris article takes a journalistic look at coaching and asks some fundamental questions. Who are coaches? What are they doing in your company? With contributions from leading experts in the field, and Morris' entertaining writing style, this article makes useful reading on coaching in general. In a similar vein, the Martin article concentrates on how external assistance is helping small firms to create a winning game plan. The article is journalistic in style and full of facts and figures on the subject. It also attempts to provide reasons for the growing trend in coaching. Following a more academic style, the O'Shaughnessy article takes a look at the concept of incremental improved performance and applies it to the field of executive coaching. It assesses the effectiveness of coaching as a management-development tool by means of a survey involving 25 senior executives of blue-chip organizations. This article provides a good balance between theoretical concept and worked example. The Burdett article builds upon points made by Morris and asserts that coaching in the secret weapon f many successfull organizations. It suggests that what is generally lacking in organizations is not the spirit of coaching but the delivery skills with which to carry through on good intent. It concludes by proposing 40 coaching guidelines to aid this process. In a similar style to the O'Shaughnessy article, Burdett's piece balances theory and practice with a highly readable approach