Coaching – What, Why, How
On Presence, Responsibility, and the Human Drive for Growth
Book Facts
Title: Coaching – What, Why, How
Author: Susann Gjerde
Publisher: Studentlitteratur
Year of publication: First edition 2003, revised editions 2010 and 2017
Genre: Leadership, organizational psychology, dialogue methodology
Core theme: Coaching as a way of being, the power of dialogue, conscious development
Key concepts: Active listening, responsibility, reflection, presence, relationship, learning
Quote:
“Coaching is about creating awareness and responsibility, not by giving answers, but by awakening questions.”
Significance:
The book has become a Nordic standard work on coaching-oriented leadership. It is widely used in the education of managers, HR professionals, teachers, and therapists, and has shaped an entire generation’s conversational culture in the Nordic countries. Gjerde represents a humane and sustainable view of development, where change emerges through presence rather than pressure.
Summary
Susann Gjerde’s Coaching – What, Why, How is an invitation to view leadership and human development through a different lens, one where change is not driven by instructions, but by insight.
She describes coaching as a liberating conversation. Not a conversation meant to give advice, but one that creates clarity. The coach helps another person hear themselves, recognize their own patterns, and find their next step. This is why Gjerde insists that coaching is not merely a method, but a way of being human.
In the book, she describes three foundational pillars:
The relationship – The quality of human presence. Change can only occur in safety and trust. The coach is neither above nor below the other person, but alongside them.
The process – A structured movement from the current situation toward a desired one. Structure here is not a constraint, but a frame that enables freedom.
The stance – The coach’s inner posture: listening, humility, and a deep belief in the other person’s inherent resources.
A central thread throughout Gjerde’s work is trust in human potential. She argues that every individual already possesses what they need, but that inner clarity is often obscured by mental noise, habits, and fear. Coaching thus becomes a process of removal rather than addition. It is not about adding something new, but about clearing away what blocks vision.
The Leadership Dimension
From a leadership perspective, Gjerde’s message is both simple and radical. Leaders do not always need to provide answers. Sometimes, it is enough to serve as a clear mirror. The coach-like leader carries presence as their primary tool, practicing silence when needed, listening deeply, and holding the space while another person searches for their own truth.
This is where leadership meets the art of living. Gjerde shows that anyone who seeks to lead others must first be able to lead their own inner world. To create developmental conversations, one must learn to listen inwardly without judgment. When leaders cultivate this kind of listening, organizations begin to change, not through control, but through awareness.
Coaching thus becomes more than a technique. It becomes an atmosphere that permeates the culture, shaping the tone of conversations, the quality of decisions, and the level of trust in relationships.
Final Reflection
At its core, Gjerde’s book is a reminder that human beings are always in motion. Change is not something we force, but something we allow. Her writing resonates with mindfulness and phenomenological traditions, where the essential task is not intellectual understanding, but lived experience.
When a leader asks a genuine question, one not loaded with expectations of a correct answer, a space opens. In that space, something new can emerge. That is where development truly lives.
Coaching, then, is not a tool for efficiency, but a practice of humanity. It rests on trust in the fact that each person carries their own answers. The leader’s role is to create the conditions in which those answers can be heard.
