Unlocking Potential, Second Edition: 7 Coaching Skills That Transform Individuals, Teams, and Organizations

Revised, updated, and expanded: the definitive guide to transformational leadership from a team of expert executive coaches.

Over the past six years, Michael K. Simpson’s Unlocking Potential has helped leaders motivate, inspire, and fully engage their teams. This revised edition, written with Maria Sullivan and Kari Saddler, builds on that powerful foundation for a new generation of leaders. The key is not just managing but coaching―developing the talents of your organization’s most important asset: the employees. In any successful organization, that begins with the basic skills developed by Simpson: building trust, recognizing potential, challenging paradigms, clarifying individual personal goals, executing flawlessly, giving effective feedback, and tapping into talent. Now Simpson expands on his knowledge and experience as a senior consultant with the management assessment firm FranklinCovey. This revised and updated edition also features insights from Sullivan and Saddler and additional real-life lessons learned in the field by managers who have put Simpson’s invaluable coaching skills into play.

Transform your business relationships (and your business) with this comprehensive tool for optimizing productivity, profitability, loyalty, and customer focus.

Michael K. Simpson has over twenty-five years of experience as one of the world’s preeminent executive coaches and strategy experts to many Fortune 100 and 500 organizations. As an award-winning author, speaker, executive coach, and senior consultant at FranklinCovey, Michael helps CEOs and executive teams to clarify their vision, set strategy, reach goals, and build high-performance teams and high organizational trust.

Michael is a fellow with Harvard University’s Institute of Coaching (IOC) and a graduate of Columbia University’s Executive Coaching Certification Program.

Formerly, Michael was a principal consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in their Strategic and Organizational Change practice and a senior consultant in Change Management at Ernst & Young. Michael held executive management positions for two leading technology companies as vice president of sales and marketing and vice president of business development.

Michael is the author or coauthor of several leadership and coaching books, including Powerful Leadership through Coaching and Talent Unleashed.

Michael has been a professor at South China University of Technology; an adjunct professor at Columbia College’s School of Business; and a visiting lecturer at Hong Kong University, University of Malaysia, Columbia University’s Teachers College, Northwestern University, Brigham Young University, and Utah State University.

Michael is the CEO of Simpson Executive Coaching and the CEO of FranklinCovey-Impact International Education in China. Michael has a master’s degree in organizational behavior from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from BYU’s Kennedy Center for International Studies.

When he’s not busy traveling, training, consulting, and coaching executives, Michael enjoys spending time with his family in the beautiful Wasatch Mountains of Utah.

Maria “Sully” Sullivan is a leadership development consultant and executive coach for FranklinCovey, where she works with client organizations that emphasize development among their leaders.

Educated in New England―first on a dairy farm and then at Dartmouth College―Maria took on senior manager/director roles in the legal, technology, and financial services sectors with bottom-line accountability at Louis Dreyfus, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Deloitte. She draws from this experience to support and accelerate her clients’ development. Using the best tools from multiple disciplines, Maria focuses on designing development systems, methods, and programs that suit the unique needs of her clients. Recent clients include ten of Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.

Maria brings her experience, energy, and drive to her clients’ quest for improved leadership performance every single day. When she’s not on the road working with an executive, you will find her in Florida spoiling her teenage nephew and any number of dogs.

Kari Saddler believes that everyone deserves a leader who inspires and empowers them. She has twenty years of combined experience as a consultant, executive coach, and business manager. She has been a leader at JPMorgan Chase, WellCare, and Tampa General Hospital. In 2015 Kari joined FranklinCovey as an author, speaker, executive coach, and senior consultant.

Kari received her bachelor’s degree in English from the Ohio State University and her master of business administration from Ohio Dominican University. She is certified in multiple type-theory tools, including Hogan, MBTI, Predictive Index, and DiSC. Kari is also a professional certified coach and a certified social and emotional intelligence coach.

When not working with clients, Kari can often be found driving cross-country for weeks at a time, pulling an RV, boondocking in little-known hideaways, and exploring national parks. She lives outside Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three children.