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HOST LEADERSHIP | SOLUTIONS FOCUS
Keeping the Solutions Focus is Simple
(and why “simple” is not always “easy”)
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Solutions Focus is many things: a therapy, a coaching style, an attitude, a practice, an attribute of host leadership, a way of life.
As a practice, leadership trait or coaching style, Solutions Focus is derived from SFBT (Solutions Focus Brief Therapy), which is based on the joint work of Steve de Shazer (1940–2005) and Insoo Kim Berg (1934–2007) at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee). From there, the approach was brought into the world of leadership and coaching, and transformed into a practical, real-world business routine, notably by Mark McKergow and Paul Z. Jackson, authors of the groundbreaking book The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching & Change Simple, 2006 (third edition, 2024).
The “simple” in Mark and Paul’s book title refers to an acronym rather than the adjective of the same name. It is important to understand this difference. SIMPLE is in fact a kind of manifesto for Solutions Focus practitioners. Some…
