Coaching Strategies for Powerful Leadership

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Coaching Strategies for Powerful Leadership

• Karen Anderson
• kanderson97_at_tx.rr.net

Frances Shuster franshuster_at_verizon.net

• Reba Schumacher
• Reba.Schumacher_at_tylerlisd.org

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Purpose
To invite you to experience the power and value
of coaching for schools, districts, and their
leaders
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Agenda

• Welcome and Introductions
• Purpose and Objectives
• Objective 1
• Identify a Goal Regarding Current Job
  Challenges
• Objective 2
• Generate Possibilities for Goal
  Achievement
• Objective 3
• Prioritize and Plan Actions for Goal
  Attainment
• Closure
• Reflection

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Identify a Goal Regarding Current Job
Challenges
Objective One
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Goal Statistics

• 87 of people do not have goals
• 10 of people have goals but do not write them
  down
• 3 of people have written goals
• The 3 accomplish 50 to 100 times more than
  others.
• Billy Mitchell, Power of Positive Students

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• Without these weekly calls, I would not be
  focusing on the most important things in my life,
  in my family, my school, and my community. I now
  know where I can best use my talents to make a
  difference for poor and minority children.
• -Elementary School
  Principal

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• Coaching gives me the direction to take,
  rekindles the passion about childrens success,
  and hope that we will make a difference for all
  children.
• - High School Principal

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Coaching has helped me to focus on
those things that are most important to student
achievement. It takes a lot of effort to get me
off the treadmill of all the urgent but not
important things that a principal gets drawn
into doing. After a few sessions of coaching, I
recalled that the year we made the greatest gains
in student achievement was the year I scheduled
frequent one-on-one conferences with teachers and
goal setting conferences with children. I am
back to those practices so that teachers and
students will know we are all supporting one
another as a team. Elementary School
Principal
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After coaching training, I returned
to my campus with a plan to intentionally listen
to my staff. At the conclusion of a conference
where I carefully practiced Powerful Listening
Skills with a key staff member, he looked
straight at me and said, Ive worked with you
for 3 years and today I felt as if you listened
to me for the first time. What had oftentimes
been an awkward and unproductive relationship
changed in that thirty-minute conversation where
I did most of the listening. Now this staff
member and I work together smoothly and
effortlessly for the benefit of
students. Elementary School Principal
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Generate Possibilities for Goal Achievement
Objective Two
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Refrain From.....
Asking How?
Filtering
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Language of Coaching

• What else?
• Tell me one more. Two more.
• If you could think of one more, what might it be?
• When you were most successful, what were you
  doing?
• What is something wild and crazy?
• If there is a request of help, a coach would say,
  Ill offer one and then you do the same.

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Intention Pyramid
ACTION
ATTENTION
INTENTION
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Example One

• Intention
• To change the culture of her school
• Attention
• Changing how she interacted with staff and
  students to be perceived as more approachable
• Actions
• Starting a knitting club at lunch time on Fridays
  after teachers admired some things she had made
  and expressed an interest in learning to knit
• Taking clarinet lessons from the music teacher
  and playing with the students at the Winter and
  Spring concert to show her willingness to be a
  beginner and to be vulnerable.

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Example Two

• Intention
• To have a positive, participatory site council
  who has creative ideas focused on student success
• Attention
• Being seen as a collaborative leader open to new
  ideas
• Establishing a supportive environment that
  encourages risk taking and mistakes
• Being a leader who makes decisions based upon
  others input
• Actions
• Developing norms/expectations for behavior
• Setting/holding meetings at a time convenient for
  all
• Holding meetings on the first Thursday of each
  month dont cancel meetings and personally
  attend

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Example

• Actions
• Developing norms/expectations for behavior
• Setting/holding meetings at a time convenient for
  all
• Holding meetings on the first Thursday of each
  month dont cancel meetings and personally
  attend
• Attention
• Being seen as a collaborative leader open to new
  ideas
• Establishing a supportive environment that
  encourages risk taking and mistakes
• Being a leader who makes decisions based upon
  others input
• Intention
• To have a positive, participatory site council
  who has creative ideas focused on student
  success

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Intention Pyramid
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"The 'Coaching for School Results' Workshop
provided insights and practices that have been
invaluable in my role as superintendent. I am
now much more alert to ways to guide and coach my
school administrators, building their expertise
and their confidence." Louise Taylor,
Superintendent, Monrovia, CA
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No longer do I feel as though I must promptly
solve any problem that comes my way or that I
must relate to the problem from my own personal
experiences. I simply need to listen actively
and formulate questions that will enable others
to find the best alternative themselves.
Coaching for Results was a very liberating
experience for me Im now able to step back and
let others reach their potential. Camille
A. Nasbe, Ed.D., Superintendent, Winton Woods
City Schools, Cincinnati, OH
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Reflection

• What has been your Blue Ribbon learning for today?