Coaching has brought a different dimension to my job as headteacher within the realm of managing people.
It has given me valuable insight into how to work with the wide variety of people I encounter in school life in a wide variety of situations. I have been given a growing confidence to deal with many tricky situations using the tools of coaching. My relationships with staff have deepened and trust is evident. Headteacher/staff consultations are much more enjoyable for us all.
Through the use of a coaching approach I have been allowed to have a much more positive interaction with colleagues, parents and children, who have taken ownership of solutions to issues and concerns. So often when advice is offered/given it is not taken on board because the solution offered is not the other person’s solution and dissatisfaction, if not failure, is the result. This has often meant that the blame for lack of success is placed on the adviser’s shoulders.
Coaching for me has meant a dramatic turnaround in dealings with:
As one coachee said:
'You have let me ask myself the questions I would never have asked of me before.' (The most important conversation of all - the one with yourself)
For myself, being coached and being a member of the Action Learning Set has opened up a new set of friendships and trust within a group of wonderful people. This experience of being listened to in a non-judgemental way and being helped to see solutions which were always there and just needed to be made visible, for me, has been second to none.
The group has become increasingly important to me as my remit has widened to manage four schools and I have been effectively supported by the members through my own crisis of confidence in my ability to do this complicated job efficiently and successfully.
I look forward to continuing to develop my abilities as a coach and using them in my personal and professional life.
For more information please email Rosemarie Andrew.
In association with Education Scotland
Comments
Barbara Lindsay,
27 February 2008, 1.13 pm
This is a very interesting article and the comments about non-judgemental active listening chime with the way I try to work. Obviously coaching has supported you in managing people in four establishments. I am very interested to learn about how your authority supported you in coaching training. Was it on a personal opt in basis or were all headteachers trained and how were the action learning sets rolled out?
Mike Sutton,
6 March 2008, 06.17 am
I have really enjoyed your article as it reinforced for me the way that coaching opens the door to so many things such as classrooms, and how teachers think and act. It is alo greta that it helps teachers investigate or study their pedagogy. You pointed out the fact that it leads to the teachers owning the solutions ans they are based on their reflection. Like you , I have found that trust is the key to coaching.
Mike Sutton,
10 March 2008, 06.36 am
Rosemarie, I have been reflecting on your article over the last few days trying to identify what it was that you had expressed so well. Having reread the article I now understand that you see coaching as a gift, something that you have been given to make you a more effective leader. I understand what you are saying. For me learning to be an active listener and a reflective questioner has been a gift that I will never lose. I know that I now naturally slip into those modes when working with colleagues or community members. One of the other skills or gifts that I have gained through coaching is a greater undersdtanding and appreciation of the needs of the people that I am working with. It helps me support a teacher when they are nmot in good space or their programme is not running as well as they would like. I have learned to be patient and let the colleague tell their story so that they better understand what it is that they are stuggling with or being challenged by. I would be lost without all that I have gained from coaching.