In 2005 the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) created an integrated Department of Children and Families bringing together colleagues from Social Work, Community Learning & Development and Education. In 2006 CEC began an initiative to take forward coaching widely in the department, give coaching a higher profile and begin to develop ‘coaching cultures’ within the five city neighbourhoods and their senior leaders and managers.
An extensive programme of coach development was introduced involving 82 CEC staff taking part in a range of accredited coaching training options. These were structured on a cross department basis to allow colleagues from different sectors to participate together thereby promoting partnership working. The Director and Heads of Service also took part demonstrating their commitment to the coaching approach.
Following the successful delivery of the programme an event was held for all coaches to celebrate coaching, encourage coaches to make individualised coaching plans and to support each other by making coaching connections. This event included representatives from other council departments, external coaching companies, freelance coaches and business leaders including colleagues from Standard Life.
Many members of the coaching pool created by the project have volunteered to take coaching forward in a variety of ways: coaching aspiring leaders; coaching other coaches; developing and delivering training for colleagues. A number of coaching courses have been offered and internal expertise is used to deliver and review these. In addition, every leader participating in any Children and Families leadership development, from aspiring to senior level, is allocated a coach.
The CEC coaching development has been evaluated as highly positive by the vast majority of participants in terms of the design and delivery of the training, the quality of the programmes offered and the impact coaching can make in practice. The CEC initiative has developed a cadre of accredited coaches in the department many of whom are committed to applying coaching in their leadership and management roles and to taking forward their professional development in this field. The coaching development has generated important insights for many CEC managers and leaders.
'I was initially sceptical, but found as my learning increased so did the results. Applying the concept of coaching was not much different from the way I normally deal with people, but it has allowed me to focus and develop both my social and work relationships. Applying the questioning, or should I say exploring techniques, has given solutions to issues that could possibly not have been resolved, solved as quickly or as effectively as has been the case. I am impressed by the totality of the coaching concept and the impact it has on enhancing a solution -focused culture. There were key insights that have continued to resonate and have sharpened my self-awareness and behaviour. These include: the delicate language of questioning, the key differences between coaching and mentoring and the various features of listening.'
Doris Mitchell from Canonmills School was a participant in the CEC training who has taken forward coaching in several ways in her establishment. She has taken advantage of professional development opportunities to develop her skills as well as being a member of the coaching network formed by all participants on the five day course for support and supervision.
She employs a coaching approach in her work with pupils with social and behavioural difficulties, finding that coaching can bring about powerful realisations for pupils in terms of responsibility and in identifying stress factors. She uses open questions and other coaching techniques in her teaching and discipline management. Doris has found that daily pressures in school mean she uses a ‘quick coaching’ approach with pupils rather than formal coaching sessions.
'With pupils I listen carefully to their side of any issue, teasing out and questioning as required. From this, I sometimes find that I have 'the wrong end of the stick'. I apologise/ thank the pupil for their help and the coaching bit ends (however this is very valuable because pupils know I listen so an element of trust starts to form). When the coaching does continue we talk around the pre-incident scenario etc then come up with strategies for the next time. I give them a time that I'll get back to them to check that the strategies are working or need to be tweaked. I inform staff on a need to know basis with the pupils consent.
She has also used her coaching skills in managing people particularly when issues arise with parents and when offering feedback after classroom observation. She has found coaching very helpful at these times when previously she would have offered solutions herself. The centre itself is part of a CEC emotional well-being programme pilot ‘Creating Confident Staff’ and she is pleased that her coaching is contributing to a more emotionally literate approach.'
She has found supervision with a very experienced coach extremely helpful in keeping coaching at the forefront of her mind. Doris’ school is merging with another in a month’s time and she will use this as an opportunity to train Learning Assistants to use coaching techniques in their discipline management.
The CEC initiative to create a coaching culture continues through: individual coaches creating small scale ‘coaching cultures’ within establishments and teams; communicating through the bi-monthly coaching newsletter Coaching Connections; an executive coaching partnership with Standard Life and a working group which is developing Framework guidelines in both Coaching and Mentoring.
For more information please email Sheena Greco.
In association with Education Scotland
Comments
Barbara Lindsay,
27 February 2008, 1.45 pm
A very interesting article Sheena. I am keen to know how the coaching is being developed and sustained. Are headteachers rolling this out through CPD within school? Were all head teachers trained initially? How influential do you think the commitment of senior managers to coaching is? What impact has the partnership with Standard Life had on the project? Thanks
sheena,
29 February 2008, 11.53 am
Thanks Barbara I will shortly evaluate the impact of coaching across the 82 originally trained - with so many, it is a huge exercise to monitor developments as you can imagine! Of the 82, approximately 10 are Headteachers - the vast majority are centrally based managers. The commitment of senior managers is essential and has to be sustained....I have found that those who are being coached (by peer coaches, for example) see the benefits clearly. Standard Life has been crucial in terms of providing coaches from the 'real world' who can bring new perspectives - and who have been very generous of their time.
Barbara Lindsay,
25 March 2008, 11.32 am
I look forward to reading your evaluation if that is possible and as you say with 82 people to look for feedback from the task may be time consuming but extremely informative. I agree strongly that people who have received coaching clearly see the benefits, the challenge is to spread the word!