Anyone and everyone can embrace a coaching mindset. It can help you build better relationships, have better conversations and develop a sense of collective efficacy in your organization. Everyone benefits from a coaching mindset.
But there is a HUGE difference between embracing a coaching mindset and building an intentional coaching program.
However, because it’s quite hard to see all the layers that go into an intentional coaching program it might seem like if everyone has a coaching mindset, we have a coaching program. Although that’s a wonderful foundation, it’s not quite all it takes to create a thriving coaching program.
In today’s episode I’m going to unpack 5 key differences between embracing a coaching mindset and an intentional coaching program. If you’re curious about how to articulate all the pieces that go into a fully developed coaching program – and how that’s much more than having coaching conversations, this episode is for you!
Before we jump in, I want to highlight that:
- Everyone can cultivate a coaching mindset
- Everyone can engage in coaching conversations
- Embracing a coaching mindset can help us have better conversations, build better relationships and work better together. And when we work better together, student learning improves.
I talk all about a coaching mindset in a previous quicktips episode so please check that out if you’re curious about what a coaching mindset actually is.
Ultimately, you need BOTH a coaching mindset adopted by the whole community AND a coaching program to truly create a coaching culture in your school!
However, sometimes schools choose not to invest in the development of a coaching program (and hiring trained instructional coaches) because they believe other educators are fulfilling the role of coach, most likely people with coordinator roles, or middle level leaders.
This was one of the findings of the recent AAICIS landscape study of international schools (watch this previous episode of the podcast for a summary). This finding aligns with what clients in The Coach often say about the challenge of advocating for a full time instructional coaching position – and what I hear from school leaders when they’re considering hiring coaches:
They often say:
- We already have coaches, our Curriculum Coordinators or Department Heads are doing this work
Or
- We don’t have the budget for instructional coaches
In fact, you may have heard a very similar conversation in your school setting.
And, the reality is, it’s not just the act of coaching (or embracing a coaching mindset) that enables a coaching culture to grow and thrive. It’s a huge foundational step forward, but there are so many more elements that need to be considered if you really want to create a coaching culture.
That’s what we’re talking about today – at a very high level / summary view. A much deeper look at this topic is actually one of the units inside the Cultivating a Coaching Mindset course, so if this conversation resonates with you, and you want to explore the ideas further, you might want to join us for our next global cohort of Cultivating a Coaching Mindset!
It’s important to note that not every school has the budget or capacity for an instructional coaching role – that’s why I created the Cultivating a Coaching Mindset course! Having teachers and leaders join the course and embrace a coaching mindset can help you begin to build the foundations of a coaching culture – even without the staffing.
However, actually building a coaching culture into the fabric of the school is more than just empowering all stakeholders to embrace a coaching mindset.
What’s YOUR level of coaching mastery?
All coaches go through various stages of coaching mastery. Once you identify where you’re at, you can begin to build the skills needed to move to the next stage.
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The STRIVE Model of Coaching Mastery quiz will help you identify your level of coaching mastery by matching you with case studies compiled from years of working with coaches inside The Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program so you can easily see where you fit!
When you complete the quiz, you’ll get:
- Your matching case study,
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Plus the Case Study Document includes:
- Case studies leveled by coaching mastery;
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You’ll go straight to the Quiz, and get the Case Studies by email.
The tip of the iceberg
So, today I’m going to share an overview of the difference between embracing a coaching mindset (which is foundational in building a coaching program) and an established instructional coaching program through 5 key differentiators.
You may not be in a place to consider building an instructional coaching program right now, but it’s important to understand how the outcome of your work may be different based on what kind of “investment” your school is making.
Let’s unpack that a little bit:
The graphic below differentiates a coaching mindset from an intentional coaching program. A coaching mindset is really the “tip of the iceberg” of what you can do in an instructional coaching program.
A coaching mindset will help empower colleagues to have coaching conversations, to facilitate better communication, and build better relationships.
But there is so much more than a formal instructional coaching program can do, like…
- Having ongoing coaching cycles with the same teacher over a long span of time
- School wide data analysis
- Organizing and facilitating learning walks as an ongoing system of opening classroom doors, learning from each other and reflecting on teaching practice
- Providing ongoing professional learning deeply focused on school needs
- Working inside classrooms with teachers with the intention of specific classroom transfer to student learning
- Co-teaching and modeling in multiple classrooms, over time
- Regular classroom visits and data collection for teachers from their own classroom environment
- Ongoing support for teams
- Curriculum development
- Providing research and resources for teachers in coaching cycles
And probably most importantly:
- Having strategic planning and vision for the development of instructional coaching to positively impact student learning
- Being an advocate for coaching
- Aligning this work with school wide goals
While we may be able to do some of these things on occasion and in a one-off capacity with our colleagues through a coaching mindset, the systemic, sustainable and ongoing support and implementation of this work is a full time job in its own right.
The Venn Diagram below visualizes why a coaching program requires team members who are able to focus on and prioritize coaching.
5 Reasons Why a Coaching Program is Different than a Coaching Mindset
So let’s get to the five key reasons why a coaching program is different from a coaching mindset (which is not to dissuade you from working towards building a coaching mindset, but for you to really understand why this is just the one step in the process of building a coaching culture).
Those 5 reasons are:
1: Time / Focus / Priority
2: Coaching is a specific skill set
3: Being a coach goes beyond “just” coaching conversations
4: A coaching program requires a micro AND macro view
5: Coaching Requires Evaluation
I’m going to share a very short highlighted summary view of each of these – if you really want to dig into any of these very complex topics, please come join us in the Cultivating a Coaching Mindset course!
1: Time / Focus / Priority
Although embracing a coaching mindset is something anyone can do – and something everyone can benefit from, the reality is that embracing a coaching mindset is in ADDITION to an already full time job – whether that be teaching, leadership, coordination or anything else.
If we already have teaching or leadership responsibilities, that means that the main focus or priority for our work is NOT coaching. Not only does that mean that we may not be able to follow through the way we would prefer, but there may be actual obstacles to doing the coaching work (like our availability to coach, model or co-teach, for example) And we know, any barrier to the coaching process makes it less likely to occur (and put an additional strain on the coaching relationship). Plus, when we are putting an additional expectation on those with an already full workload, even if they do want to do more coaching, they simply may not have the time, energy or capacity to dedicate to the work.
This means that when we add coaching to other responsibilities, in particular, middle leaders or teachers, it’s likely it may not be implemented in the ways we might have intended – simply due to lack of time and ability to prioritize coaching. Which then often has the unintended consequence of potentially influencing us to believe that coaching is “not working”. When in fact, that may not be the case, they may simply just not have the time to devote to coaching that they had hoped. This becomes especially complex when we consider the idea of having school leaders be the “coach”.
Ultimately, it’s important to understand (and help others in your school community recognize) that instructional coaching is a specific skill, and will have more of an impact the more time an individual coach is able to devote to coaching.
Let’s take a closer look at that skill set next
2: Coaching is a specific skill set
We often think a coaching conversation is just a time when we ask questions and we listen. But it is SO MUCH more than that. The Cultivating a Coaching Mindset course goes VERY detailed into the actual coaching skills, practices and habits that enable coaches to have successful coaching conversations. There are so many skills involved in having an effective coaching conversation that builds the capacity of your coaching partner, it takes time and dedicated attention and intention to fully develop them to the level where you have unconscious competence.
If you plan to have coaching conversations – regardless of your current role in your organization, you need coaching training. You really can’t expect to just know how to do it (or do it well) without training. (That’s what all of our courses are about!) Acknowledging that means that coaching work needs to be a priority within your role in your school. Making time to build and reflect on these new skills takes time.
A few of the things we talk about within the course (among many others are):
- Intentional relationship building
- Personalizing learning for each person you coach
- Ensuring equity of support across the school
- Create a safe space to be vulnerable
- Providing agency within the coaching conversation
- Knowing how to meet your coaching partner where they’re at
All of those things take time to learn. Many people have natural ability in some or many of those skills, but actually implementing them with intentionality, strategy and focus actually takes attention and focus.
And this doesn’t even address the other additional coaching responsibilities that coaches may have… let’s look at that next
3: Being a coach goes beyond “just” coaching conversations
Joellen Killion identifies 10 key roles of an instructional coach, and they are:
#1 Data coach
#2 Resource provider
#3 Mentor
#4 Curriculum specialist
#5 Instructional specialist
#6 Classroom supporter
#7 Learning facilitator
#8 School leader
#9 A catalyst for change
#10 Learner
As Joellen notes in my favorite coaching book of all time, Coaching Matters , even though coaches CAN do all of those things, for them to be effective at their job they should be specifically focused on doing only 2-3 of those roles listed above.
Within any one of those roles, coaches might be spending time:
- Visiting classrooms to collect data
- Co-teaching, modeling, or supporting teachers in classrooms
- Having coaching, mentoring or collaborative planning conversations with teams, individuals and groups
- Developing curriculum and unit planning
- Offering professional learning with individuals, teams, or groups
- Creating, curating and sharing “just in time” resources with coaching partners and teams
- Collecting, sharing and helping teachers unpack data around student learning
- Supporting new teachers
- Modeling best practice or new teaching methods
- Partnering with school leadership to achieve division or school-wide goals
All of this work requires time. Time to…
- be in classrooms,
- prepare resources,
- reflect and plan,
- Have conversations
- Implement ideas and decisions
- Advocate for teachers and students
- Develop strategy, vision and action plans
When we understand the work of coaches, we can see that it is clear and distinct from other non-teaching roles – even though there may be overlap in some specific areas, the depth of the work of coaching is often more than can be addressed by another non-teaching staff member, even if their jobs sound similar.
The key is coaches must have time dedicated for the work of coaching, not making coaching an add on to other responsibilities. As Joellen said in episode 146: “If coaches are doing non-coaching related work, before you know it, the resource of coaching is lost, yet the investment of coaching is still present without seeing the benefit.”
One of the constant challenges to the success of instructional coaching is either assigning coaches too many additional duties for them to be effective as coaches, or assigning coaching to staff members who already have a full-time load through another non-teaching responsibility.
4: A coaching program requires a micro AND macro view
I talk all the time about the importance of having both the micro view of your coaching practice and the macro view of developing your coaching program. In order to develop a coaching culture, we need to consider the systems and structures that support sustainable instructional coaching, within our already very busy and demanding school day.
This requires a systems view, to explore the possibility of, and advocate for a coaching program, some of the things we discuss in the Cultivating a Coaching Mindset course include (among many others):
- Support leaders in developing alignment in the vision & purpose of coaching
- Creating policies to support coaching & ensure that it is not evaluative
- Communicating the purpose, vision and definition of coaching
- Aligning coaching work with other initiatives within the school
- Scheduling time for coaching – for teachers & for coaches
- Examining school-based and external data to determine opportunities for student learning improvement
- Planning professional development required to move the school towards its goals
This means that for coaching to be successful and sustainable over time, coaches need to deeply understand how their work fits into the bigger picture of the school, and then advocate for their work.
Coaches, especially in international schools, need to be able to articulate and advocate for these structures, so that coaching becomes sustainable. This is why the Thrive Model for Sustainable Instructional Coaching, which we use in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program includes both the micro and the macro view. Especially when coaching is new, especially in international schools when we have significant turnover, at least one person really needs to understand both the micro and the macro view – and usually that’s the instructional coach themselves.
Which leads me to my final point…
5: Coaching Requires Evaluation
When we involve all educators in developing a coaching mindset, we are creating an environment where learning can thrive for everyone in our community.
But these informal conversations may or may not translate to improved student learning or even improved teacher practice if we are not being intentional about our work, collecting data and measuring the impact.
An effective and sustainable instructional coaching program needs to include a process for evaluation – of the coach, of the program, and of its impact on student learning. This is very strategic and intentional work that requires all of the items I’ve already talked about: a macro view, a specific skill set, time and focus to prioritize coaching. This is one of the many ways that instructional coaches are informal leaders in our school communities.
When schools are investing time, money, and energy into developing the skill sets of all educators, they are going to want to know how that work is making an impact. Unless we have the time and capacity to actually intentionally measure that impact, it is unlikely to happen. And once again, we may be left thinking “why doesn’t coaching work?”. When in reality that may not be the case.
We may not be…
- Implementing with intention,
- Collecting data,
- Analyzing outcomes
- Sharing the impact
All of those aspects are part of measuring the impact and evaluating the success of a program. They require someone with the skill set, time, focus, and priority to do them. This is more than we can expect from teachers or middle leaders having one-off coaching conversations.
Just start!
Regardless of where you are in the process, I hope this episode has helped clarify the difference between embracing a coaching mindset and building a coaching program. Even though it might seem like more than you or your school has capacity for right now, that’s ok.
Wherever you are right now, the important part is to just get started!
When we know each other better, we can work better together! And that will have a positive impact on school culture.
Watch the Video
Cultivate a Coaching Mindset
If you’re ready to dig deeper into the difference between a coaching mindset and a coaching culture – and you want to support all stakeholders in embracing a coaching mindset in your school, come join us for our next global cohort of Cultivating a Coaching Mindset!
Cultivating a Coaching Mindset is designed for all educators and leaders who are ready to learn about concrete coaching skills – and apply them in their current practice. This course is for any educator who wants to better understand coaching skills and strategies, and work together to create a coaching culture – if that sounds like you, come join us!
Our annual global cohort opens for registration very soon!
Get all the details at edurolearning.com/mindset
But, of course Cultivating a Coaching Mindset is not the only course we offer – we have courses to support wherever you are in our coaching journey!
Workshops for Instructional Coaches
To find the best course for you, try one of our FREE workshops where you’ll be able to dig deeper into the concepts in this post, and get a peek at all of our courses for coaches.
We have workshops (and courses) to support coaches at every stage of their career: from educators curious about coaching, to new and aspiring coaches making the move from classroom to coach; to current coaches ready to be more intentional and strategic in their practice; to established coaches leveraging their coaching experience to lead.
You can them all on our coachbetter website at coachbetter.tv/workshops
If you’re curious right now, you have questions, please reach out. You can leave a comment below, join our #coachbetter Facebook group, or find us on social media at Eduro Learning and send me a DM. I’d love to support you on your coaching journey. See you next time!
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