In our first #coachbetter Season 6 episode,  Kim unpacks a big concept that has come up a lot in conversations recently: why instructional coaching is (or should be) a full time role in schools.

In our recent AAICIS (Association for the Advancement of Instructional Coaching in International Schools) landscape study of international schools we found that many of the schools that don’t have coaching programs cite the fact that other educators are fulfilling the role of coach, most likely people with coordinator roles, or middle level leaders.

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 we hear from school leaders when they’re considering hiring coaches. 

This episode can help you articulate why instructional coaching is a specific skill, and how important it is that there is time specifically devoted for coaching work (not just an add-on to an already full job description).

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SHOW NOTES (Highlighted Summary)

Why is coaching a separate job (and ideally a full time job)

A: Coaching is a specific skill set

Instructional coaching is a specific skill set. It’s definitely something anyone can learn, and most schools would benefit from developing  coaching skills among all staff to create more of a coaching culture, but it’s not something we all inherently know how to do immediately.

Key Skills

General skills that may crossover in other roles as well including:

• Content and pedagogical knowledge
• Understanding of adult learning (andragogy)
• Exceptional communication skills across a variety of stakeholders 
• Intentional relationship building
• Cultural competence

Coaching Conversations, which include:

• Genuine listening
• Focus on your coaching partner (not about you)
• Asking just the right questions
• Pause, paraphrase, check for understanding in an authentic way
• Ability to avoid giving advice (using listening & questioning skills) while still having a conversation with a meaningful outcome
• instead of offering advice, asking just the right questions

Specific work of relational leadership, including

• Compassion, holding space for others
• trust building, relationship building – understanding what happens outside of work will impact what happens inside work (and vice versa)
• Respecting and valuing human uniqueness – seeing the person for who they are, is this the right time to have this conversation given everything else that’s going on right now
• Support teachers in the process of learning and growing – the only people in schools that can walk alongside teachers when they are stretching and growing

All of these skills connect with understanding how to leverage informal leadership (often when others perceive you as a formal leader):

• Build relational connections – transformational, not transactional
• Being able to take the balcony view, always being able to see the big picture, make meaning through connections
• Influence without authority, how to get change going when you don’t have power
• Being a Leadership Partner, having the ability to be the bridge between admin & teachers – unique perspective helps shape conversations with admin & with teachers
• Partnership for teachers and for initiatives and reflection

And these require coaches to have a deep level of Emotional Intelligence in two ways

1: Within yourself:

• Emotional regulation
• Heightened sense of self awareness so you can shift your tone, change body language, mirror body language, so you understand how you’re presenting in different situations
• Code switching, being able to be present in so many different contexts over the course of the day

2: For your coaching partners

For all initiatives: coaches have the responsibility to be aware of the emotional regulation of the teachers they are working with – internal stressors, things that happen outside and inside of school, while still holding them accountable to their work

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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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When you receive your results, you’ll also get your matching case study from the STRIVE Case Studies to see where you fit in the stages of coaching mastery.

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Show Notes (Highlighted Summary) continued…

B: Instructional coaching requires training and practice 

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. 
This 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.

C: Coaching requires dedicated time to do the work of coaches

Since you’re listening to this podcast, you’re already likely familiar with Joellen Killion’s 10 Roles of a Coach. Joellen identifies 10 key roles of an instructional coach, and they are:

• Data coach
• Resource provider
• Mentor
• Curriculum specialist
• Instructional specialist
• Classroom supporter
• Learning facilitator
• School leader
• A catalyst for change
• Learner

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. 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. 

D: People with other roles in the school already have a full workload

While there are likely many different staff members who are more than capable of coaching (in fact, many are probably trained in some form of coaching and would like to do coaching work), that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have the time or the priority to focus on coaching. 

This means that when we add coaching to other leadership responsibilities, including middle leaders, 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 influence us to believe that coaching is “not working”. 

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. Of course, we can’t all have full time instructional coaches at the drop of a hat, but understanding the complexity and skill in the position may help clarify why it’s more than just an add-on to an existing role.

E: It’s worth it!

We can work better together when we have built a coaching culture. As Carla Marschall said on episode 223, “Coaching allows us to listen to each other, pose really strong questions, without judgment or advice… If we can listen better and understand each other better, we will work together better. That’s one piece, but we shouldn’t just be goal driven and efficiency mavens because that’s very dehumanizing. Coaching brings an element of selflessness and generosity, listening is an act of compassion because it is about removing the self from us and about providing space for the other individual. If we want to develop organizations that are humanizing but effective, coaching is one of the ways we can do that.” 

When I think about the kind of organization I want to work in, “humanizing” is one of those keywords. Another is “belonging”, and Kaitlyn Pettinga in episode 215 highlighted that element when she said: “The impact of coaching is a sense of belonging. When you’re involved in a culture that is so collaborative around teaching and learning, through coaching, we have teachers and students that feel like they belong.” When we’re thinking about creating communities of belonging in our schools, instructional coaching is one of the elements that can help get you there. Isn’t that worth advocating for and hiring an instructional coaching position?

References in this episode

Coaching Matters (1st edition) by Joellen Killion, Cindy Harrison, Chris Bryan, and Heather Clifton [2nd edition here]

“Fostering a Culture of Growth and Belonging: The Multi-Faceted Impact of Instructional Coaching in International Schools” by Kim Cofino in Handbook of Research on Critical Issues and Global Trends in International Education

“Five Reasons Instructional Coaching in International Schools Is So Complex” by Kim Cofino in The International Educator (TIE)

What Makes Coaching Work? with Joellen Killion [Ep 146]

Creating a Positive School Culture Through Coaching with Kaitlyn Pettinga [Ep 215]

The Importance of Defining the Purpose of Coaching with Ji Han [Ep 220]

Building a Culture of Coaching with Carla Marschall [Ep 223]

Making Instructional Coaching Sustainable with Ellen and Bruce Eisenberg  [Ep 230]

Untangling Instructional Coaching, Evaluation & Appraisal with Samantha Olson-Wyman and Stephanie Cifuentes [Ep 234]

A Leadership Perspective: Making Coaching Successful with LaTyia Rolle [Ep 242]

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Ready to Learn More about the value of Instructional Coaching?

If you’re ready to dig deeper into the value of an instructional coach – or if you’re new to instructional coaching and you’re curious about getting started, join us for one of our courses for coaches!

To learn more about these options, we have three FREE workshops to share with you today.

For New or Aspiring Coaches

If you’re just getting started as a coach, and you want to be successful in your early years, watch our New to Coaching Workshop, which highlights the key mindset and skill set shifts you’ll need when moving from the classroom to a coaching role. The workshop will also tell you all about our online course, Getting Started as a Coach. This course is specifically designed for classroom teachers who are moving into a coaching role so you’re prepared for the transition. It’s focused on exactly the skillset & mindset shifts you need to so you can be successful in your first years as an instructional coach. 

For Experienced Coaches

If you’re already a coach & you want to think about being more intentional & strategic in your practice, watch our workshop on the Thrive Model for Coaching Success which will help you evaluate your program and your practice to see where you may have room to grow. You’ll walk away with a clear picture of exactly what you need to focus on to build a thriving coaching culture – and help you decide if our year-long mentorship and certification program, The Coach, is right for you, right now. This program is designed for current coaches who are focused on building a coaching culture through intentional and strategic coaching work at all levels – with teachers and school leaders.

For Coaches Ready to Lead

For experienced coaches ready to look at the bigger picture of the school to see what might be supporting or hindering the sustainability of the coaching program, and you want to make sure your school has all of the systems and structures in place, watch our workshop: Scaling Your Impact as an Instructional Coach. You’ll get a bird’s eye view of what’s needed to make coaching sustainable for you as an individual coach and for your school. When you’re ready to put that learning into action, join us in our online course for coaches ready to lead: Coaches as Leaders and put it all into practice – with support from Kim and our global cohort! This course is designed for experienced coaches, ready to lead.

You can find all the workshops on our coachbetter website at coachbetter.tv/workshops

Wherever you are in your coaching journey, we can support you!

For All Coaches

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