In this final #coachbetter episode for Season 7, Kim talks about the challenge of constantly feeling like you’re constantly in day-to-day mode, without being able to be intentional about planning for what’s coming up next. As educators we are busy and now AI is pushing us in a variety of ways to try to do even more, often with less resources. It can feel impossible to keep up. And that often leads us to think that we have to do more, even faster. But that is not the case – it is pausing for reflection. Kim relates this to the power of coaching and how it forces us to slow and take time to process our thinking.

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Show Notes

The challenge: feeling like you’re constantly in day-to-day mode, without being able to be intentional about planning for what’s coming up next.

The answer is not doing more. The answer is thinking more.

Back in 2014 a group of Harvard researchers (Di Stefano, et al) researched what makes us better at whatever it is we do (in this case it was cardiac surgeons, but the process applies to all of us) – and it wasn’t actually doing more reps, more hours, more work. It was pausing for reflection.

The power of coaching

This, in a nutshell, is why I believe so much in the power of coaching. Coaching forces us to slow down. Coaching forces us to take time to process our thinking. And when we have a great coach, they ask just the right questions to get us to think in new ways.

All year, I’ve been sharing, here on the show and in my newsletter, that my goal is to slow down (if you’re not and you enjoy this episode, you’ll want to get on that list! You can subscribe at coachbetter.tv). Because slowing down is what gives us time to reflect, to think about what we’ve been doing, and then our brains can actually process that learning in the background – while we’re doing other things!

The Small Shift

This has been happening for me all year, but I didn’t even realize it until I was on a coaching call with one of our members in the global cohort of The Coach (newly renamed to the Thrive Coaching Certificate btw) recently and I had a little “aha” moment.

It started with her sharing that while she has been on spring break she’s had some space to reflect. She told me about three big realizations she’s made in the last week, including a major mindset shift she made about communicating her role as a coach. It was pretty amazing – all of the deep thinking that has emerged over her spring break. I was blown away.

And then I made a connection: this is why I love journaling so much (warning: more nerdiness ahead). You see, up until this year I only used my work planner to create to-do lists. I did them weekly. I loved them. Tick tick ticking things off the list, such a great feeling, right? I thought I was on. top. of. it. But this year I splurged and got a work planner that included daily pages. “What would I use these daily pages for?” and “Is this really just an excuse to buy stationary?” I wondered. Please, let me tell you, this work planner has already changed my whole work life.

And what’s so cool about this is that the process I’m just about to share with you is a perfect example of how to gain clarity through consistency, which are two key components of the Thrive model for sustainable instructional coaching that we use in the Thrive Coaching Certificate! So we are walking the talk with our global cohort members!

OK, here’s the very small shift that has had a huge impact…

Now that I have these daily pages, every day, I write three little sections:

1. Accomplished (so. much. better. than “to do”)
2. Tomorrow (ok, this is basically a to do list, but it does help me stay organized)
3. Thoughts & Ideas

It’s that third section that’s the winner.

Every single day I spend no more than 3-5 minutes jotting down any ideas I had during the day. Could be ANYTHING. When I look back at the end of the week, or the end of the month, oh my gosh, my thoughts have developed over time. Here’s the thing: I’m not even doing anything. My thoughts were evolving because I took a few minutes each day to write something down. These are thoughts I always have. Nothing special, I promise.

It’s the act of writing them down that changed everything. Now, my brain is processing in the background, developing my thinking, without me even realizing it. Those quick minutes at the end of the day have been shaping my business decisions all year. And I feel so much more calm and collected than I ever have. This is what I want for you, too.

This is why I’m so passionate about coaching. Because when we can create systems that provide us the time for processing and reflection within our school day, imagine how much better we’d be? Because it’s not about doing more. It’s about giving ourselves time to think more about our work.

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Show Notes continued…

Time for Reflection and Collective Efficacy

Reflection through journaling is a great example of how one person can gain inner clarity through consistent habits of reflection, but now we can actually zoom out and take the macro view, and apply those lessons to working within our school community, on our teams and in our divisions. This is where the third element of the Thrive Model (community) comes into play, and we can get all three (clarity, consistency, and community) to be in sync, when we use the broader macro view to apply these opportunities for reflection, through coaching, with the intention of building belonging, and a more cohesive staff culture.

I know that seems like a leap, but let me explain…

And as I often share when I do workshops or give presentations, collective efficacy is the number one factor in improving student learning. (Donohoo, 2017) It has more than double the effect of prior achievement and more than triple the effect of home environment and parental involvement (Hattie, 2012)

And two key factors that help us improve collective efficacy are 

• teacher’s knowledge about one another’s work, and
• a cohesive staff (getting to know each other better) 

I bet you already know what can help us improve both of those things…

Coaching.

When we provide structure, space and time for coaching, within the school day, we are creating ongoing opportunities to build a cohesive staff by getting to know each other better, and we’re improving teacher’s knowledge about one another’s work by giving us structured time to talk about it. When we know each other better, student learning improves. But the challenge is, we can’t do it alone.

No matter how great your coaching is, if you don’t have anyone interested in being coached, you’re off to a tough start. And if the systems in place don’t support you being able to build that kind of culture, it gets even harder.

Questions to Think About

And I want to plant some seeds that can grow (behind the scenes) in your brain this summer…

So as we look to wrap up this academic year, I want to offer an idea.

• What might it take to create this kind of environment in your school community?
• What’s one thing you might be able to take action on in your setting?
• Who might be one person you can talk to?
• What’s one thing you can do in your classroom, in your department, in your division next year to build in a little bit more reflection time?

You might not have an answer right now, and that’s ok. It’s about giving yourself some time to think – and write down your ideas as you go.

So, I invite you to let that idea percolate over the summer..

All you need to do is take a few minutes (like 5 minutes) a couple of times this summer and just write a few things down – whatever thoughts are on your mind around this topic. Could be an idea, a question, a potential obstacle, or a trusted friend or colleague you might be able to reach out to. If you like it, if you feel like it’s helping, you can do it more often (in fact, daily morning pages is a habit proposed in The Artists Way by Julia Cameron, and it’s a hugely popular, and powerful practice).

Could you let your brain do some background processing on how you might move this forward in your school community for the next academic year?

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Ready to create a coaching culture that improves student learning and builds belonging?

Come learn with me!

I help educators, instructional coaches, informal or positional leaders work together to create thriving coaching cultures that improve student learning and build belonging.

Coaching programs based on the Thrive Model, with clarity, consistency and community, can create time and space for educators to feel seen, heard, respected and valued for the experts that they are – creating a sustainable system of educator professional growth that ultimately improves student learning.

For this kind of coaching to thrive we need to focus on both the micro view of your coaching practice and the macro view of your coaching program, so while you’re developing your individual coaching practice you’re also intentionally developing a sustainable coaching culture.

If you’re ready to build this kind of coaching culture in your school community, join us for the Thrive Coaching Certificate program! 

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

When you’re ready, there are three key ways we can work together:

• in the Thrive Coaching Certificate,
• in a private mentoring package, or
• through work directly with your school.

Leave a comment below, or reply to any of my emails and let’s start a conversation to see how we can work together to create a thriving coaching culture in your school setting!

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