Do you ever feel like the start of every school year is like starting over from scratch? That all the work you did in the previous year to build a coaching culture needs to start again, anew every year? It. Gets. Exhausting. Doesn’t it? That’s what Kim addresses in this #coachbetter Quick Tips episode – and what to do about it!
“Why does it feel like we’re starting over every. single. year?” dilemma
Recently, on an AAICIS Coaches Community Call, I was talking with a group of coaches and one of them highlighted a common frustration: “it feels like every year we’re starting from scratch all over again”.
I’m sure you know the feeling: at the beginning of the academic year, even after we’ve spent the previous year building an understanding of what coaching is, how it works and why teachers might want to opt-into coaching, we almost have to start all over again at the beginning of the next year.
Why does it always feel like we’re starting over? Why aren’t we building momentum from year after year?
In this specific context, we happened to be in a group of international schools educators, where we have so much teacher and leader transition, that every time it feels like we’re building momentum, we have changes in staffing that make us feel like we’re starting all over again. That makes building a coaching culture really hard, because we need buy-in and ownership from everyone – teachers and leaders – to make it successful.
And when teachers and leaders are changing so frequently, we have to start every year building clarity around coaching before we can even get to the great work of actually doing the coaching.
This feels really frustrating. It feels like as soon as we start making progress, maybe we’re working with a few more teachers, or our coaching conversations are finally shifting into coaching cycles, we get kicked back to the beginning again at the start of a new year.
This reminds me of a story from a graduate of the Thrive Coaching Certificate who struggled, with the same challenge. They had worked SO HARD to build relationships with a particularly resistant subject area department. Only to discover towards the end of the academic year that EVERY SINGLE person in that department would be leaving. So they would have to start all over again in the new academic year. It gets exhausting right?
And if we add to this challenge that we are finding ourselves the only ones who are really advocating for coaching, it feels almost insurmountable.
That’s when we need to start thinking at the macro level – and this is the mindset shift I want you to make with today’s conversation.
Because here’s the deal: no matter how great of a coach you are, no matter how amazing your coaching conversations CAN be, if you don’t have anyone to coach, it really doesn’t matter. So we can’t just focus on coaching skills and getting better at coaching conversations and coaching cycles. We have to learn to look at the macro level (or the systems view) to see what will make coaching as a process successful within the existing school structure.
I talked about this in a few other episodes (one about scaling your impact and another one about sustainable systems and structures which I’ll link up here and in the show notes for you), but today I’m going to take a quick step back and share a perspective shift that has been really powerful for me and for my clients – and I know it will be for you too.
For coaching to be successful, we have to leverage both the micro view of our coaching practice (being a skilled coach) AND the macro view of our coaching program (having structures in place for coaching to be sustainable).
One of the problems is that most coaching training focuses almost exclusively on the micro view: developing coaching skills – almost to the detriment of understanding the systems that coaching lives within. Which means that most coaches tend to focus on developing their coaching practice without thinking about the importance of developing a coaching culture. This is totally understandable – and super common (and one of the main reasons why I developed the Thrive Model and the Thrive Coaching Certificate to help get you out of that trap!)
Of course, it’s crucial that you need to know how to coach to be able to coach. But at the same time as you’re developing your coaching skills, you also need to be aware of, and growing, your program development skills. Because, as you know, coaching doesn’t happen in isolation. It needs a system to be able to fit into. It can’t just be a thing that we hope teachers engage in. It has to have a structure to give people time. It has to have a purpose to give people a reason. And of course it has to have a way to be evaluated to see if it’s working.
Every single organization needs systems to function.
- We couldn’t have after school athletics without coaches and a space to train.
- We couldn’t have ongoing curriculum development without curriculum review cycles.
- We couldn’t hire teachers without having a process for recruitment.
But what’s interesting about coaching is that in most cases, the actual coaches are the only ones who know what’s needed to make coaching, as a system, function. Whereas in those other examples I shared, they are already so entrenched in “school” that most administrators know not only how they work, but also how to support them. We’ve been through those experiences ourselves. But not coaching. Coaching is new enough that we don’t have a shared experience or history with how to make it work.
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.
This quiz is based on real-life case studies compiled from years of working with coaches inside The Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program!
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.
Ready to tackle your challenges and move on to the next level in YOUR coaching practice?
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,
- Specific strengths & challenges aligned to your result;
- Suggested next steps for each stage;
Plus the Case Study Document includes:
- Case studies leveled by coaching mastery;
- A framework to identify essential stages of professional growth & key areas to focus on in your professional learning;
- Alignment with the THRIVE Model for a Successful Coaching Culture;
- Space for you to reflect & prioritize so you can take action immediately!
You’ll go straight to the Quiz, and get the Case Study Document via email.
Coaches really need to understand the systems that make coaching work.
You’re the ones whose jobs are on the line if the system doesn’t work. This is what I mean about the macro view. If you’re not paying attention to this, it’s likely no one else is. But it’s your job that’s on the line – unfortunately. So what do we do about it?
We learn to see the macro view – that’s your mindset shift for today’s conversation.
You already know that in the Thrive Model we are working towards Clarity, Consistency, and Community in order to make coaching sustainable. (I’ve got a graphic up on the screen if you’re watching on YouTube, if you’re listening, I’ll drop it in the show notes).
But what you might not know is that each of those phases is focused on a different perspective.
Clarity is primarily about the macro view: developing school wide clarity on what coaching is, why we are doing it, how it’s going to work, and who’s going to support it in happening.
Consistency is primarily about the micro view: developing individual coaching practice so that each time coaching happens there’s a level of consistency and quality to the practice so we can work towards consistent outcomes and experiences.
Community is primarily about the macro view: leveraging consistency to scale coaching impact to larger groups and build momentum around coaching.
(And to dig even deeper into that, as a preview to the rest of this season, there’s actually a micro and macro in each of those phases too. But we’ll talk a little bit more about that in future episodes. And when you’re ready to start actually implementing this work in your practice, that’s what we do in the Thrive Coaching Certificate – which is open for registration right now – you’ll get at MUCH deeper understanding of what I mean by micro and macro view and you’ll get a mentor for the entire year to support you in making this happen – because it’s not easy.)
When you start to realize that the success of your coaching practice is dependent on the success of your coaching program, it becomes clear that you can’t just stay at the micro view and cross your fingers and hope it all works out.
And because seeing things from the macro view is usually new to educators coming out of the classroom, this is a big mindset shift. In fact, I was just on a call with a graduate of the Thrive Coaching Certificate and she shared that even though she had a very clear job description, with very clear support from her school leaders and her district, she didn’t understand what a coaching culture was:
She said: “I didn’t know what it means to have a coaching culture, I just thought you go in and coach. And I thought coaching just meant asking questions, and just moving those moves. But I didn’t realize the culture part.”
That’s exactly the shift we’re talking about today.
Without a coaching culture, trying to just walk in and coach won’t happen.
And I want YOU to be successful. I want YOUR coaching culture to thrive. And that means you need to understand the macro view too. So, now that you have a clearer picture of the importance of both the micro and the macro view, I want to invite you think about your work right now:
- Where are you focused primarily on the micro view of your coaching practice?
- What feels like the right next step to take a look at the macro view of your coaching program?
If you’re not sure where to start, this is the work we do in the Thrive Coaching Certificate and registration is open right now.
We’ll work through each phase of the Thrive Model (Clarity, Consistency and Community) so you understand exactly what you need to do to be successful at the micro and the macro level.
We dive deep into your coaching practice at the micro level, to help you upskill from wherever you are today (the program is highly differentiated for all levels of coaching experience) AND we unpack the development of a coaching program from the macro level so you can see how to make coaching thrive sustainably in your school setting.
The program is truly personalized – because we know you’re coming to the Thrive Coaching Certificate with your own experience and expertise, and your own needs in your unique school setting. So wherever you are in your coaching journey, we can support you in taking the next step forward.
Our global cohorts open only once a year (and if you’re listening to this episode as it airs, it’s happening RIGHT NOW!) – get all the details at edurolearning.com/coach
And if you missed registration for this year, you can join the waitlist at edurolearning.com/coach so you don’t miss it next time!
WATCH THE VIDEO OR LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
🔗 KEY LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE
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!
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!
Connect with us!
- Subscribe to the podcast iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher
- Follow us on social media: Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube
- Join our #coachbetter Facebook group
- Read more from Kim: all books & articles
- Explore our courses for coaches
Recent Comments