From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.
As part of the MWLI, I was given access to a professional leadership coach. Mel reviewed the survey data about me before our first meeting in North Carolina. He came prepared with ideas about my leadership and some resources to help. These notes reflect my thoughts about each of our sessions.
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Live coaching meeting with Mel, Greensboro, NC
After a few minutes chatting about our lives, I expected the first coaching session to address my key leadership challenge about coaching teachers or my difficulty dealing with conflict and direct feedback. Instead, Mel caught me off guard with a discussion of my communication style. I had glossed over these results from the Skillscope 360; Mel had not. He told me that my extroversion might be getting in the way of listening. He suggested that I WAIT (think: Why Am I Talking). He gave me chapter 27 from FYI (Lombardo 2009) “Informing.” He suggested that I practice speaking in shorter sounds bites. I wrote in my notes, “How can I communicate more like USA Today rather than the New York Times?” This is summed up in remedy #4 from FYI.
We did talk about giving feedback towards the end of the session. Mel suggested that I sandwich my SBI-style feedback. Start with a statement that shows transparency of my positive intent and finish with an offer to partner with the teacher to work on the issue. Mel gave me copies of FYI chapter 12 “Conflict Management” and chapter 13 “Confronting Direct Reports” to review. These are closer to the leadership challenge that I had identified, but we spent very little time on them. The session ended leaving me lots to think about.
Coaching call with Mel, 60-minutes
When Mel and I spoke again in May, I was not focusing much on my growth or improvement. I was knee deep in a million things as the school year was winding down. Our conversation seemed forced and not too helpful for me. Mel advised me to communicate my role in building school culture and to be clear about my priorities. He suggested that I share my core values with the staff. Since I do this every August, I was unsure how this was going to be helpful now. We talked about clarifying norms for the staff, the Rules of Engagement between adults. This sounded good.
I spent a fair amount of time on this call talking about the hiring situation. Three veteran teachers had recently given notice that they would not return. One was a surprise, the other two had been looking for years.
In a follow-up email, Mel sent me a sample of Rules of Engagement from a school that consulted with in the past and wished me well in the hiring.
Coaching call with Mel, 30-minutes
What a difference summer vacation makes. This call was much more productive for me. Of course, I’d had a couple of small family vacations, time away from school, and the second face-to-face Waddington session. We talked a bunch about the opening faculty meeting that was working on at the time. We talked again about keeping things brief, “identify the headline and three or four ideas.” He reminded me that, “the introverts need time to reflect on the documents.” The piece of advice I latched onto was to use short stories to help folks remember the main points. I took this advice to heart when I introduced my User’s Manual with the generator story a few days later.
We talked for a few minutes about managing conflict. Mel sent me a document called Constructive Responses to Conflict to use when confronting poor performers. In this model, there are two main categories: active and passive. Active responses include Perspective Taking, Creating Solutions, Expressing Emotions, and Reaching Out. The passive responses are Reflective Thinking, Delay Responding, and Adapting. The idea here is to use the best response for the situation. I have been working through these ideas throughout the year and trying to remember to think through what kind of response I need to use.
Finally, Mel reminded me of the importance of DAC. Specifically, Mel stressed the approach of affirming the vision (Direction) and connecting the dots for people so that they can see how their efforts tie in to the vision. This will increase a sense of urgency and Commitment. In the run up to the start of the school year, my own sense of urgency and commitment was at much better level, and this call was a good one.
Coaching call with Mel,30-minutes
Our final coaching call was another good one. We reviewed the work we’d done together since March. The key ideas have been: brevity in communication, more transparency helps subordinates feel comfortable, and some ability to be vulnerable and humble are key to effective leadership.
Another important leadership strategy took up the rest of the call. Mel referred to the concept of situational leadership. This is the idea that a leader needs to use different strategies depending on the person being supervised. I wrote in my notes, “A veteran will need some guidance and support while a newbie might need more direction.” This reminds me of the framework for supervision and coaching that Pete Hall (2008) writes about in Building Teachers' Capacity for Success. Situational Leadership and Hall’s book play roles in my approach to coaching that has become central to by Key Leadership Challenge.
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After these hours of coaching, I think that the real benefit for me might have come with further sessions. I was just getting started with Mel. In time, I may seek out more opportunities to be coached.
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