Coaching Really is an Art - Coaching from Compassion and Curiosity

Julie Schwartzbauer contributed this post. Click here to read more of Julie's thinking.

Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to attend The Art of Coaching Conference put on by Wisconsin ASCD.  The featured speaker was Elena Aguilar.  If you are not familiar with Elena, you should be!  Along with many articles, she has written the following two books:

I would like to share with you my big take-aways from the two days I spent fine-tuning my personal art of coaching.  I will be sharing big ideas and my own personal self-reflections.  I will also share some direct quotes from Elena Aguilar.

As coaches, we facilitate a lot of large group professional development.  Elena shared the following facilitation strategies:

• Set up invitations for participants, rather than norms
• Ask participants to reflect on their intentions for what they hope to get out of the day.
• Cut conversations short by about 20 seconds - leave the participants wanting more
• Raise your hand to call for attention - invite others to raise their hand as well

Elena’s Definition of Coaching:

• Coaching is a form of professional development with someone who willingly (ideally) engages in reflective learning.
• Coaching happens in conversation.  It’s the vehicle.  
• Coaching results in reflective practitioners who make decisions that further the learning and achievement of all students every day.
• Coaching is not something we do to people.

We observed a live coaching demonstration where we heard Elena ask and state the following:

• “In that I hear… are you willing to explore that?”
• “Why does it matter?”
• “I hear some emotion there… Can you identify that?”
• “Tell me who you were when you began teaching”
• “Just tell me about one student who is struggling but may have some potential”
• “Tell me about the strengths you see in your students”
• “Do you think there’s anything you can do that impacts how students engage in your class?  Can you influence that at all?”  
• “Let me check in….what I’m hearing is....
• “It’s going to help your heart and your mind to just focus on one student and it is going to spill over to the other students.”
• “I want you to imagine” - scenario
• “You have so much knowledge and skill to build on.”

• When a teacher comes in agitated and emotional, try these coaching moves...
• slow it down, intentionally take notes slowly
• shift the energy- think about how you can use humor to create a shift in energy when the teacher is obviously deflated
• provide closure by bringing it back to the individual saying, “I want to try...I’m willing to do this”
• As a coach, you might try these phrases…
• “I hear a lot of emotion, exhaustion…”
• “I’m wondering about our conversation, is there anything you feel we can talk about that would be helpful to you?  I don’t want to add to your stress.”
• “If we meet and talk today, would it be helpful to talk about your emotions, the curriculum, the students?”
• “What would my support for you look like?”

Some things I was left wondering about…

• Do our coaches have the time to sustain a high level of coaching?
• How do we increase effective coaching, while looking at the current level of staffing and resources, in order to make a difference as a district?
• What data do we use to show evidence of success?
• How do we maximize the coaches potential to impact adult learners?