Coaching is fast and furiously becoming a powerful tool within leadership development, particularly within education where waves of change are creating greater complexity. Yet the pace of coaching is one that doesn’t always correlate with the speed of the external world as we begin by developing the wisdom to balance your internal state. Balancing a finite game of quick wins and infinite games with a longer and potentially deeper impact can often be an egoic competition with external stressors that typical leadership training in education lacks the literacy to be aware of, let alone provide the tools to manage complexity. The consequences on our system are clear to anyone working in it.

Often leaders beginning coaching will say ‘I haven’t got the time’ yet once they have begun they quickly see that some investment in themselves by stepping back and developing wisdom has a far greater impact on investment professionally and personally than first perceived. In fact this stepping back is the only way to build the capacity to sustain our role amid an external world threatening chaos and overwhelm. 

Within this blog we take a look at some of the applications of coaching within leadership and explore why more and more schools are reaching out for leadership coaching with the Glass House.

The origins of coaching

The origins of coaching can be traced back through various disciplines and fields throughout history. In its earliest form philosophers such as Socrates engaged in forms of coaching dialogue with students to stimulate critical thinking and self-reflection. This Socratic method of dialogue through its elicitation of ideas, challenging assumptions and iterative processes has laid the foundation for coaching’s emphasis on inquiry, sense making and self-discovery (Neenan, 2008). Since then coaching has evolved and although previously been more commonly associated with sports; has gained recognition as a distinct profession across multiple sectors including psychology, business and education and is continuing to grow, with ongoing developments in theories, practices and applications emerging.

Wide reaching applications

Through this convergence of origins, coaching has become established as a distinct profession. More recently, the emergence of positive psychology and the human potential have had a significant impact on the profession by building forward with pre-existing strengths. Through emphasis on a narrative of resilience, wellbeing and flourishing, positive psychology principles are drawn upon within coaching to facilitate individuals to unlock their potential, build on their strengths and achieve greater fulfilment, rediscovering their true selves. 

From a more corporate perspective, coaching techniques and frameworks have integrated effectively into management consulting and executive development practices to enhance performance across individual, team and organisational leadership practices. This transition into leadership development has and continues to significantly shape the coaching profession. As more and more organisations recognise the need and transformational impact of sophisticated leaders, coaching has emerged as an effective approach nurturing this leadership growth and effectiveness. 

Although more commonly associated with corporate settings, coaching has been shown to have a number of advantages and reaches within education (Grant, Green & Rynsaardt, 2010) . Whilst traditional mentoring and apprenticeship relationships have provided a foundation for coaching largely through the provision of guidance from a more experienced individual, coaching has incorporated many of these mentoring principles but with a specific focus on the coachee’s individual aspirations, journey to self-discovery and progress. Furthermore, within adult learning and development specifically coaching is well positioned to foster key practices such as reflection, self-direction and experiential learning- and it becomes extremely personalised. Less common perhaps is its implementation with younger learners, particularly within more mainstream and traditional education settings despite evidenced upsides.

Facilitating leadership transformation

Where leadership is concerned, particularly within education, coaching can be a powerful force; facilitating a drive towards enhanced skills and knowledge, increased capacities and sophistication of competency amongst school leaders (Robertson, 2008). An important distinction however is the difference between instructional/ performance coaching and developmental coaching. Whereas the main intention from instructional coaching is to help the client efficiently achieve agreed outcomes, developmental coaching incorporates past experiences and takes into account the stage of development the person is in to focus on development of the self and work towards organic change and conversations unfold, often discovering deeper meaning.

Transformational leadership is most called for where there is a need for change. Our education system, within the UK at least, is built around knowledge attenuation and rigorous, high stakes assessment; it is therefore unsurprising that there are record levels of teacher burnout, poor staff retention, low levels of wellbeing (for both staff and students). One can predict that this is only going to increase and become more restricted for example when considering new advances in technology and AI and the challenges of implementing change to accommodate these new advances on such a wide scale when much of our understanding about their potential is still in its infancy. How then can coaching benefit developing educational leaders attempting to navigate this uncharted landscape? 

The literature emphasises key conditions for transformational leaders to develop (Petrie, 2015):

• Heat experiences (complex situations that challenge thinking and create the need for new ways of thinking)

• Colliding perspectives (expose individuals to new perspectives and insights)

• Elevated sensemaking (elevated meaning making to process, consolidate and contextualise their development)

The education sector has an abundance of heat experience but where coaching really comes into its own is within elevated sense making and to a degree enhancing exposure to colliding perspectives. Developmental coaching provides the facilitation, support and creates the conditions for leaders to discover who they really are, their values and their potential for them to really drive meaningful transformation within their teams and organisations. 

Through integrating developmental coaching with the prompts and conditions for transformational leadership school leaders can evolve the following:

1. Self-awareness and personal growth - developmental coaching provides the space and facilitation for leaders to explore their strengths, weaknesses, values and beliefs to build a leadership profile which informs their development priorities and guides intentional changes.

2. Their vision, purpose and direction - enhancing self-awareness and exploring one’s developmental journey enables individuals to clarify their personal values and beliefs and where they have come from- allowing objective critique. This in turn informs their purpose and through being able to align and articulate an inspiring vision and purpose, leaders are authentic in their approach, passionate about its roots, and can use this to energise and motivate their team.

3. Emotional intelligence - as an essential component of meaningful relationships and building a positive culture, Coaches can work with leaders to build their empathy and interpersonal skills to better connect with and value the needs of their team members to create empowering environments.

4. Trust and authenticity - by leading from clear values and purpose leaders demonstrate authenticity, integrity and consistency in their approach which in turn fosters relationships amongst the team through a shared and inspired understanding. It also allows us to build a new relationship with the ego, overcoming doubts and fears.

5. Communication - Coaches support leaders to develop effective communication skills and develop their narrative which facilitates understanding, alignment and shares sense of purpose amongst team members. Transformational leaders effectively convey their vision, values and expectations and engage in open and transparent communication with their team to foster sophisticated team working. 

6. Change management leadership capacity - as transformational leadership typically involves leading through change and times of uncertainty, developmental coaches provide space for leaders to explore and navigate challenges and resistances

7. Continual deliberate growth - as with the conditions for transformational leadership, Coaches encourage leaders to seek feedback, reflect on their experiences and consider different perspectives across situations to inform growth as a continuous process. Through the experience of coaching leaders are exposed to appreciative inquiry, listening practices and feedback and empowered to also focus and foster the growth of others within their organisation

There are multiple routes leaders can take in order to develop, each with its own merit depending on what the aims and intended outcomes are. Leadership development benefits from a multi-faceted approach often interconnecting different development opportunities. What is important to consider here is whether the aim is to develop skills and knowledge for a particular area or more complex and sophisticated ways of thinking and insights, often it is external factors that influence the type of leadership style developed (Hallinger, 2003). Traditional leadership training has centred around concrete training for leadership approaches and workshops to develop certain leadership traits, however it is becoming more widely accepted that people don’t necessarily lack the knowledge or the skill itself, what is limiting them is their current way of thinking and their stage of human development (Gottfredson, 2022; Cerni, Curtis, Colmar, 2010). This is where developmental coaching comes into its own to truly elevate leadership capacity.

Let us know how we can support you. Book in a discovery call with The Glass House Leadership Lab to co-design how we can work with you and your organisation to transform leadership, consult on your change management, and evolve your organisation. 

References:

Cerni, T., Curtis, G.J. & Colmar, S.H., 2010. Executive coaching can enhance transformational leadership. International Coaching Psychology Review, 5(1), 81-85

Gottfredson, R. (2022). [online]. Available from: What is vertical development? https://ryangottfredson.com/blog/2022/07/11/what-is-vertical-development/

Grant, A. M., Green, L. S., & Rynsaardt, J. (2010). Developmental coaching for high school teachers: Executive coaching goes to school. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 62(3), 151–168

Hallinger, P. (2003) Leading Educational Change: reflections on the practice of instructional and transformational leadership, Cambridge Journal of Education, 33 (3), 329 - 352

Neenan, M., 2009. Using Socratic questioning in coaching. Journal of rational-emotive & cognitive-behavior therapy, 27, 249 - 264

Petrie, N. (2015). The how-to of vertical leadership development–Part 2. 30 experts, 3 conditions and 15 approaches. Center for Creative Leadership, 26.

Robertson, J., 2008. Coaching educational leadership: Building leadership capacity through partnership. Sage.