How can coaching support school principals?
Every coaching conversation is different, as every principal’s needs and school context are unique. Coaching is also confidential. This is absolutely as it should be. Yet, the unintended consequence of this is that coaching can become a ‘black box’ - a ‘best kept secret’ – with many school principals unaware of the purpose and the benefits.
Our recent book, Embracing MESSY Leadership, aimed to demystify coaching by sharing the insights that BTS Spark coaches have gained from coaching over 20,000 school leaders globally. We uncovered the most common reasons why school leaders engage in coaching, in order to shed some light on the challenges they face and how coaching can offer practical support.
So, what needs do school leaders most often ask for coaching support with?
- Holding difficult conversations
- Empowering others (rather than fixing their problems!)
- Engaging both staff and parents
- Building self-confidence
- S-l-o-w-i-n-g down
- Prioritising
- Setting boundaries to improve personal wellbeing
Whether these challenges resonate with you, or you have other situations or development needs that you’d like some support with, a skilled coach will help you to understand what might be going on under the surface (for you or others) to help shed some new light on things. They will help you to get clear on the outcomes you’d like and to identify strategies to achieve your goal or move things forward. Your coach will help you to think through your approach and, if you like, to practise in a safe environment. They will offer a supportive and confidential space where, with skilled questioning, they can help you to find new clarity and confidence.
Time with a coach is yours to use in the way that you would find most helpful, focused on your priorities. And for some school leaders this means an opportunity to offload, precious time to decompress and to invest in your own well-being – a time to reflect on your successes as well as the challenges, to gain new perspective and balance.
So if you haven’t yet experienced the benefits of coaching, maybe now is the time to invest in yourself… the benefits not only for you, but for your team and entire school can be profound and long-lasting.
Rosie Connor & Denise Barrows
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