Tag Archives: Effective Management Schools

The Power of the Leadership Training and Leadership Coaching Duo

Posted on January 12, 2012 by leadership

Every leader needs leadership training. Right? Have you ever had a boss who didn’t? Every player needs a coach. Right? Have you ever met a sports star without?

In fact, leaders are in constant need of leadership training. It’s the nature of the beast. To be truly effective to the best of their abilities, leaders must continuously analyze their behavior, seek feedback from those around them and constantly work on improving their leadership skills.

Leadership training is one way to gain new knowledge and learn new skills. It’s focused and intense. And the usual training getaway from being in the saddle 24/7 is much needed by any and all leaders.

The best types of leadership training include grappling with real-life situations. The latest and greatest theories are important, but they are no substitute for tackling tough, complex leadership challenges as though one’s life depended on it. Because it does.

Top notch leadership training not only teaches critical skills, but also gives participants the opportunity to practice what they’re learning through role plays and other training techniques. People need to “feel” the problem and wrestle with the solution to truly learn.

But leadership training is not enough. As Edwin Friedman wrote in A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, “Mature leadership begins with the leader’s capacity to take responsibility for his or her own emotional being and destiny.” Understanding one’s emotional being and harnessing it for powerful leadership is a process, not a skill.

That’s where leadership coaching enters the scene as the powerful partner of leadership training. Coaching is an ongoing process that helps leaders build on lessons learned in leadership training and apply them in real life situations.

Behavior is driven by emotion. Yet leaders rarely take time and seek assistance to understand their emotional selves that drive their behavioral selves. It is much easier to attend leadership training workshops, read books about leadership skills and commit to implementing what one has learned. But understanding one’s emotional self and emotional intelligence is precisely what one must do to move from being a good leader to great leader. Coaches are worth their weight in gold when they help school leaders understand their emotional selves and take responsibility for changing.

In a coaching relationship, the coach helps the coachee understand his or her emotional self and the ways in which that self drives behavior. One excellent tool that coaches can use to help school leaders understand and improve their emotional selves and intelligence is the EQ-i (Emotional Quotient Inventory). It measures emotional intelligence in the following areas: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Stress Management, Adaptability and General Mood. All are critical to being a great leader.

Leadership training combined with ongoing leadership coaching is a powerful combination that helps school leaders become truly great leaders. Through training, leaders hone skills, but most importantly, through coaching they learn to execute the critical plays under pressure.

By J Daniel Hollinger

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School Leadership Training

Posted on September 2, 2011 by leadership

Charter school leaders face daunting challenges compared to their private and public school counterparts. That said, public and private school leaders also have very complex and demanding jobs. Executive coaching can provide leaders with the support they need to meet the challenges and strengthen their leadership. Here we focus on executive coaching for charter school leaders.

Charter school principals do not have central office services like public schools or the financial resources enjoyed by most private schools, yet they have similar responsibilities. They are responsible for all aspects of running a school, nurturing trust between adults and students, managing limited financial resources, and balancing the inescapable demands of multiple constituencies school communities. They must recruit students and teachers, supervise and support teachers, secure and manage facilities, raise money, manage school finances and work with boards, to mention a few.

Inadequate facilities, recruiting excellent teachers, high teacher turnover, low faculty morale, constant fundraising, low student achievement, discipline problems, and balancing the budget are a few of the issues that keep charter school leaders awake at night. Furthermore, while taking care of the urgent, time for the important is rarely found. Strategic planning, quality review, schoolwide improvement planning and new initiatives are lost in the dust.

Despite the plethora of challenges, charter leaders are deeply devoted to the missions of their schools. They find satisfaction in the passion they feel for the mission of the school, the opportunity to make lasting change in students’ lives and the autonomy they have as leaders. Many passionate, talented people are stepping up to the challenge of charter school leadership.

While passion and devotion to a school’s mission are necessary, they are not enough to be a successful charter school leader. Experience and leadership training are critical.

Executive coaching is perhaps the most effective way for charter school leaders to learn and get support on the job. Research shows that leaders perform better when they are coached rather than “supervised”. Clearly, someone who has made it into a school leadership role has demonstrated considerable skill already. Yet the overwhelming demands faced by charter school leaders can quickly lead to burnout or pushout.

Coaches can help leaders avoid burnout and pushout, continue to be successful, and become more effective. Through careful listening and effective questioning, executive coaches provide support and guidance as leaders negotiate the complexities of headship and improve their leadership skills. Coaches also provide resources and advice as appropriate. However, more often than not, school leaders arrive at their own answers with assistance from the coach. That’s the beauty of coaching and being coached. Continue reading →

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