Coaching for the wider team
For headteachers and senior leaders, our Leadership 90 programme is ideal. For AHTs, Phase leaders, subject leaders more specific coaching programmes can help unlock the full potential of your school leadership team and help them excel. Outlined below are a range of fantastic leadership coaching options.
Why invest in supporting your leaders to operate at their best?
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improving performance - an excellent school is created through the efforts of the many;
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supporting wellbeing & happiness at work - keeping motivation high, reducing absenteeism;
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increasing retention of leaders - keeping expertise and experience in school;
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succession planning - creating a sustainable future, talent management, growth;
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successful working relationships - reducing friction and tension;
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leadership development - supporting every leader to be a better leader tomorrow than they are today, sharpening leadership skills and maximising impact.
What might coaching sessions focus on?
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Intellectualisation: Coaching is ideal for thinking deeply about leadership practice. Turning leadership theory into effective practice is messy, complex and highly relational to situation, person and context. It allows training and professional reading to be brought into your individual practice. Because coaching is 'job embedded' it aids transfer from theory to impact.
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Change of any kind is notoriously difficult to achieve - coaching can be the bridge middle leaders need to new, more effective behaviours and thinking patterns.
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Effective leaders know themselves well and are highly reflective - coaching can help leaders to figure out their values, drivers, strengths and habits. Coaching which helps people to lean in to what makes them unique as a leader is amazingly uplifting and takes leaders to the next level of effectiveness.
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Being a leader can be emotional - coaching provides a safe space for processing emotions, unpacking events and reframing the narrative. Leaders can get caught in drama triangles, feel stuck in the middle, can feel like they are referee. Coaching can aid well-being and resilience, as well as helping to prevent burnout and illness.
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Analysis of situations and people can help harness emotional intelligence. Sometimes middle leaders are getting in their own way, and utilisation of EI can be the key to unlocking success.
Frequently Asked Questions About Coaching
How is the coaching delivered?
Most of the coaching I provide is delivered remotely via video link — flexible timing options to fit around your schedule, including during school hours, evenings, weekends or holidays. Sessions can be short-term and focused, or ongoing and adaptive, with the frequency, length and style tailored to career stage and needs.
How is team coaching delivered?
Team coaching is typically delivered on-site or through a blended model, planned in close collaboration with the headteacher to meet the specific needs of the leadership team.
Do you deliver coaching for DHTs, AHTs and middle leaders?
School leadership coaching for the wider team can play a pivotal role in enhancing team performance and ensuring school goals are achieved. Coaching offers a personalised approach to leadership development, provides a vital sanctuary for reflection, and supports emotional health. When leadership coaching is offered to all leaders in school, it creates a vibe of positivity, increases the level of appreciation colleagues have for each other as leaders, and provides momentum for improvement.
What is your coaching style?
My approach to school leadership coaching draws on a range of methods — including positive psychology and narrative coaching. I find this style of exploratory coaching, which is a blend of objectives and more open ended discussions, is ideal for working with senior leaders who are grappling with complex issues and working in dynamic environments.
What qualifies you to offer coaching?
As an ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching & Mentoring coach I remain deeply committed to reflection, supervision and continuous professional development. In addition to my coaching qualification, I have extensive experience of the education sector and particularly school leadership development and school improvement. I am a member of the Association for Coaching and uphold their professional and ethical guidelines, and an affiliate member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development.
Options for senior and middle leaders
Journey Coaching - operating at your best
Navigate life's challenges with a coach by your side
This open ended coaching is ideal for DHTs. Take time out from operational demands with regular, on-going support to process the highs and lows of working as a leader. These sessions provide much needed head space to process work matters. As a DHT, there can sometimes be no-one to really share the challenges of leadership with, openly and honestly, and therefore an external coach can be of huge benefit.
With a focus on reflection, including examining internal dialogue, interpretation of events, and thinking forward, these sessions aid clarity.
Coaching sessions can help DHTs to better understand themselves and their situation, provide a structure to think through complex matters, and help them to re-charge their mental capacity.
Strengths coaching - harness your unique talents as a leader
Successful leaders have one thing in common: they know their strengths and how to harness them. Every leader I've worked with, even seasoned leaders, are amazed at how their personal impact improves through strengths coaching and leaders tell me how incredibly uplifting the experience has been.
Using the trusted Clifton Strengths Finder assessment, coaching sessions will help you to better understand your talents and how to capitalise on them. Learn how to dial up, dial down and combine strengths for maximum impact. Colleagues also report a better understanding of how they interact with colleagues, leading to better team performance.
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Includes assessment & report
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Immediately actionable
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Ideal for leaders at all levels
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Has proven success for clients seeking career advancement!
Leadership development coaching
A blended approach to training and coaching: The headteacher and middle leader co-select a topic(s) / theme at the start of the coaching programme which is then developed through input, think pieces, professional dialogue and regular coaching sessions enabling senior and middle leaders to effectively work towards achieving a development goal.
Perhaps the leader needs to improve their delegation skills, refine their approach to difficult conversations, enhance their knowledge and application of emotional intelligence, consider how they build and develop team culture.
The sessions are matched to role and experience to ensure leaders can access support at the right level.
How do you enable your AHTs to operate at their best?
GOAL COACHING / project management coaching:
Set your sights on a high tariff goal
Designed with Deputy Headteachers and Assistant Headteachers in mind, this type of coaching focuses on supporting leaders to deliver on whole school priorities. Coaching sessions take place throughout the life span of the the new initiative or project, or throughout one performance management cycle. It enables the leader to have support every step of the journey. Having regular, structured opportunities to think, analyse, reflect, problem solve and evaluate progress increases the likelihood of success. Colleagues engaging in this type of coaching may find additional wider benefits, such as improvements in leadership skills, a boost in motivation, improved job satisfaction, and increased well-being.
ISSUE coaching - for tackling a specific challenge
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Unpack complex situations
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View issues from different perspectives
Process emotions -
Think forward
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Try out new approaches
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Safe space to talk
From time-to-time, we all face difficult and challenging circumstances at work and if this is something one of your leaders is experiencing, then short term weekly or fortnightly coaching might be just what you need. Coaching can provide the essential head space and structure for unpacking complex situations, processing intense emotions, reviewing events from different vantage points and considering how to move forward. Accessing coaching sessions can create a fundamental shift in thinking at a time when it is most needed.
NEW TO ROLE COACHING
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Perfect for transitioning into a new leadership role;
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Embrace the challenge;
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Grow into the new role;
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Reflect and strategise for success.
Perhaps you have moved, or are seeking to move, to an executive headteacher position. Perhaps you have recently taken up a position that requires leadership across a MAT. Perhaps you have a newly appointed Deputy Headteacher. As leaders transition into the new role, coaching can be a great way to forge ahead and periodically take stock of developments. Embarking on a new role can be as exciting as it is challenging. This coaching programme is designed to facilitate this transition, making it smooth and successful. Coaching can be provided prior to starting the new role or at any time in the first year.
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INTERESTED IN TEAM COACHING? The focus is on aiding your team to operate at its best.
A coaching package can be designed to specifically meet the needs of you and your team. Here are three popular options:
1: EXPLORING TEAM EFFECTIVENESS for senior leadership teams:
Coaching sessions, often delivered in half-day blocks, can be an excellent way to explore current ways of operating, identify goals for improving effectiveness and generate plans for new ways of working together. These sessions increase colleagues understanding of each other and can facilitate supportive exploration of tricky team issues. The goal is for the team to be operating at its best.
2: PLAYING TO OUR COLLECTIVE STRENGTHS as an SLT:
Each colleague undertakes the trusted Clifton Strengths Finder assessment followed by individual and team coaching to help colleagues achieve a deep understanding of their own strengths and operating preferences, and those of other team members. Colleagues learn how to capitalise on the team’s strengths and how to operate in ways that will be more effective and harmonious. This is a fabulous coaching programme that helps senior leaders understand each other, improves communication, and leads to new ways of working that ensure the team operates at peak performance. With everyone operating at their best individually, and seeking to be at their best as a team, amazing outcomes become not just a possibility, they become a reality.
3: MIDDLE LEADERSHIP GROUP COACHING:
This is a cost effective way of providing coaching that not only supports the individual but strengthens peer relationships. Small group coaching for 4-6 leaders working together on a shared theme, e.g. communication, teamwork, managing change, accountability, emotional intelligence, or alternatively, small group coaching with a focus on the expectation and challenges of a certain role, e.g. phase leadership or subject leadership. The peer interactions within the coaching set-up can be amazing at increasing partnership, empathy and understanding.
Coaching for wellbeing
Are you looking for wellbeing coaching? Underpinned by positive psychology coaching approach, PERMA+4 and the Happy Leader framework provide ways of exploring how to improve you own well-being and that of other colleagues that you work with. The approach has rigour and is backed up by evidence of impact. PERMA+4 coaching can be undertaken as an individual, as a small group or a mixture of both. This type of coaching can be very beneficial when the organisation is making a renewed commitment to wellbeing in the workplace.
In sessions, leaders explore the following variables:
P=Positive Emotions,
E=Engagement,
R=Relationships,
M=Meaning,
A=Achievement
+ four Physical health, Mindset, Environment and Economics.
And the 7 drivers of the science behind happiness at work: basic needs, foundation needs, flow, social needs, job satisfaction, involvement needs, and growth.
In doing so, participants better understand themselves and create practical, sustainable ways of improving well-being.
I am a member of the Association for Coaching.
Qualifications:
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ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching and Mentoring obtained through the West of England University.
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Train the trainer : Facilitation training for SLEs, accredited to provide SLE induction training, National College for School Leadership
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NCSL Leading Pathways, National College for School Leadership
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NCSL Leading from the Middle, National College for School Leadership
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D32 & D33 Assessor Awards, Bradford College
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BA (Hons) Degree in Education and Technology with Business Studies and Qualified Teacher Status (Class I), Leeds University.
