School Business Professionals as Coaching Leaders

School business professionals lead services, organisations and even systems but, primarily, we lead people, says David Carne

Read the full article below or read on page 14 of our September magazine

Whether we lead one member of staff, or thousands, we achieve effectiveness through others. A school or trust will have support staff from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, all of whom need to be working towards the mission and objectives of the organisation. SBPs want our staff to be highly engaged and high performing; to achieve this, as leaders, we have the opportunity to invest time developing those in our teams who wish to grow and supporting those who, for whatever reason, are not reaching their full potential or performing at their best. One potential way of doing this is by adopting a coaching leadership style. 

Coaching leadership is distinct from more traditional, directive, leadership, where we tend to tell people what they need to do to perform. It is collaborative and supportive in nature and primarily focused on the employee’s needs. The leader and employee work together to identify appropriate goals and find ways for the employee to achieve them. Coaching can be used to address a huge range of issues such as developing new skills, modifying behavioural styles, improving relationships and building confidence. If done correctly, it can also transform an employee’s mindset, improve their ability to identify solutions for themselves and raise their self-awareness. 

Coaching can be highly effective for staff who have ‘blind spots’ to behaviours and patterns of thinking which get in their way. There are, of course, occasions where coaching is not appropriate and a more directive style of leadership is necessary or more traditional training is appropriate; coaching works best where staff have a desire to improve, but do not know how. 

Coaching leadership is about asking questions that build insight through a mix of support and challenge. These questions tend to be non-judgemental and open, rather than closed and rhetorical. In essence, coaching is a guided conversation, focused on supporting an individual to identify and work towards achieving a specific goal.   

How to have a coaching conversation…

There are numerous coaching models, but one simple one is the GROW model which was developed by John Whitmore in his book, Coaching for Performance. 

Goal: the coaching conversation starts by identifying the goal, fleshing it out, getting more specific, exploring what it is, why it’s important and how we will know when it has been achieved.

Reality: next we explore where we are now – honestly. What is the current reality and what is the gap between this and the goal? At this stage we might look at what it is that is holding a member of staff back – is it a need for training or resources, is it about patterns of thought and behaviour which are getting in the way, is there a relationship barrier with others which needs to be overcome? We explore this from both their perspective and that of others’ by asking questions about how others may perceive the current reality and whether that is different from the employee’s perspective. 

Options: here we start to thrash out what we can do to start moving towards the goal. This might involve breaking it down into smaller steps, identifying additional resources and support from others, or challenging some of the beliefs and behaviours that are getting in the way of moving forward. We explore all options, from the employee’s perspective, including any perceived barriers and tactics to overcome them. They are identifying as many realistic options as possible. People are more likely to make incremental progress over time.   

Way forward: at this stage, they select from the options in the stage before. What is manageable, and what is possible? What are they prepared to do? This is about building commitment and also putting in place accountability. How will the individual feel when they achieve their goal? What will happen if they don’t? What is their commitment if they were to score it out of 10? At this point, we create a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound) goal, which they commit to. 

Once agreed, it is important to check-in, support and review – again through questioning. What progress have they made? What have they learnt? How have their attitudes and beliefs changed as a result? What helped them achieve the goal that they could use next time? This type of personal development tends to be more long-lasting because individuals have done the work themselves, giving them a sense of achievement. 

Most people do not come to work intending not to perform well; coaching can help create pathways by which they can be more successful – and success drives success. So, if you are looking for ways to develop your team, why not start by developing your abilities as a coaching leader – and, of course, identify someone who can coach you too.   

David is a serving School Business Professional and Executive Coach.