Teachers turn Demo into Skills List

Steps to a Coaching Classroom: Newsletter 8 Extra

One of the quickest connections between a coaching demonstration and the resulting list of coaching skills was made by teachers.

My colleague, Sandra and I were at a school, introducing coaching to the teaching staff.

I started the demo by asking, "Who would like to come up on stage to be coached by me, on any topic you are OK to share in front of everyone here." We were delighted at how quickly we got a volunteer.

The coaching session was rather short, just fifteen minutes. We created a 'bubble' around us. I used the volunteer's problem to identify what she really wanted to experience, and what made it important to her. We explored alternatives and found a way to move her towards that experience. I thanked her for volunteering and stepped aside.

We began the debrief. My colleague Sandra, asked the other teachers, "What did you see and hear the coach do during the coaching?"

They gave us these observations:

• The distinct stages of the coaching
• How the coach mirrored the teacher's body language
• How the coach had reflected back words the teacher had said, rather than use his own words
• How the coach used different kinds of questions for each stage of the coaching. (They had written everything down!)

Sandra asked, "What else did you notice?" They shared with us:

• Confused the coach did not talk about the problem much
• Surprised when the coach simply flipped the problem into a wish
• They heard the volunteer's voice change when she realised why this wish was important (They recognised that they too have similar wishes.)

Then Sandra turned to the volunteer and asked her, "How was that for you?"

She was still glowing from the coaching session and was happy to have found a way to get what she wanted. She was impressed by the speed and how easy coaching seemed to be.

Sandra asked the staff, "What skills do you think the coach used?" I joined in and we started writing what the teachers said, on the board.

Within forty minutes from the start, the teachers had identified a dozen coaching skills that they wanted to learn.