A Culture of Coaching

The following blog is the fourth of 11 dedicated to providing an overview of the No-Nonsense Nurturer leader behaviors in anticipation of CT3’s summer leadership workshops. We hope to support all leaders with behaviors essential for every organization.

The No-Nonsense Nurturer® Leader:

1. 1. Models humility
   2. Sets high expectations
   3. Creates a culture of coaching
   4. Builds collective efficacy
   5. Recognizes and develops growth mindsets, always striving to be asset based
   6. Solicits voice and perspective
   7. Innovates
   8. Generates culture (and systems) of accountability
   9. Builds trusting relationships
   10. Commits to being an anti-racist

In this series, several CT3 associates share personal stories or examples about how you can commit to each of these behaviors. In this blog, I explore why creating a culture of coaching is so critical to student and educator success.

When visiting schools across the country, I am often asked a version of the question, “What is the differentiating factor between high-performing and low-performing schools?”  

While a single factor doesn’t differentiate a high-performing educational institution from a low-performing one, every high-performing school has had a robust and even relentless culture of coaching. Every team member in the organization is invested in giving and receiving feedback. High-quality coaching supports the principal with instructional leadership in the building. Multiple feedback protocols are implemented to challenge team members on pedagogy, curriculum implementation, and their anti-racist lens as educators. Feedback in high-performing organizations is like oxygen — you don’t even realize you need it until it is gone.

How do No-Nonsense Nurturer® leaders establish a culture of feedback?  They:

1. Seek feedback from their teams, their community, and their students
2. Train their teams on robust and multiple feedback protocols
3. Give feedback
4. Celebrate feedback
5. Narrate when they implement feedback they have received
6. Plan time for feedback cycles
7. Invest in coaching
8. Track feedback cycles
9. Collect data on feedback
10. Ensure teachers are using feedback with their students

Unless normalized, feedback can be hard to hear. But once protocols are in place and feedback is expected, feedback that is specific, notes impact, and continues to challenge the person receiving it will become an essential part of your high-performing culture.

By Kristyn Klei Borrero, Ed.D., CT3 Co-Founder and former CEO

Check out CT3 Education programs such as No-Nonsense Nurturer, Real Time Teacher Coaching, and Real Time Leadership Coaching to find out more about Professional Development for Teachers and Leaders, classroom management strategies, and building relationships with students and their families, and properly addressing important issues in the classroom and school.
Category: Education, Leadership