The research is abundant. The literature is clear. Coaching for leaders is common in all types of businesses and organizations, and it’s a difference maker. Actors, CEOs, athletes, musicians and physicians are just a few of the professions where having some kind of coaching support is the rule not the exception. This is not a new concept. Coaching has been recognized for decades as a key ingredient to a professional person’s growth and success. So, I’ve been puzzled for a while about why more school districts don’t provide a more robust support system, including an external coach, for new leaders that get hired into the district, people in critical roles. I wanted to start someplace that saw that need and acted on it.
The Natick (MA) Public Schools started providing external mentor/coaches for newly hired principals over a decade ago. Anna Nolin oversaw that work as either assistant superintendent or superintendent for most of those years. Natick is one of a few school districts in New England that provides a broad and consistent level of support for its newer leaders.
I discovered shortly after meeting her that Superintendent Nolin places a high value on supporting building leadership, especially in the crucial first year. Anna learned early in her career as both a teacher and a middle school principal the connections among student learning, excellence in teaching and having consistently strong building leadership. Even though we develop a systematic plan for principal support and training, I can be rocked by certain forces that may mean I can’t be as responsive as a principal might need”. She adds, “a strong coach can follow the principal’s growth as a learner and go deeper into their particular needs than I can as the supervising superintendent. Between the coach and the support of our Principal Professional Learning Community, I think our principals get a top-notch and comprehensive experience. And that’s what new administrators deserve!”
Michael Lewis, author of fifteen or so books, including Money Ball, The Blind Side, Liar’s Poker, and The Premonition), recently created the podcast, “Against the Rules”. He devoted the entire second season to the subject of coaching. Near the conclusion of the first episode of Season Two he summarizes the comments of one of his guests saying, “Funny thing is, the best coaches don’t leave you needing them!” To which I say, isn’t that the point of good coaching? Lewis’ persistent focus on the value of coaching rekindled my curiosity about what people take away from it, how it not only helps but endures, and why some people believe in and invest in it and others don’t heed the lessons.
So, over the past few months I set about checking in with six of Natick’s school leaders about their experiences being coached during their first year as principals. One of those six individuals had been a principal in another district before coming to Natick, the other five were first year, first time principals. These principals have now been in Natick anywhere from one to ten years.
For starters, to a person, these principals agreed that having a coach who was familiar with the district was a good thing. While an external coach brings a significant skillset with them when they enter a new school district the coaching advantage seems to increase as the coach becomes more knowledgeable about the district, local expectations and its professional culture. While the superintendent and her staff ware there to support growth and understanding around matters of policy and procedures, their coach was also able to support the new leaders in their assimilation of the district’s “mindset!.” This mindset was really the culture of leadership in the district. How principals supported each other and the teachers and students they served. It also was about how principals worked together to find solutions to all types of problems rather than struggling alone in the isolation of their individual schools.
There was also unanimity among the principals about the notion that having a confidential coach who could be trusted with their most daunting challenges and biggest fears was the essential ingredient in growing a relationship. The principals most frequently cited things like, “having an objective sounding board on difficult parent and staff issues” was key to their successes during their first year. As one principal shared, “My coach shared her viewpoints, but also asked me pointed questions to help me sort through possible solutions and thinking through the implications of differing scenarios. That weighing and sorting, in a safe space, helped me grow more confident in my own decisiveness.” Another principal referred to that process as the “gradual release of responsibility” that was similar to the teacher/student relationship over the course of a school year.
Anna Nolin
Natick MA Superintendent of Schools
As a veteran coach, I get asked routinely about the potential for confusion or conflict when a principal has both a boss (the superintendent) and a confidential coach. So I wanted to ask the principals I checked in with, had they experienced any situations where this resulted in some kind of conflict for them? The replies were clear and unanimous. Nothing negative or vexing ever arose from that context. One principal reflected that sometimes there were different opinions coming from the coach and the superintendent but he, “found these differences interesting and thought-provoking” and helpful in coming up with good solutions to problems.” Another explained that she, “used her time with her coach to think out loud, formulate thoughts and responses to specific situations and then be better able to explain her action plan to the superintendent and others.”
I was also curious about the academic training they received in becoming a principal versus their learning within a coaching relationship. Again, the responses were consistent. One commented, “Graduate school learning and licensure programs were strong in the theoretical aspects of leading a school but having a coach in my corner who I could call whenever the going got tough was hands-down the most valuable tool in my tool box!” Another compared the difference to that of a college student preparing to be a teacher. “Some of the things I learned in college were helpful, but my learning in the trenches of student teaching was by far more important to my development.”
Each principal could identify significant new learning during their year in a coaching relationship. Although these learnings varied by individual and situations, each principal felt that she/he had grown in some consistent and important domains: instructional leadership, confidence, being clear and consistent, listening skills, having difficult conversations, asking good questions and being the advocate for children in their building.
These overwhelmingly positive conversations with principals led me back to the question of why Natick commits to such a robust plan for supporting new leaders that not only involves coaching but also ongoing membership in a principals’ PLC group? When I asked Supt. Nolin how coaching for principals compliments Natick’s district priorities she responded, “A core value of mine is that every educator deserves to be coached if they are open to it. Coaches provide a safe learning environment that is not impacted by the evaluator/supervisor to principal relationship. She explained further that her school committee, “knows that we have a mentoring ethic within the district and that we invest highly in teamwork.” Furthermore, “I also provide internal mentors to all new principals regardless of certification (licensing) status. The outcomes are consistently powerful and lead to principal retention.”
I know that school districts take a variety of approaches to onboarding new principals: in district colleague mentoring, principal PLC groups, regional role alike groups, leadership seminars and personal external coaches. But Natick’s comprehensive plan for supporting new school leaders stands out in the way it includes most of these activities for each and every principal and the district’s success at growing, recruiting and retaining principals --the end result of Anna Nolin’s thoughtful leadership.
A special thanks to the following Natick Public School Leaders: Anna Nolin, Karen Ghilani, Mary Beth Kinkead, Aiden McCann, Jodie Cohen & Jordan Hoffman (now a principal in Wellesley, MA). You each have helped me become a better coach and I would not have been able to write this article without your help.