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Micromessages Administrative leaders, directors, and all other leaders must be aware of the subtle negative micromessages they send to teachers and other staff members when coaches introduce instructional strategies. Leaders need to ensure that their micromessages are positive and supportive of the role of the instructional coach. If as a leader you subtly or directly put down and suppress strategies your instructional coach brings to teachers, then you are doing a disservice to students and teachers by sending negative micromessages. Negative Micromessages Below are two scenarios of negative mircromessages and the impact that these have on teaching, learning and coaching. Scenario 1: During an online staff meeting, an IC suggests that teachers engage in a form of flipped learning as they focus on curriculum planning and adding videos to their blended learning platforms. Immediately after the IC's suggestion, during the meeting, the leader of this school, who was a first year principal, said to all teachers and staff present at this virtual meeting, " we are NOT doing flipped learning, I do not want teachers to be overwhelmed with having to add videos at home. I want them to record the lessons live and share these with students and parents immediately after each class". How do you think teachers are going to receive or engage in any forms of coaching partnership with the IC after this? The facilitator of the workshop was an independent consultant. Do you think this person will want to collaborate with the coach in any way to support teachers after this negative micromessage was conveyed? Instead, that principal could have said, " That's another idea to think about, Ms. C. Let us give our teachers choice in selecting what works best for them and our students, and let us meet to discuss some additional ideas". After the meeting, I learned that this principal was not familiar with flipped learning. So, another possible response could have been, " Ms. C, I am not very versed with flipped learning, let us meet and find ways to personalize a PD for myself and teachers and give them choice in selecting which option works for them". One of the traits displayed by great leaders is the ability to say you don't know, when you don't know. Be honest! You gain so much more respect from others, but more importantly yourself, when you are honest. Scenario 2: A new leader and a literacy instructional coach are very close. The literacy instructional coach complains about the new math IC all the time and the leader believes the literacy IC. The leader informs math teachers that they need to check with her before they implement strategies suggested by the math IC. Note, this leader's educational background was not in math. The literacy IC does not need prior approval for anything, nor do her teachers need to check with the leader. How do you think teachers will receive support from the math IC? How do you think teaching and learning is affected? Is this micromessage one that supports the grant funded position? The math coach had the skills and abilities to help teachers immensely and provide students with rigorous learning experiences (and impact scores, but most importantly, depth of learning), but numerous strategies were blocked by the leader and IC. As a result of these micromessages, teachers were very resistant to engage in a coaching partnership and it took the IC many months to build relationships with teachers and get buy-in for research-based strategies. For this scenario, I will let you think about the positive micromessages that should have been conveyed in this situation or how the leader should have gone about addressing the damages that were created from the negative micromessages. To note, this school is still in IR status to this day and the IC has been promoted to a higher leadership level. In the two scenarios above, I made reference to new leaders, but there are veteran leaders and those within the spectrum who also send negative micromessages when instructional coaches try to suggest ideas and positively impact teaching and learning. For the first scenario, I have also outlined examples of positive micromessages. For the second scenario, I have intentionally allowed you to generate your positive micromessage for many reasons, one main one being that as leaders we allow our "friendships" in the education world to cloud our decisions. We need to be aware of our negative micromessages and make sure that they are translated to positive micromessages. Know that negative micromessages are not only communicated verbally. These can also be communicated via facial expression, hand gestures and eye contact. In the references, you will find a great article by UT Southwestern Medical Clinic on different forms of micromessages. Pay close attention to the Notice Your Actions section and the thought provoking questions asked here. As leaders, we must reflect on our actions frequently to ensure that we are not sending negative micromessages. Whether these are inadvertently or advertently done, you are preventing instructional coaches from serving in the role for which they have been employed. No one should block the work that an IC's grant funded position requires of them. If you have been sending negative micromessages, it is not too late to fix the havoc these have caused. Be aware of and take action to stop your negative micromessages and the harm these cause! A few questions to help impact change are, "Am I aware of my micromessages? "Am I in denial of my micromessages?" Are my micromessages supporting instructional coaching grant funded positions? Are my micromessages positive or negative? Are my micromessages a result of my leadership style to control? Are my micromessages a result of my insecurities in my abilities? Are my micromessages helping the most important people in education, our students? Repeated Leading Instructional Coaches Summary: Read it as many times as you need to understand how to reflect on and improve your growth as a leader of instructional coaches. Move on to the Blog Series and References sections if you do not need to read this reflective summary again. Being a leader of instructional coaches is an extremely important role, so you must ensure that you are exuding this importance in every single one of your actions when you lead instructional coaches, or lead any one. Here are some questions to reflect on:
If you realize that you are not being a fair, genuine, honest and a true leader, what are you doing about it? If nothing, then you are doing a disservice to the instructional coaches you lead, your leadership role, your impact to society, your impact to your community and more. There is always time to learn from our mistakes in order to become better leaders of instructional coaches. It starts with you, now, today! Do not wait! Recognize and admit your mistakes, apologize and then let your genuine actions make it right and better. Leading Instructional Coaches and Others Blog Series Click on each title to access the specific blog. Part 1: Leading Instructional Coaches: Introductions, Roles and Coaching Culture Part 2: Leading Instructional Coaches: Micromesages Part 3: Leading Instructional Coaches: Dignity, Class and Professionalism Part 4: Leading Instructional Coaches: Let the Coach Coach Part 5: Leading Instructional Coaches: Coaching Up Part6: Leading Instructional Coaches: Teamwork References
UT Southwestern Medical Center. Micro-messaging In The Workplace: Definitions + Strategies. https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/about-us/administrative-offices/equity-access/assets/micro- messaging-final.pdf Comments are closed.
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Cherry-Anne GildharryOn this page, you will find blogs on educational connections and my life's experiences. Ideas, thoughts and views are my own and are not representative of my employers. References/sources used are public articles found on the internet to support my blogs. Archives
April 2024
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