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Find a shorter version of my Strengths-Based coaching blog at Teaching Channel.com Strengths-Based Coaching- A SAGE Approach Now more than ever, educators need genuine support and a deep focus on honoring their strengths. So, how do we authentically coach and support educators in achieving their goals and helping them become even better than they were yesterday, while focusing on their talents? How do we encourage buy-in to profound strategies while still honoring the coachee’s experience and uniqueness? The answer is simple; through strengths-based coaching. We must start with and focus on coachees’ strengths if we want to impact change and be genuine change agents. This is not to say that we do not focus on areas for growth, but when we take a genuine and SAGE approach to strengths-based coaching we inspire educators to acquire growth. I define strengths-based coaching as, “an unwavering and genuine partnership of support and belief that focuses on identifying and using coaches' authentic strengths to help them build confidence and competence, heighten intrinsic motivation, achieve success and acquire growth in reaching their fullest potential.” Traits of a Strengths-Based Coach To engage in authentic strengths-based coaching, the coach must fully believe in the powerful impact that individuals’ strengths have on achieving meaningful and high-quality results in teaching and learning. Your belief and dedication in highlighting and leveraging your coachees’ strengths must be at the core of your being. As a coach, you form the strengths-based culture that should exist. Part of the strengths-based coaching culture is being a sincere person, having profound listening skills and always being aware that coaching is not about you, it is about your coachee. Of course, as a coach, you bring great ideas and products aligned to your ideas as exemplars for your coachees, which you should share. However, you must have the talent to know how to stay focused on the ideas your coachees bring and find ways to blend yours and their ideas to impact results. Other extremely important strengths-based coaching skills are communication, adaptability, critical thinking, collaboration and additional 21st century skills with the trait of knowing how to develop sincere relationships with your coachees, because without these, the entire strengths-based coaching structure will collapse. Identifying and Understanding Your Coachees’ Strengths There are many ways to identify and get to know your coachees’ strengths, but this process must be meaningful. Information needs to be gathered with purpose, intentionality, and respectful use. Some of the strengths that you will identify might align to creativity, curriculum design, assessment, student engagement, and more. Here are some ways to learn about your coachees strengths: · Engage in conversations. Ask questions to determine strengths; let the coachees do more of the talking. · Observe your coachees in action. · Help your coachees identify their passions and talents. As you listen carefully to your coachees, make sure that you are documenting this information in a platform that you will visit often. Some people are dedicated to using OneNote and Word, but there are many other methods. During conversations with my coachees, I use a journal because I do not like having a computer in front of me when I talk with them. At the end of the day, I transfer this information to a Google Doc coaching cycle. Allowing, Acknowledging and Developing Strengths Now that we have identified our coachees strengths, we want to find ways to allow, acknowledge and develop them. This is done by giving teachers/educators opportunities to be co-participants in trainings, lead training and meetings, freely share their ideas and creations, and more. However, I cannot stress enough that this must not be a selective process. Engaging in virtual and physical learning walks is also a great way for educators strengths to be acknowledged. Virtual learning walks can also be done asynchronously. Insight Advance focuses on and specializes in video and virtual coaching. Videos are definitely a great way for teachers to highlight their strengths! Also, creating newsletters to share the strengths-based strategies that your teachers are implementing works magic. For four years I created newsletters to share my teachers’ strengths and to also provide a powerful form of professional development. The impact this had in helping my teachers reach their fullest potential was profound. Guide and Give Feedback to Grow To guide and give feedback to grow strengths, we must be dedicated to using meaningful strengths-based structures, systems, and models. Using a strengths-based coaching cycle to coach and provide support is extremely impactful. As a coach, I designed personalized coaching cycles aligned to my SAGE coaching model. The elements of my SAGE Coaching cycle are, State the Goals – Acquire Action Steps – Guide and Support Action Steps – Examine Outcomes. For every coaching cycle I engaged in, I followed these 4 elements with an intense focus on strengths. In addition, I created a coaching feedback document aligned to the coaching cycle to document goals, action steps, coaching tips, reflective questions, and inspirational words. Teachers, principals, assistant principals, and academic deans loved these documents and stated how meaningful they were in guiding teachers’ strengths and growth. Questioning is another very powerful technique to guide strengths that can be implemented during coaching conversations. Conclusion When implemented authentically, strengths-based coaching is one of the most powerful ways to motivate educators, impact change, create profound products, attain success, acquire growth, and achieve excellence. Strengths-based coaching is a great way to value and appreciate what novice and veteran educators bring to the table. It genuinely intertwines the elements of adult learning principles, a focus of many job descriptions, and motivates and inspires all educators to become their best. Whether we engage in direct, whole group, leadership, virtual, small group, or one-on-one target groups, strengths-based coaching is the technique that we need to implement more than ever to help our coachees reach their fullest potential to become authentically dynamic, competent, and excellent employees. References
Brewerton, P. (2022, February 14). What is a Strengths-Based Approach in Coaching? Strengthscope.https://www.strengthscope.com/blog/what-is-a-strengths-based-approach-in-coaching Boldly. (2022, February 24). What is a Strengths-Based Approach to Coaching. https://www.boldly.app/blog/what-is-a-strengths-based-approach-to-coaching Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2016, January 04). Strengths-Based Coaching Can Actually Weaken You. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/01/strengths-based-coaching-can-actually-weaken-you Coaching. (2020, September). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching Gallup. How to Create Strengths-Based Company Culture. https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/290903/how-to-create-strengths-based-companyculture.aspx#ite-291890 Gallup. (2017, February 15). How to Make Coaching Truly Strengths-Based. https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/250382/coaching-truly-strengths-based.aspx Jimenez, J. (2020, September 02).Why the Secret to Great Coaching Lies in Motivation. https://www.betterup.com/blog/why-the-secret-to-great-coaching-lies-in-motivation Schwartz, P. What is Strengths –Based Coaching? https://www.patriciaschwartz.com/what-is-strengths-based-coaching Strengths. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/strength Talentlyft. What is Coaching? https://www.talentlyft.com/en/resources/what-is-coaching WG Coaching. Motivation and Coaching– A Misunderstood Mental Matter.https://wgcoaching.com/motivation-coaching/ 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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