This month, our Connect newsletter team sat down with Sharron Helmke, an ICF-certified coach and Learning Forward’s senior vice president of professional services, to mine her expertise on coaching, specifically how coaching is uniquely valuable during challenging times, helping educators find confidence and success amid uncertainty.
Q: How does coaching help during challenging times?
Here are three reasons to turn to coaching when things feel most challenging:
- Coaching is personalized professional learning that starts with the challenges that are top of mind for you.
- Coaching’s personalized approach supports you in identifying your current strengths and leveraging them for growth, turning small, manageable steps into progressive, sustained change.
- Every good coaching session concludes with your own reflection on your commitment to action, your next steps, and your timeline for implementation, ensuring that every session leads to visible impact.
Q: What is not a helpful approach?
When things feel challenging, our urge can be to “hunker down” and figure this out, or to “circle the wagons” and protect ourselves from outside threats. Neither of these strategies is helpful. The stress of challenge can lead to overwhelming rumination on the challenges and the barriers we face or to the unease that we will fall short of expectations, but with the personalized, confidential support of a coach, we can think through new ideas and new ways of thinking about the problem without fear of judgment. In a safe environment we can explore possible solutions and find a path that feels ripe for exploration and action. Coaching is the safest, most supportive and actionable form of professional learning available to us. Challenging times are the times best suited for success through coaching.
Q: What coaching support options are available?
We have several to address your needs:
- The Learning Forward Coaching Academy supports the growth of your instructional coaches to ensure they have the coaching skills necessary to support sustained improvement of your teaching staff.
- Customizable Learning Forward Coaching Skills programs support the growth of principal supervisors, principals, central office staff, and teacher leaders to inspire the growth of their direct reports.
- Individual Coaching supports district and campus leaders in tackling their most pressing concerns and challenges and taking action that makes a difference for staff and students.
Don’t deny yourself this invaluable tool for growth!
Learn more: Contact Sharron Helmke, Sharron.Helmke@LearningForward.org to learn more about how coaching can support your quest to be a better, more impactful leader.
Read more: Read Helmke’s latest coaching article in the The Learning Professional.
