In a long-term coaching partnership I work together with the client to deliver a range of coaching and leadership development services. These services are to support the team, to maximise potential and contribute to ongoing development.
Who I worked with:
Glenunga International High School, Adelaide, South Australia: in 2020-2025.
The challenge:
The original challenge was to develop a program for emerging leaders. As the partnership between myself and the school has evolved, other programs have been developed, details of which are outlined below.
Emerging Leaders Program
The Emerging Leaders Program was developed in response to a specific identified staff development need at GIHS in 2019. The Program, which continues today, targets emerging leaders, or recently established leaders who find themselves in formal leadership roles for the first time.
We explore each participants unique strengths and what drives them as a leader, consider how they want to be seen by others, and look at how they lead when at their personal best. The program also helps participants understand their impact on others and how to put strategies in place to manage their leadership shadow.
The Program adopts a small group coaching approach, with 8-10 participants in each group. Staff nominate for places on the Program each year and approximately 40 staff have completed the Emerging Leaders Program at GIHS over the past five years.
Prior to commencing the workshop, participants complete two different strengths surveys. Following a 30-minute introductory session, the content is delivered over 4 x 2-hour sessions with a small amount of pre-work and additional resources to support the learning from each session. Two sessions are scheduled in Term 2 and a further two sessions in Term 3.
Coaching Skills for Year 12 Mentor Teachers
In 2022, GIHS made an active decision to develop the coaching skills of Year 12 Mentor Teachers (Home Group Teachers). Late in Term 4 of 2022, I was engaged to run a pilot half-day workshop for the cohort of [then] Year 11 Mentor Teachers.
In that workshop we looked at the different types of conversations a Mentor Teacher might have, how to know what is needed, when a coaching conversation (or approach) will be most effective, how to structure a coaching conversation, and the core skills required to do this effectively.
The original session was well-received and supported by a further session early in Term 2 of 2023 for Year 12 Mentor Teachers, with a focus on the approach taken in Term 1: reflection on successes and challenges with flexing style and supporting individual students.
Executive Team - Leadership Development
In Term 3 of 2023 I met with the Executive Team and GIHS to discuss a possible leadership development initiative.
Hogan Leadership Assessments
In Term 4 of 2023 a ‘tier’ of senior school leaders completed Hogan Leadership Assessments. These Assessments assist the individual leader to understand the disparity between how they think of themself and how others see them, increasing self-awareness by highlighting the gap between ‘identity’ and ‘reputation’.
These reports were debriefed in 90-minute 1:1 sessions between myself and each individual leader. Several weeks later, a 60-minute meeting between myself, the individual leader and the School Principal was scheduled to discuss insights and actions (commitments, experiments and any support requirements).
Hogan 360
Early in 2024 a group of executive school leaders completed Hogan 360° Surveys. This is a comprehensive multi-rater feedback tool designed to help leaders to gain a better understanding of how they are perceived by managers, peers, direct reports, and others.
These reports were debriefed in 90-minute 1:1 sessions between myself and each individual leader. Several weeks later, a 60-minute meeting between myself, the individual leader and the School Principal was scheduled to discuss insights and actions (commitments, experiments and any support requirements).
The results:
The Coaching Skills for Mentor Teachers sessions have run at GIHS for three consecutive years now (2022/2023/2024).
Based on extremely positive feedback, the Emerging Leaders Program has run at GIHS for five consecutive years now (2020-2024). A small selection of participant feedback is provided below:
“The added confidence and ability to know how to use a range of strategies to deal with the many and varying situation. This was both inspiring, challenging and reflective at the same time. The check lists and acronyms are also easy to remember are now part of my ‘toolkit’. I feel more confident to deal with situations no matter what skills, abilities, motivation and or challenges that are presented.”
“I feel the sessions brought out the best in me. I have learnt to carefully consider my actions and choices before I speak with other professionals, so that I can support them and communicate my intentions with more clarity.”
“Each session opened up new learnings and built on the previous – identifying strength and shadow behaviours and being able to identify them. The final session brought everything together – listening, questioning and tough conversations are all key areas of development.”
“To consider what is motivating other people’s actions and thoughts as a way to managing relationships with others. Also the guidelines on how to have tough conversations with others.”
“Knowing our strengths and using that knowledge to approach situations can allow us to gain more from the situation and contribute and collaborate more effectively. Overusing our strengths can cause shadow and often affect others inadvertently. It is really beneficial having the professional/personal reflective conversations with others as much to hear other people speak as being heard. The listening task was very powerful.”