Neil Harding
Principal, The Queen Elizabeth Academy
Before joining the ATT Institute Leadership Coaching Course, facilitated by Alison Robb-Webb, coaching was an area of fascination and fear in equal parts for me. The weight of responsibility to coach empathetically, to listen to my coachee and to ask the right questions, were daunting to say the least.
Through careful modelling, question stems and role play, Alison created a space of psychological safety for me to explore my coaching approach and to struggle as I worked to improve. At first it was the frustration at needing to hold on to the silence and assuming that if I was the coach that I must interject and give my view. Alison’s work was different in that she made my struggle feel human and relatable. Alison challenged my thinking and cut through the trees and brambles for me to see the light to coach effectively and to enjoy the process. Her question stems really helped me to recover from that awkwardness and fear of getting it wrong.
“It has had such a positive impact on my leadership, my relationships with colleagues and the quality of deep thought that has helped find solutions and strategise school improvement”.
As a result, I have thoroughly enjoyed fine honing my practice and have become more confident. There was huge relief and satisfaction when the approach Alison taught me began to have impact. The conversation flowed, the silences were no longer awkward and the coachee was reaching solutions with my questions- not with my imposing of advice. It has been wonderful to see the gratitude on the faces of colleagues as I have allowed them that space and time to gently work through the cognitive entanglement that may have hindered their thinking and approach before.
I now coach in all my line management work. Colleagues tell me that it is empowering and liberating for them. Line management meetings now require harder thinking and a sense of a shared solution. I used Alison’s approach to train my Senior Leadership Team to coach last term and we are using our meeting time to develop those skills in everybody. It has had such a positive impact on my leadership, my relationships with colleagues and the quality of deep thought that has helped find solutions and strategise school improvement.
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