If teachers in PLCs are to function as teams, taking shared responsibility for student success, vulnerability is critical. A teacher needs to place his students’ work and his instructional practices on display for colleagues to share in structuring a plan to increase student success. Teaching needs to be a public act for the trust of teams to be developed. Peer coaching among PLC members can provide the opportunity for vulnerability and trust building to occur.
Read “Can You have Trust Without Being Vulnerable?” here.
Read “The Connection Between Vulnerability and Trust in Teams” here.
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Podcast Transcript:
[00:00:00.300] – Steve [Intro]
Welcome to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. As instructional coaches and school leaders, you are tasked with guiding continuous teacher growth to create student success. This podcast looks to support you with strategies from experienced guests, as well as my own insights that I’ve gathered over the years. I’m thrilled to have you with us. Thanks for tuning in.
[00:00:29.900] – Steve
Teacher Leaders Building Trust. Examining trust and vulnerability quickly engages one in the chicken and egg question, “which comes first?” Trust can’t be created without some vulnerability being present. Trust greatly increases the likelihood that people would make themselves vulnerable. I frequently explore trust and vulnerability as key elements to growth from coaching and to effective teeming in PLCs. The Wiseways Consulting Group, in a blog titled, “Can You Have Trust Without Being Vulnerable?” states the following: “Trust and vulnerability are intertwined. In order to learn to trust each other, individuals must allow themselves to be vulnerable with those same people. Even the simple act of believing that someone will do what they say they will do is making oneself vulnerable and open to the possibility that they may be let down. The more that trust is developed, the more individuals will gradually allow their vulnerabilities to show through, thus creating opportunities for growth. Developing trust and exposing vulnerabilities in the workplace are critical for a team to develop and meet the mission that they were all brought together to fulfill. Instructional coaches recognize that they need to build trust with teachers in order to have teachers be vulnerable in the coaching process.
[00:02:10.050] – Steve
Without vulnerability, teachers can complete coaching cycles where they focus the coach on some element that’s really not a problem or a concern, but it represents a safe observation and coaching conference. In some cases, these initial safe experiences may be important for the coach to demonstrate that she will keep feedback on the focus that was set by the teacher. This demonstration to the teacher that she is directing the coaching can lead to greater future vulnerability. If teachers in PLCs are to function as teams, taking shared responsibility for student success, vulnerability is critical. A teacher needs to place his students’ work and his instructional practices on display for colleagues to share in structuring a plan to increase student success. I describe that teaching needs to be a public act in order for the trust of teams to be developed. Peer coaching among PLC members can provide the opportunity for vulnerability and trust to occur. School leaders looking to bring change to a school’s teaching and learning practices need to build trust and vulnerability into the staff’s culture as well as into the school’s classroom environment. I worked with a school that had identified innovator as one of the student outcomes that they wanted to work towards with all their students.
[00:03:57.730] – Steve
They believed that innovators embrace challenges, fail forward, initiate new ideas, and take risks. For students to experience the learning activities that would lead to developing these characteristics, teachers need to be models. How do school leaders create the trust and vulnerability among the staff and leadership that leads to teachers’ comfort with the discomfort of embracing challenges, taking risks, initiating new ideas, and failing forward. Modeling vulnerability is key. When I have worked with programs that are built around teacher leaders, I describe that a key to identifying candidates for teacher leadership roles is the person’s openness to vulnerability. Leaders are the people who are willing to be vulnerable before trust has been built. Their willingness creates the environment for trust building that leads others to begin to risk to be vulnerable. Sharon Taylor in an article titled, “The Connection between Vulnerability and Trust in Teams,” states, “When you show vulnerability, it allows team members to feel more comfortable being open and honest with their concerns, questions, mistakes, and roadblocks, which ultimately allows for stronger team performance.” She suggests that we take small actions at first and encourage our team members to do the same. Ask for help on a project.
[00:05:52.460] – Steve
Ask for feedback. Try something new and advertise that you’re doing it. Admit to mistakes, which can lead right back to asking for help. How might your leadership team create an opportunity to purposefully model these elements and then coach each other on the openness to vulnerability that leadership members are exhibiting? What are the indicators of trust that the leadership team shares with each other that creates your comfort with the discomfort of vulnerability? Building a coaching culture in your school, like in classrooms, requires modeling for folks that they are in a safe place to learn. Teachers and leaders go first. Be vulnerable and learn. Thanks for listening.
[00:07:00.040] – Steve [Outro]
Thanks for listening, folks. I’d love to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter or LinkedIn at Steve Barkley, or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.
