Multipliers, as Liz Wiseman identified (“Multipliers – How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter”) don’t simply recognize talent—they help it grow and spread. Perhaps that’s one of the most important roles of an instructional coach. Rather than identifying what teachers are missing, coaches are on the prowl for the capabilities that are already emerging. Noticing them, naming them and creating opportunities for those talents to become even more powerful and, ultimately, benefit colleagues and students beyond a single classroom.
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Podcast Transcript:
[00:00:00.340] – 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.
[00:00:29.980] – Steve
The Multiplier Coach: Spotting, Naming, and Growing Teacher Talent. I remember years back when I was training mentors who were working with beginning teachers, we would watch a video of a new teacher and I would model a post-conference. The mentor trainees would frequently ask me how I had so many positive elements to share with the teacher. They were surprised when I told them that I spent most of my time looking for those positive elements. Finding a growth area for a new teacher doesn’t take a lot of searching. Tracking how the teacher’s existing positive moves impacted student learning almost always provided a step to build from, and it often connected to an area where improvement could have a big impact. I’ve recently gone back to reread the revised and updated “Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” by Liz Wiseman. She would describe my approach with those new teachers as focusing on being a multiplier rather than a diminisher. Multipliers are the leaders who inspire others to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. They use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, they generate participation, ideas flow, and problems get solved.
[00:02:14.540] – Steve
Diminishers are leaders who drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them. And they always have a need to be the smartest person in the room. These folks are idea killers. They are energy sappers. They diminish talent and commitment. Multipliers spot talent. They name talent, and they create opportunities for that talent to grow and benefit others. Let’s look at each of those elements through the lens of coaching. Weissman identifies the importance of leaders spotting talents and naming them so that a person is aware of the strength and its impact. I often describe many teachers as being unconsciously skilled. They can be unaware of the talent or skill that is influencing teaching and learning success at any given moment. I observed a beginning teacher and noted that as she began a presentation of information to students, the students were highly focused on her. When we met afterwards to debrief, I mentioned that I noticed how focused the students were. I asked her what she thought had happened to generate that focus. She mentioned her expectations and that the students were interested in the topic. I then ask, “Do you ever think of yourself as being on stage at that time?
[00:03:52.680] – Steve
The way you positioned yourself, your body language, facial expressions, and voice grabbed the students’ attention.” She smiled shyly, and she said, “I guess I never think of that.” Unconsciously talented. In a video, Positive Psychology in Coaching and Professional Practices, Christian Van Nieuwburg of Growth Coaching International interviews Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener a positive psychology researcher who described the role of coach as strength spotter. You’ll find the link to the whole interview in this podcast lead-in. Listen as Robert shares his thoughts on spotting strengths.
[00:04:45.920] – Christian
As you mentioned strengths and strengths use is getting more adopted in many educational contexts, do you want to say something more about how educators or leaders can just bring strengths use into their everyday practice?
[00:05:07.340] – Robert
Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, I think there’s great utility in focusing on strengths. Like everything in positive psychology, I don’t think it needs to be an exclusive focus on strengths. It doesn’t mean, of course, that we’re going to ignore weaknesses or areas of deficiency or just, you know, relabel them, you know, areas of development or growth, because the truth is, I think your strengths are your areas of development or growth. And certainly there’s some research suggesting that we make great gains in developing our strengths, in part because we’re more passionate about them, they’re more energizing, we’re more motivated. I personally am pretty unmotivated to change my weaknesses because I’m not all that interested in them. What I tend to do is just avoid the situations that would bring my weaknesses to play, and instead I double down on the things that I already have some potential in, and I find that I make good gains there.
[00:06:06.850] – Christian
One of your great strengths, Robert, is spotting strengths in others. I, you know, we work together sometimes, and I’ve seen you do this in a way that’s so incisive and insightful and can really land with the person that you’re talking to. So can you say a bit more about strength spotting and in others?
[00:06:32.610] – Robert
Sure. I’ll tell you. So first of all, just strength spotting is just looking for strengths in other people. And kind of like how I said, hold these frameworks from positive psychology loosely, I would hold the strength label loosely. We’re not interested in pigeonholing people with labels or in demonstrating how correct I, Robert, am. But, you know, if I met a student or if I met one of you, I would kind of be on the prowl mentally. Just, you know, I wonder, I wonder what’s going on. I wonder what the best you is. The first thing that I like about that is that it makes me pretty positively disposed towards you. I’m not looking at, oh, what are your politics? How do you vote? You know, who are you rude to? You know, there’s, there’s, there’s plenty to divide us. I’m basically looking for, what could I admire in you? What could I see that I could learn from, that I think could be laudable in some way? So I’m just looking for the good in you. And again, not in a Pollyanna way. I recognize that all of us are complex and we all have some, you know, minorly ugly qualities about us, myself included.
[00:07:51.430] – Robert
But I just come in sort of with that mindset. And then I just see where people are really excited and where they seem to excel. Sometimes, in all honesty, I just make up labels for what I’m seeing. But most often, I’m using labels that are kind of commonly understood, like, oh, you’re a pretty persuasive person. Oh, you explain things really clearly. You’re a great explainer. Oh, you’re really funny, right? Strength in humor, whatever it is. And I don’t buy into the idea that there are, say, 24 strengths. I think there are hundreds of everyday strengths, and you just have to have a vocabulary for it. So for example, a strength that I think is common among teachers that I don’t think is on any of the formal strengths assessment, I call it antenna, like a bug has an antenna. And that is, you’re kind of taking the sweep of the entire room, right? You’re thinking collectively, are my students getting this? Are they engaged? Are they paying attention? Are they distracted? Who slept well? Who didn’t? Who’s passing a note? Who’s fooling around? Where are the side conversations happening? And I’ve seen teachers that can be, you know, writing up on the board with their back to the class, and they know.
[00:09:20.300] – Robert
And they just turn around and they’re like, “You two.” And I’m just like, “How did they know this?” And I think it’s because they have the strength in antenna, which I would describe as being particularly attuned to your attentional periphery and being able to see sort of the whole gestalt, you know, rather than just, you know, every little detail. And it’s just wonderful because once you introduce a word like that, now we could all have a conversation about it. Like, who do you know that has antenna? How do they use it effectively? Are there, are there potential downsides to it? Can they be too perceptive and make people feel guarded or self-conscious? You know, like, what would be the right, you know, amount to use that? But I think in just bringing these kinds of discussions in, you end up having closer relationships, you’re more validating, and you could potentially end up working better together.
[00:10:18.780] – Steve
I love that phrase, “on the prowl for strengths.” I hear Weissman echo the same idea. Multipliers don’t wait for talent to announce itself. They actively look for it, notice it, and help people recognize it in themselves. It’s a reminder for a coach as an observation begins. We should always be asking, “What strengths can I spot?” Sometimes that strength is instructional. Sometimes it’s relational. Sometimes it’s the teacher’s ability to anticipate a student misconception or to create psychological safety. The coach’s job is to notice it. How are those strengths positively impacting students? How might those strengths be leveraged to generate additional teacher growth and student success? Beyond spotting and identifying strengths, Weissman encourages expanding opportunities where a talent can grow and benefit others. While diminishers might focus on fixing weaknesses, “Multipliers build strengths until they become organizational assets.” I really like that thought. Multipliers don’t stop at recognizing strengths. They build those strengths until they become organizational assets. Think about that. A teacher’s strength no longer belongs only to that teacher. It becomes something the entire faculty can learn from. Increasing a teacher’s understanding of their talents can increase confidence in sharing practices with colleagues focused on success for all students.
[00:12:21.360] – Steve
Sometimes that opportunity is inviting a colleague into one’s classroom for a demonstration lesson. Sometimes it’s co-planning with another teacher. Sometimes it’s mentoring someone new to the profession. Sometimes it’s simply facilitating 5 minutes of a PLC discussion around an insight that a teacher has gained. A multiplier coach doesn’t simply help teachers become better. A multiplier coach helps teachers become resources for other teachers. But a caution here: not every teacher immediately welcomes these opportunities. Some see them as extra work, and others worry that colleagues will interpret the invitation as showing off or as increased scrutiny. That’s why coaches need to frame these opportunities around continued learning rather than around recognition. The invitation isn’t, “You’ve arrived.” It’s, “Here’s another opportunity to grow.” That’s the reason that the risk or extra work is worth it. For example, I’ve always felt and heard from many other teachers that when you mentor a new teacher, you as mentor frequently learn more than the mentee. Personally, I discovered that I grew as much or more than my mentee. While I was explaining my thinking, I became more conscious of decisions that I had been making automatically, perhaps for years. Coaches need to build their own talents at being multipliers of teachers’ talents.
[00:14:17.030] – Steve
What are those talents that support a coach’s success in generating teachers’ investments in continuous growth? Perhaps it’s noticing subtle moments that others miss. Perhaps it’s asking questions that uncover thinking. Or perhaps seeing potential before teachers recognize it themselves. Creating psychological safety where teachers are willing to stretch themselves. How do you, as a coach, become aware of your strengths and talents? How might you gather feedback that has a multiplying effect on your coaching impact? I often state that coaches should be the most coached people in a school. Here’s certainly one reason. Can you identify colleagues who can be your multiplier, helping you build upon your talents and increasing your multiplying leadership? Liz Weissman reminds us that multipliers don’t simply recognize talent, they help it grow and spread. Perhaps that’s one of the most important roles of an instructional coach. We’re not in classrooms primarily to find what teachers are missing. We’re on the prowl for the capabilities that are already emerging. We notice them, we name them, then we create opportunities for those talents to become even more powerful. And ultimately benefit colleagues and students beyond the single teacher’s classroom. So as you leave your next coaching conversation, ask yourself, what strength did I spot?
[00:16:23.930] – Steve
Did I name it clearly enough that the teacher now recognizes it? And what opportunity did I or might I create for that strength to grow and benefit others. That’s how coaches become multipliers. As always, thanks for listening, and feel free to reach out with questions or comments at barkleypd.com.
[00:16:55.230] – Steve [Outro]
Thanks for listening, folks. I’d love to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter or LinkedIn @SteveBarkley. Or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.
