During a recent podcast conversation with Mitch Weisburgh, the author of “Mindshifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success,”, I found myself connecting his ideas to a challenge instructional coaches and school leaders frequently encounter. At times, teachers come to a coach asking, “What can I do?” while simultaneously believing there is little […]

As a guest on another podcast, I was asked what were my thoughts, after all my years in the coaching field, what the ideas and ideals of coaching done well would be? “Coaching done well” begins with the coachee’s thinking driving the work, and continues with the coach intentionally choosing responses that move that thinking […]

A post by Sarah Cottinghatt and Adam Kohlbeck from Cognitive Coaching, “AVOID the Vague Opener,” reinforced an ongoing recommendation I’ve made to instructional coaches to avoid opening a post conference conversation with ”How do you think that went?” This question might be translated in the coachee’s mind as, “Guess what the coach is thinking.” The […]

Jonathan Haidt’s, “The Happiness Hypothesis,“ presents a helpful metaphor for coaching: the elephant and the rider. The elephant symbolizes our emotional, intuitive self—the instinctive reactions that show up when a lesson flops, a student refuses to engage, or a new initiative feels overwhelming. The rider represents our rational, planning, problem-solving self that sets goals, analyzes […]

Mattering is the feeling that we are valued and have value to add to the world. When we build a mattering ecosystem that helps adults feel valued and significant, we’re creating the conditions for children to feel they matter. What are coaching actions that signal mattering to their coachees and help build an ecosystem of […]

The WOOP process (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) looks to engage learners in goal setting by stretching their aspirations while acknowledging the messy realities of progress. In her book, “Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation,”Gabrielle Oettingen challenged the belief that merely imagining positive futures helps us succeed. She developed WOOP as an evidence-based […]