Transformational coaching can facilitate this process. It can help build emotional resilience in educators, bring teams together in healthy ways, and change systems. Transformational coaching is an approach to social change that can “minimize the pain” that people experience and transform the system—a challenge put forth by Immanuel Wallerstein (2010), an American sociologist. As Wallerstein suggested to a group of activists in summer 2010, we need to find strategies that can do both.
Most of the coaching sessions I engage in these days conclude with my client saying something like, “Thanks, I feel much better now.” I know I'm alleviating pain. I also see professional learning and growth that continues after our coaching contract ends. And as illustrated in the example that opened this chapter, I see mounting evidence of systems change as a result of coaching. Most important in my daily visits to schools where I've worked for years, I can see that the outcomes and experiences for children are improving, particularly for our most vulnerable youth.
When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
Audre Lorde (1997, p. 13)
As I reached the end of writing this book, I took on a new role in the Oakland Unified School District, where I've worked for seventeen years. In the 2012–13 school year, I am leading a team of transformational instructional and leadership coaches who are serving our schools that struggle the most. Although the conditions in our schools are daunting and the task ahead of us is tremendous, I am thrilled to see the art of transformational coaching implemented and to provide the support and professional development required for my fantastic coaches to do their best work. I am confident that our students will benefit. The fact that our district supports a systemic professional development initiative of this kind increases my conviction that we can and will transform our schools.
Fearlessness and Faith
In order for me to engage in this process of transformation, I have accepted that I need to be fearless. For some time, I skirted the shores of despair. I saw former students drop out of school, join gangs, and have babies in their teens. National education policy seems headed in a direction that runs contrary to my core values. Every year the state of California (where I live) cuts funds for schools and increases spending on prisons. I have a young son—an African American boy. There are many reasons to be very afraid.
In her beautiful book Perseverance, Margaret Wheatley writes that we all have “a lineage of fearlessness” (2010, p. 33). I've engaged clients in identifying their own fearless ancestors who persevered through adversity and to find inspiration in the struggles of others. I give them permission to adopt local, national, and international figures into their lineage; we need all the fearless ancestors we can get. Wheatley also suggests the term spiritual warriors for those fearless people who “wish to be of service to this troubled time.” These warriors, she writes, “never use aggression or violence … The skills that give them power are compassion and insight” (2010, p. 23). The softness and strength of this term appeals to me.
I have a little secret about coaching. Every day when I meet with clients, hear their stories, and witness their learning, commitment, and growth, my fearlessness expands. Every day I am inspired by the movements toward transformation that I see; many of my clients are spiritual warriors in our schools. I am deeply grateful for this experience.
What I witness fuels my faith and inspires me to work in our underfunded urban schools year after year. Every day I make a choice to have faith in the abstract process of transformation. This is often hard in the face of the reality I encounter—too many kids are wasting away in schools, their emotional, social, and intellectual needs ignored, their potential squandered; too many teens are dropping out or being pushed out of school; too many boys are killed on the streets in Oakland. But perseverance is a choice. It's what I chose.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a central figure in my pantheon of adopted, fearless ancestors and a radiant spiritual warrior. In 1967, he delivered a speech titled, “Where Do We Go from Here?” Decades later these words still uniquely capture the poetry, beauty, and magnitude of what we face as we work to transform our schools and world. The entire speech is worth reading, but the following passage graced the walls of many of the spaces in which I've worked and is appropriate to close this book:
Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future … Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. (King, 1967)
Appendix A
The Coach's Optical Refractor (the Coaching Lenses)
First Five Coaching Lenses: © 2007 National Equity Project. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Credit Lines/Trademarks
Assumptions Questions
Inquiry The way we pose the question determines the nature of the answer.The way we define the problem dictates how we define the solution.
The questions we ask are as important as the answers we find.
People can create their own knowledge and solutions.
Seemingly intractable problems can be addressed.
It is easier to engage and enroll people to address inequities when we affirm that we don't yet know everything we need to know to create transformed systems, but we have a responsibility to do so, so we must ask questions together and move forward.
If you own the question, you will take responsibility for the answer.
Evidence and data are critical to making informed decisions and judgments.
Multiple forms of data, including authentic and qualitative measures produced by multiple constituencies, are necessary for effective decision making.
Knowledge is socially constructed.
We never know everything we need to know, but we need to act anyway. Who is defining the problem? Whose question is this? What data do we have on this problem? What problems do that data say we should address?
Is this a question I really care about? Who does care about this question?
From what perspective am I seeing this? What other perspectives would help me understand this?
How is this connected to other things?
Change Management Beneficial change is possible.Conditions and strategies can be manipulated to get the system to produce different outcomes.
Change can be studied, understood, and influenced.
Analysis of conditions for change is necessary for effective implementation.
Certain elements need to be present for successful change to occur: leadership, vision, skills, incentives, resources, and a clear plan of action.
People need to have the will, skill, knowledge, and capacity to change. What are the conditions for change here? What are the strengths that can be built on? What is working?
Where are the opportunities for leveraging change? What threats to change are present?
What is the vision that people are working toward here?
What skills are required of people to achieve the vision? What knowledge is necessary?
Do people have the skills and knowledge necessary to implement change?
Does the will for change exist here? Where?
Who are the likely “early adopters” of a change initiative?
What incentives are in place for people to change? To improve their practice?
What resources are available to support change?
Systems Thinking What we observe, whatever is happening in this moment, is exactly what is supposed to happen in the system as it is. Everything we observe is the result of a complex set of interactions.
We must seek to understand these interactions in order to intervene effectively to change them.
Process and product are part of the same whole.
Conflict and tension are necessary and natural.
Complexity and diversity are good, healthy things.
All energy moves in cycles. How is the current system designed to produce these r
esults? Why did that happen?
What happens when this happens? What happens when that happens? What are the relationships between things here?
Where is the energy here? Where are the stuck points?
If I did this here, what would happen over here?
Adult Learning Problems of change are problems of learning. People can only be where they are.
Every human being is “on a path” from somewhere to somewhere, and it is important to find out both where people have been and where they're going.
Each of us enters the work of equity and justice from a very different starting point.
If you don't acknowledge progress, you lose people's trust.
Adults have had a lot of life experiences that affect how they continue to learn. What is the goal or objective? What came before?
What is the gap between the goal and what is?
What progress has been made?
Is there evidence of prior learning?
Does the will for learning exist?
Adults must feel safe to learn.
Adults want to be the origin of their own learning; they want to control certain aspects of it.
Adults want and need feedback.
Systemic Oppression Oppression and injustice are human creations and can therefore be undone. Systemic oppression exists and negatively affects relationships and the educational process in multiple ways.
Oppression and systematic mistreatment (such as racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia) are more than just the sum of individual prejudices.
Systemic oppression has historical antecedents; it is an intentional disempowerment of groups of people based on their identity in order to maintain an unequal power structure that subjugates one group over another.
Systemic oppression manifests in economic, political, social, and cultural systems.
Systemic oppression and its effects can be undone through recognition of inequitable patterns and intentional action to interrupt inequity and create more democratic processes and systems supported by multicultural, multilingual alliances and partnerships.
Discussing and addressing oppression and bias will usually inspire strong emotional responses. Who is at the table? Who isn't? Who has power here? What is that power based on here?
How are power relations affecting the truth that is told and constructed at any given moment?
Where and how does each person locate himself or herself in a conversation?
How are oppression, internalized oppression, and transferred oppression playing out right here, right now (in this school, group, organization, or district)?
How safe is it here for different people to share their truth?
Does the truth telling connect to shared purposes and commitments for action?
How can I build the alliances needed to move forward here?
How is leadership constructed here? What forms does it take? Who is missing?
What can we do to make room for different cultural constructions of leadership?
How do I understand my practice as an antiracist, antibias educator, given my differences from and similarities to my colleagues? What about the differences from and similarities to the people I am serving?
How can I build my practice as a leader for equity, starting with who I am and what I bring because of who I am?
Emotional Intelligence We are all born with a certain level of emotional intelligence, and we can further develop these skills and capacities.The emotional intelligence of a leader is a primary act of leadership.
There are four areas of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
An effective leader can speak about her emotions, welcomes feedback, and knows when she needs help.
An effective leader manages her emotions by demonstrating self-control and by being candid about her beliefs and actions.
Adaptability and flexibility are indicators of high emotional intelligence.
A high degree of emotional resiliency is an indicator of emotional intelligence—an effective leader sees adversity as opportunity.
Demonstrating empathy is an expression of social awareness.
Organizational awareness and understanding of power relationships are indicators of emotional intelligence.
Managing relationships between people is a primary skill of an emotionally intelligent leader. Self-Awareness
When does he recognize that his feelings are affecting him at work? How does he speak about his feelings?
When does he recognize his limits and strengths?
How does he invite or welcome feedback?
Is he aware of the times when he needs help?
Self-Management
How does she respond to disturbing emotions?
How does she manage high stress?
Is she candid about her feelings, beliefs, and actions? Can she admit mistakes or faults?
How does she adapt to new challenges?
Does she welcome and create new opportunities? Or does she wait for them?
How does she deal with changes and setbacks?
Social Awareness
Can he sense the unspoken emotions in a person or group?
Can he detect social networks and key power relationships? How does he recognize political forces in an organization?
How does he cultivate an emotional climate that ensures that people are getting what they need? How does he monitor the satisfaction of those he serves?
Relationship Management
How does she create resonance and move people with a compelling vision or shared mission?
How does she model what she wants from others?
How does she try to appeal to different stakeholders? How does she try to enroll key people?
When does she seem to be genuinely interested in developing her people? How does she learn about their goals, strengths, and areas for growth? Does she give feedback that is useful and well received? If so, when?
When does she recognize the need for a change and aim for transformation? When does she strongly advocate for change, even in the face of opposition? How does she find practical ways to overcome barriers to change?
When there's a conflict, how does she understand different perspectives? How does she surface the conflicts, acknowledge views from all sides, and then redirect the energy toward a shared ideal?
In what ways does she model respect, concern, and collaboration? How does she build relationships, identity, and spirit?
Appendix B
Coaching Sentence Stems
Active Listening Stems
So …
In other words …
What I'm hearing, then,…Is that correct?
What I hear you saying is … Am I missing anything?
I'm hearing many things …
As I listen to you, I'm hearing … Is there anything else you feel I should know?
Clarifying Stems
Let me see if I undzerstand …
I'm interested in hearing more about …
It would help me understand if you'd give me an example of …
So are you saying (or suggesting) … ?
Tell me what you mean when you …
Tell me how that idea is similar to (or different from) …
To what extent is … ?
I'm curious to know more about …
I'm intrigued by …
I'm interested in …
wonder …
Nonjudgmental Responses
noticed how when you…, the students really … (to identify something that worked and why it worked)
What did you do to make the lesson so successful?
I'm interested in learning (or hearing) more about …
Probing Stems
What's another way you might … ?
What would it look like if … ?
What do you think would happen if … ?
How was … different from (or similar to) … ?
What's another way you might … ?
What sort of an effect do you think … ?
What criteria do you use to … ?
When have you done something like … before?
What do you think … ?
How did you decide … (or come to that conclusion)?
Facilitative Coaching
Cathartic Stems
I'm noticing that you're experiencing some feelings. Would it be OK to explore those for a few minutes?
What's coming up for you right now? Would you like to talk about your feelings?
Wow.I imagine I'd have some emotions if that happened to me. Are you experiencing strong feelings?
Catalytic Stems
Tell me about a previous time when you … How did you deal with that?
hear you're really struggling with … How do you intend to start?
It sounds like you're unsatisfied with … What would you do differently next time?
You've just talked about five different things you want to work on this week. The last thing you mentioned is … How important is this to you?
Supportive Stems
noticed how when you … the students really … (to identify something that worked and why it worked)
It sounds like you have a number of ideas to try out! It'll be exciting to see which works best for you!
What did you do to make the lesson so successful?
I'm interested in learning (or hearing) more about …
Your commitment is really inspiring to me.
It sounds like you handled that in a very confident way.
You did a great job when you …
I'm confident that you'll be successful.
Directive Coaching
Confrontational Stems
Would you be willing to explore your reasoning about this?
Would you be open to examining the assumptions behind your reasoning?
I'd like to ask you about … Is that OK?
What's another way you might … ?
The Art of Coaching Page 35