What does it take to be a confident coach?
Effectively supporting professional growth in educators is founded on trust
Confidence
con·fi·dence
/ˈkänfəd(ə)ns/
Noun
a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances
- Merriam Webster
When I wrote my book on leading like a coach, I saw the first step in supporting teaching and learning as establishing trust. Trust is the cornerstone of confidence. This trust is instilled in ourselves as well as in others. The goal is to create a mutually beneficial relationship to further student outcomes and instructional improvement, all rooted in trust and ultimately building confidence.
In my reading of the literature on trust12, I discovered four distinct elements that make it up:
Consistency
Competence
Communication
Compassion
I am not sure one is more important than the other. They support each other. To be confident, founded on trust in ourselves and trustworthiness with others, all four elements need to be in place.
I start with communication. Confident coaches need to be effective communicators. It begins with clarifying what we do, why we do it, what we aren't going to do, and sharing entry points for potential clients to engage with and work with us. This is something I've seen across resources about coaching in education: The importance of a coach effectively communicating their role.
We can't rely on anyone else to do this for us. School leaders might encourage us to communicate our responsibilities, or they might not, or they might even take the lead in differentiating what our roles are as coaches from other people in the building. But even if we think there is clarity around our roles, we can make poor assumptions. For example, I recall a classroom teacher confusing the role of a principal with that of a coach. I was encouraging teachers to open their doors for the coach to walk in at any time. One teacher felt that this was evaluative in nature. They were convinced that simply visiting classrooms, even if it was clear that the visit was not by an administrator and that the coach was only there to learn, was part of the formal observation process. It took a while to clear up misconceptions because I had not clearly communicated from the start the specifics about the coach’s role and responsibilities.
Once clarity is established, communication instills confidence because everyone knows the rules for engagement. Teachers know what's to be expected from the coach, and vice versa. This builds trust in what they feel like they can share with a coach and the types of supports they can provide.
The second element is consistency, another building block of trust. Consistency connects with many areas of coaching work. For example, I can think about language as a consistent skill that a coach must have. In my work, my default stance is that of a facilitator, founded on trust and confidence. I position authority with the client. I am not there to make decisions for them; I am there to support their ability and capacity as decision-makers. I trust them. How I communicate on a consistent basis, in my words and in my actions, conveys that trust.
A third element is competence. This dimension of trust and confidence is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. For example, if an instructional coach doesn't have a lot of classroom experience as a teacher, it could be more difficult for them to gain credibility and trust (a.k.a. confidence) with some teachers. The result may be a need for the coach to lead professional development and offer more opportunities to do demonstration lessons in classrooms. They might need to prove to faculty that they are competent teachers and can be a resource for them.
Primarily I see competence in a coach's ability to facilitate change in another teacher. This is where coaching protocols, such as conversation maps, can be helpful. For example, beginning with asking what the goals are for the teacher and ending by asking if they accomplished those outcomes can help the clients see the benefits and value that was provided from that coaching experience.
Finally, we have compassion. This ingredient for building confidence through trust is essential for coaches no longer in a classroom. It can be easy to forget what it was like. For example, we may help lead an initiative around a literacy curriculum implementation. When we see teachers struggling or resisting this change, what is our response? A confident coach can take a step back and think about their experience from the perspective of the classroom teacher trying to be successful. This compassion for their situations helps to not take things personally. Compassion also allows the coach to get curious about the teacher's experience. Instead of blaming, they can ask what obstacles they're facing that are getting in the way of their success.
As you can see, confidence isn't any one thing, nor does it come from any one skill. It's a tapestry of competencies, interwoven with trust, that ultimately leads to effective coaching.
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Bryk, A., & Schneider, B. (2002). Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement.
Vodicka, D. (2006). The Four Elements of Trust. Principal Leadership, 7(3), 27-30 (Related, see the recorded conversation I had with Devin Vodicka below).
Nice work, Matt. Each “C” is an important anchor for trust and, as you say, can’t be ranked or thought of as separate. Like concrete piers holding up a deck, each pillar has to hold up. It would be an interesting exercise to ask teachers what other “C’s” they might add. I was thinking about “curiosity.” A coach who asks genuine questions to learn from a teacher conveys a sense of common purpose. “Care” is another one. A coach who shows in action and word a sensitivity to small details that mean more to the teacher than might be apparent to a single-minded agent of the powers that be. You’ve talked about this one before--noticing small things that strike you like photos. “Currency” could be one, keeping up with school news and events to show an awareness of what’s happening in the background.