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This article gives a short summary of the 4 branches of emotional intelligence (EI), how to improve EI, and also how to establish an EI culture. The three steps to improving EI in this article are easy to follow and something that could be applied immediately.

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Enter emotional intelligence (EI), a set of skills that help us recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions as well as recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others.

We recently spoke with Margaret Andrews, instructor of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership, about how people can build EI for better interpersonal relations. Andrews is the former associate dean at Harvard University's Division of Continuing Education and executive director at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

"Emotional intelligence is critical in building and maintaining relationships and influencing others-key skills that help people throughout their career and wherever they sit in an organizational structure," says Andrews.

Additionally, research suggests that people with a high emotional quotient (EQ) are more innovative and have higher job satisfaction than those with lower EQs.

Let's dive into what exactly EI entails, and how you can improve on this essential component of successful relationships.

What Are the Components of Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is a set of skills and behaviors. While some people will be naturally more adept at certain aspects, EI can be learned, developed, and enhanced.

The four main components of EI are self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, and social skills:

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is the ability to identify and understand your own emotions and the impact we have on others. It's the cornerstone of emotional intelligence and the other components of EI depend on this self-awareness.

"It all starts with self-awareness, which is foundation of EI, and it builds from there. If you're aware of your own emotions and the behaviors they trigger, you can begin to manage these emotions and behaviors," says Andrews.

Our emotions impact our mood, behaviors, performance, and interactions with other people. "We are all having emotions all the time," says Andrews, "the question is whether you are aware of these emotions and the impact they have on your behavior - and other people."

According to Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, researcher, and author of Insight, people who are self-aware tend to be more confident and more creative. They also make better decisions, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.

Self-Regulation

Self-awareness opens the door to self-regulation, which is the ability to manage these emotions and behaviors. Once we're aware of our emotions, we can begin to manage them and keep the disruptive emotions and impulses under control.

"People with strong self-regulation can pause and take a deep breath in tense and stressful situations, explains Andrews, "which helps them remain calm and think before they speak or act."

These people tend toward a positive outlook and are adaptable to a variety of situations and circumstances. "On the flip side," she says, "those that cannot contain their negative emotions and impulses often set off a chain reaction of negative emotions in others."

"There's an old adage that people join organizations and leave managers," says Andrews, "and it's true. So, companies - or managers - that have high turnover rates should take a look in the mirror."

Social Awareness

Social awareness is our ability to understand the emotions of others and a key component of this is empathy.

Jamil Zaki, a Stanford professor and author of The War for Kindness, describes empathy as having three components - identifying what others feel, sharing this emotion, and wishing to improve their experience.

"It's not about how you would feel in their situation, but rather, how they actually feel," says Andrews.

People with strong social awareness tend toward kindness. However, this doesn't mean they cannot give others difficult feedback - in fact, they may be better at delivering this 'tough love' because they understand the other person and want to help them improve.

Social Skills

"Social skills are what separate a great manager from a good one," says Andrews.

These skills, which include influence, conflict management, teamwork, and the ability to inspire others, make it possible to build and maintain healthy relationships in all parts of your life.

People with strong social skills can make an enormous difference on a team and in organizations because they understand others and act on this knowledge to move people toward a common goal.

To improve your emotional intelligence, you need to start at the beginning, with self-awareness. However, gauging your self-awareness is innately difficult because, as Andrews puts it, "you don't know what you don't know."

Research Reveals Barriers to Self-Awareness

Without an objective sense of who you are and what drives you, it's nearly impossible to be emotionally intelligent. Andrews cites a study by Tasha Eurich which found that 95 percent of participants gave themselves high marks in self-awareness.

However, using more empirical measures of self-awareness, the study found that only 10-15 percent of the cohort was truly self-aware.

That's a pretty big gap, and one that suggests most of us aren't very self-aware. What's worse, research also shows that managers and CEOs may be the least self-aware of all. This is not despite their authority, but quite possibly because of it.

Eurich wrote in the Harvard Business Review that the more power someone obtains, the more likely they are to be overconfident about how well they know themselves. After all, those at the top of the chain have fewer people giving them feedback.

Often, when managers do receive feedback from employees, it isn't as honest as it might be because subordinates are afraid of incurring negative consequences. Managers are insulated from criticism, and as a result, self-awareness sinks.

Receiving honest, constructive feedback is key to becoming self-aware. Andrews notes that a 360-degree emotional intelligence assessment can be a very effective way to gain insight into your EI-components and the impact you have on others.

"Many people shrug off differences in how they rate themselves versus how others rate them on EI competencies by saying that they're too hard on themselves or that others don't really understand their intent," says Andrews, "but really it shows a lack of self-awareness."

What Are the Signs of Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is a set of skills and behaviors that can be learned and developed. Here are some telltale signs of people with low EQ and those with high EQ.
People with low EQ:

Often feels misunderstood

Get upset easily

Become overwhelmed by emotions

Have problems being assertive

People with high EQ:

Understand the links between their emotions and how they behave

Remain calm and composed during stressful situations

Are able to influence others toward a common goal

Handle difficult people with tact and diplomacy

Three Steps Toward Improved Emotional Intelligence

Developing emotional intelligence is an ongoing process. The journey differs from person to person. Nonetheless, according to Andrews, the following actions may lead you to better self-awareness, empathy, and social skills.

1. Recognize your emotions and name them

What emotions are you feeling right now? Can you name them? When in a stressful situation, what emotions typically arise? How would you like to respond in these situations? Can you stop to pause and reconsider your response? Taking a moment to name your feelings and temper your reactivity is an integral step toward EI.

2. Ask for feedback

Audit your self-perception by asking managers, colleagues, friends, or family how they would rate your emotional intelligence. For example, ask them about how you respond to difficult situations, how adaptable or empathetic you are, and/or how well you handle conflict. It may not always be what you want to hear, but it will often be what you need to hear.

3. Read literature

Studies show that reading literature with complex characters can improve empathy. Reading stories from other people's perspectives helps us gain insight into their thoughts, motivations, and actions and may help enhance your social awareness.

How to Establish a Culture of Emotional Intelligence

Building E.I. in yourself is one thing, but influencing others to adopt a more empathetic mindset can be a challenge. To create a culture of high EQ, managers and supervisors must model emotionally intelligent behavior.

"If you want to change how your organization does in EI, you can set norms for how people communicate and how they disagree," says Andrews.

In addition, you need to recognize and celebrate those that exhibit emotional intelligence.;

"Start making heroes of people who help other people," says Andrews. "It's not just the person who got to the top of the mountain first - it's all the people who helped them. If you want to encourage good team behavior, recognize it, and call it out for what it is."

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How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence - Professional Development | Harvard DCE

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Enter emotional intelligence (EI), a set of skills that help us recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions as well as recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others. We recently spoke with Margaret Andrews, instructor of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership, about how people can build EI for better interpersonal relations.

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This video and article offers some great tips for instructional coaches to help communicate with teachers. In the video, Barkley also talks about listening to the teacher effectively and also how to create a positive setting for a meeting. The article talks about the types of questions to ask and how to present the questions positively.

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Communication Skills for Coaches

Our choice of words can have a surprising effect during a coaching conversation. Words that are used commonly in everyday situations can convey unintentional meanings in the context of the delicately balanced dynamics of coaching conversations. This need for careful choice of words can be illustrated with the use of the phrase, "How can I help?" in situations when help has not actually been requested by the teacher. That question can infer that the coach is at a level superior to that of the teacher, thus creating a barrier between the two participants. Similarly, the words problem and struggle also carry negative connotations when commenting upon classroom observations and may introduce an evaluative element to the conversation.

In other instances, the words but, however, and yet are sometimes used to connect a positive observation with a supplementary comment that identifies and recommends remediation of an observed behavior. For example, the coach may compliment the teacher on very clear visual displays and accompanying verbal explanations and add, "but, many students were not engaged." In this case, the positive comment is neutralized or even negated by the second statement. In order to preserve the intended effects of the two comments, they need to be unlinked by inserting a simple pause in the conversation. For example, look for the teacher to respond to the first statement before proceeding.

Closed vs. Open Ended Questions

Closed-ended questions may create a defensive response from the teacher. Questions such as "Have you thought about?" or "Have you tried?" may either cause the teacher to feel compelled to confess a failure or an unsuccessful attempt, or to defend themselves with a reply that seeks to justify why a strategy was not tried. Open-ended questions such as, "How do you think students would respond to small group work for this task?" show respect for the views of the teacher. Find a podcast on coaches' words here.

Indirect vs. Direct Communication

Indirect communication can cause misunderstandings, frustration, and potentially conflict in coach-teacher relationships. Straightforward communication builds trust and understanding and creates conditions that are conducive for open discussion, objective analysis, and creative problem solving. Coaches promote open conversations in order to discover the true interests, priorities, and challenges faced by teachers. Robinson, Segal, and Segal (2015) recommend the following actions that are likely to promote open conversations:

Concentrate on both spoken words and nonverbal messages;

Avoid distractions such as phones, doodling, or window staring;

Refrain from interrupting or redirecting;

Allow the speaker's words to flow and pause;

Defer judgment, especially criticism;

Maintain an attentive posture; and

Offer occasional smiles and confirmations such as OK or I see.

Remember to Listen

The art of listening is a substantial and sometimes understated component of conversations and communication. Instructional coaches rely on deep and extended interactions in order to receive and convey messages about classroom performance. On his website, Stephen Covey describes seven habits of highly effective people. Covey's fifth habit is summarized as "first seek to understand and then be understood." Covey asserts that "communication is the most important skill in life." Most people are inclined to speak and promote their point of view before truly listening to the other person. Meaning is missed when a listener ignores the other person's message, pretends to listen, or only hears the parts they want to hear. Covey maintains that "most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand." Surely, a prime reason for a teacher to meet with a coach is to be heard and understood. Careful listening is a precious skill to employ in such circumstances.

Conclusion

Effective instructional coaches employ active listening, powerful questioning, and direct communication ( Utah Office of Child Care, 2014). An active listening strategy requires complete focus on communication from the adult learner. Attention to tone and body language helps convey the intent of the message. The paraphrasing and restatement of teachers' spoken words help clarify the message. Continued dialogue is encouraged when teachers' expressions of feelings and opinions are accepted without judgment. Powerful questioning emphasizes "open-ended questions that provide information and stimulate thinking in support of goals." The coach's objectives are to ask questions that identify the teacher's perspective and nurture reflection and clarity. Direct communication "uses language that has a positive impact on the adult learner." Coaches use direct communication in order to explain coaching objectives, give feedback, and recommend changes. Coaches reframe ideas to help teachers reexamine thoughts and consider alternative perspectives.

Because communication skills play such an important role in a coach's effectiveness, it's a great area for continued study and coaching. Coaches should be coached on their communication skills. Consider recording a coaching conference and then analyzing it with your coaching colleagues. You can find a 10 hour facilitated, online module Instructional Coaching - Essential Communication Skills.

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Effective Communication Techniques in Instructional Coaching | Barkley

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Our choice of words can have a surprising effect during a coaching conversation. Words that are used commonly in everyday situations can convey unintentional meanings in the context of the delicately balanced dynamics of coaching conversations. This need for careful choice of words can be illustrated with the use of the phrase, "How can I help?"

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This articles shares some great ways for instructional coaches to collaborate with classroom teachers. It also lists ways that instructional coaches can make sure the collaboration is successful and meaningful for the teachers which will ultimately lead to helping the students.

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Cailin Minor is back with part 2 in her series on building a culture of collaboration at your school or district. Last week you established the skills, now learn how to inspire your teachers and some steps you can take to start building that culture!

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ollaboration has power: power to move teaching, to impact students, and to grow an institution. Schools are more successful when they have people standing together, facing the same direction, and on a collaborative mission for excellence. Teachers are more powerful when they open their doors to others, seek out feedback, open their minds to new ideas, and work to outgrow themselves. This collective responsibility and cohesiveness has great impact on students.

In part 1 we established the knowledge and skills necessary to create and support a culture of collaboration for achieving school-wide goals. Coaches must now build on this foundation by first inspiring their teachers to work together towards this goal (the "why") and then taking practical steps to achieve it (the "how").

When working with teachers on collaboration, we need to tap into this power and inspiration. Schools need to explore benefits that will get teachers to say, "Yes, this is important. This is going to make a difference to my students and for me." That's what will move a culture: inspiration and seeing success, not compliance.

We also need to address the idea that our attitudes, beliefs, and values affect culture, not just our actions or words. We know that some teachers more vocally express their concerns and doubts about collaboration, while others keep it to themselves. There might be teachers who show up to every meeting, participate, say their thoughts, and then walk out the door with the belief that it was a waste of their time. Some teachers might complete their mandatory classroom visits, fill out the reflection form, and not give it another thought or seek to have it impact their teaching. While these teachers are complying with all of the requirements of collaboration and are not actively against it, you get that sense that there's no real excitement for the work, or that they don't really believe in it. This has a huge impact on culture and the power of collaboration.

Starting the conversation on beliefs and values

While it's hard to work with beliefs and values because they can be hidden, one thing coaches can do is address beliefs and values by having conversations around them. Talk to teachers about the "why" of collaboration: why is this important, what will the impact be, why this is exciting, why should you care, why is this a powerful thing, and so on. Discussing the why and allowing space for teachers to explore the why helps build values and beliefs around collaboration.

Another way to address this is to explore current beliefs and values, or to surface assumptions around collaboration. Fortunately, there are many great protocols that can help teams and schools do this work. One favorite is doing an " Assumption Wall" which gives teachers space to explore assumptions they have, why they might be true, and how these assumptions impact their thoughts and actions.

A third way coaches can build values and beliefs around collaboration is for teachers to experience it in successful ways. Teachers will start to believe in and value collaboration when they can see how it has a positive impact on their teaching, students, and professional relationships. Coaches can play a major role in orchestrating situations where teachers can experience success when it comes to collaborating.

Questions to promote reflection

As teachers experience success with collaboration, coaches can support them with reflecting on these experiences. By setting up time or posing reflective questions, we can help teachers make connections and shifts in their beliefs and values.

Here are a few examples of questions and sentence starters that promote reflection on beliefs and values:

What might be the benefits of...?

How has this impacted your teaching/practice/students?

What long-range effects might this have?

How might some of your beliefs/assumptions be influencing your thinking?

Why is this important to you? How might this be important for students?

What might be the impact of...?

What might be the big picture goal?

I recently finished a great collaborative work day with a group of grade-level teachers. The day was carefully crafted among the team members to include a comprehensive agenda with objectives, time guidelines, roles, and protocols. The team worked with coaches to discuss not only topics to cover but what we wanted to accomplish and how we were going to do that work. There was even time to reflect on the process and work.

The next day, I saw one of the teachers in the hallway as her kids were filing into the library. We didn't have much time to talk so all she said was, "Yesterday just felt... good!" When you take your skills and knowledge of collaboration and work to create positive practices it just feels good! You not only get the feeling of accomplishment but that the ideas that came out of that collaborative work couldn't have been possible without that group working together. This positive and successful feeling will support teachers in building up their beliefs around collaboration.

Ways to create collaboration

There are tons of tools coaches can use to help teachers find successful ways to collaborate. As mentioned earlier, collaboration isn't just a given and we all need support in learning how to collaborate successfully.

Here is a quick overview of some collaborative practices that can have an impact on teaching and learning:

Labsites: This is an interactive form of modeling where a coach goes to a classroom, models a lesson or teaching practice, and then the teachers get a chance to practice as well. Coaches and teachers come up with a common goal and then work on it together in the classroom with students.

Lesson study: Teachers work together to plan a lesson and then one teacher teaches it while the others observe. Afterwards, all the teachers reflect on the lesson and discuss what went well and what adjustments they would make to the lesson plan.

Walk-throughs/instructional rounds: Teachers can discuss a common goal or need, pose it as an inquiry ("How can we keep students engaged during lessons?"), and then walk through classrooms to observe each other and collect data. You can set this up so teachers are walking through classrooms many times so the data is not so specific to one teacher or one lesson.

Make & take: Teams work together to share resources and create tools that will support their teaching.

Data dialogue/analyzing student work: Teams work together to look at student data or analyze student work. Teams can use this collaborative data work to inquire into teachers who are experiencing success (e.g., "What are you doing that is making your students so successful with this?"). It can also provide an outside eye on tough situations (e.g., "I'm struggling to figure out why this student isn't growing"). Teachers can share ideas and strategies as they use the data to plan for instruction.

Cycles of collaboration: Teams can work through a cycle, usually across a longer period of time or a unit, where they engage in collaborative work that focuses on student learning. A cycle might look like this:

Analyze data: pre-assessments

Set goals as a team: student goal and professional goal on teaching practices

Engage in professional learning around the goals

Implement new learning and practices

Monitor, assess, and adjust practice

Analyze the summative assessment and reflect

As teachers engage in collaborative practices, coaches can also work with teachers in some key ways to help make these experiences successful:

Make sure collaboration has a purpose: Sometimes we end up collaborating for the sake of collaborating. A coach or team member might say, "Hey, let's all do a lesson study!" but people aren't sure why they are doing it besides lessons studies are a good collaborative practice. Even a great collaborative practice can fall short if the purpose is not understand or it is not in service of larger goals. So before teams or coaches start randomly choosing collaborative practices, start with the goal. What is a need we have with students? How can we tackle this need together? Then choose a collaborative practice that will support this goal and need.

Help teams with protocols: Coaches can help teams find protocols for how they want to do the work and meet their objectives.

Facilitate collaborative work: It can be powerful for teams to have someone facilitate the work they want to do. For example, it is hard to facilitate a conversation around data and also participate with your own insights and class data.

Co-planning collaborative work: Like I mentioned before, coaches can work with teams to plan and set up collaborative work for teachers.

Collaboration is a buzzword we all use now and culture is often something that's tough to put our finger on. Knowing this, it's important for schools to take time to figure out what a culture of collaboration will look like at their school-it's not going to be the same for everyone.

Schools can work to lay out their vision and what success will look like so they know where they are going and what it will look like when they get there. Some questions to think about might be:

What do we want our culture of collaboration to be?

What will it look like/sound like/feel like?

What will we see teachers doing/saying if we have a culture of collaboration?

Answering questions like these will help guide schools to build the what, why, and how of collaboration.

Cailin Minor is a literacy coach at Shanghai American School. She has been teaching overseas for the past 11 years in Korea, Thailand, Colombia, and China. She loves international education and the challenging and rewarding work of coaching.

Be sure to check out her blog where she explores tips, tools, and thoughts on instructional coaching, and follow her on twitter @cailinminor.

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Building a Culture of Collaboration Through Coaching, Part 2: Beliefs and Actions

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Cailin Minor is back with part 2 in her series on building a culture of collaboration at your school or district. Last week you established the skills, now learn how to inspire your teachers and some steps you can take to start building that culture!

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This article will be very beneficial to a new instructional coach to help them with coaching techniques. The tips will help an instructional coach ensure that their questions are meaningful and empower the teachers that they are working with.

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Advice is overrated. I know that may sound strange coming from someone who is writing a blog which is essentially providing advice, but just hear me out. How many times has someone offered you "advice" on how to do your job? How many times has that "advice" actually been beneficial to you as a professional? Teachers take their work very seriously and very personally, so "advice" - however well-intended - can often seem like a jab more than help. One of the biggest mistakes a new instructional coach can make is to start right out of the gate with advice and recommendations for teachers. As much as we think jumping in and providing answers will be helpful, we have to realize that if we can get our teachers to generate solutions on their own, the odds of affecting long-term and permanent change increase dramatically.

Tip #1: Ask the Right Questions

Asking questions is an essential task for any instructional coach, and one of their greatest assets. Asking the right questions, however, makes all the difference when it comes to figuring out the best way to support teachers. Every teacher and every situation is unique and comes with its own needs. When a coach understands what a teacher is actually thinking or feeling, and not just what they presume the teacher is thinking or feeling, they can make more informed decisions about how to support their growth. Remember the old saying that you shouldn't assume things? This is exactly why. As an instructional coach, you need to remain judgement free when working with teachers, but assumptions are an indicator of judgment. Questions, however, show inquiry and curiosity. The right questions can not only help you uncover a teacher's challenges, but they can also push teachers to articulate their thinking, increase their self-awareness, and uncover new possibilities for their learning and development.

I am sure at some point in your life someone has told you that you have two ears and one mouth because you should listen twice as much as you speak. As an instructional coach, this couldn't be more true. Though it may not inherently seem this way, much of our work revolves around the conversations we have with teachers. At first, it can be tempting to dominate those conversations because there is so much we want to share and we dread those awkward silences, but it is important to take more of a backseat approach. Having the ability to ask a few, high quality questions is an essential tool for successful instructional coaches. The right question can be a catalyst for powerful reflection, problem solving, and ultimately change. Learning the difference between the right questions and the wrong questions will help strengthen your practice as an instructional coach, and will help set your teachers up for success.

Tip #2: Empower Teachers through Questioning

Think about the way you approach your coaching conversations. There is a difference between being interrogative and having a dynamic dialogue. Coaches should not attempt to be attorneys, interrogating teachers by only asking questions to which they already know the answer. This type of conversation is disingenuous and not only could it begin to foster some feelings of judgment, but the teacher will only grow relative to your instructional knowledge. The goal of instructional coaching is to uncover each teacher's untapped potential and expertise, not to look for "gotcha" moments or impose your own personal teaching style. Probing questions like, "What would you like to see happen in your classroom?" or "What would have to change in order for you to be able to do X?" can empower teachers to generate their own ideas and solutions for the challenges they face. These types of questions allow you and the teacher to develop a shared vision so you can work together to achieve a desired outcome.

As a new instructional coach, it is easy to catch yourself guiding the conversation by asking scripted questions - after all, that's what we are trained to do as new teachers. As a teacher, we learn to always anticipate what responses students will give us so that we are prepared to steer the conversation in whatever way necessary. Unfortunately, kids do say the darndest things and as teachers, we were always prepared for that. It is easy for an instructional coach to take the same approach when working with teachers. Through classroom visits, new coaches may find themselves inadvertently analyzing the lesson for what they deem to be the main strengths and weaknesses, rather than collecting objective observations. When it then comes time to debrief with teachers, you might find yourself asking questions that lead the teacher to identify those same strengths and weaknesses you did, in spite of their own personal thoughts or feelings.

Unfortunately, this type of coaching is not a true conversation or dialogue and won't optimize your chances for success. This approach does not honor the teacher's input on what they self-identify as their challenges and does not acknowledge their professional expertise. This type of conversation is simply one-way feedback and though it can appear helpful at first, it may end up doing more harm than good. One-way conversations can make teachers feel devalued and directed, rather than encouraged and supported.

Tip #3: Use Intentional Questioning to Spark Authentic Conversation

So how do we change these interactions? By asking the right questions.

We know that good questions can spark curiosity, independence, and self-confidence. Ultimately, coaching conversations should be a forum in which teachers can discuss their thoughts and opinions about their practice, with support from the instructional coach. It is not our place to provide blind recommendations or "advice" without first letting teachers identify the areas of need. Questioning is essential in this identification process.

Think of it like a visit to the doctor's office. You visit the doctor because you have some ailment or need. It is the doctor's responsibility to know which questions to ask to understand your symptoms. If the doctor does not ask all the right questions, you can be misdiagnosed and left untreated. The same is true for our teachers. It is important to be intentional about the questions you are asking in order to elicit true reflection from the teacher so that we do not misdiagnose their challenges. We don't want to offer any 'Web-MD' solutions. By that I mean, have you ever noticed no matter what symptom you search on Web-MD the diagnosis may come back as cancer? There is no one-size-fits-all explanation or remedy to instructional challenges. As an instructional coach, you will find that teachers typically have an idea of what their greatest challenge is, but it is not uncommon to discover that their challenge is actually something else and has just been misdiagnosed. It is your job as the coach to use the power of questions to really understand the needs and wants of your teachers, as well as what solutions will be most beneficial to their classrooms.

It can be difficult for a new instructional coach to generate powerful questions and authentic conversation because it requires a lot of thinking on your feet and making changes on the fly. There is nothing wrong with an instructional coach using sentence stems or preparing some guiding questions to ask teachers in coaching meetings. The thing to remember, however, is to not let the conversation become an interview. If you come to coaching meetings with prepared questions, consider putting them away until you feel you really need them. You might find that you are able to kickstart the conversation on your own. The more conversations you have, the easier and more natural these conversations become.

Quality questions are going to be one of the most important tools in your instructional coaching toolkit. Without quality questions, no significant growth or development can occur. It is important that you as the coach find questions that really help your teachers reflect on their practices and encourage them to problem solve on their own, with our support. Instructional coaching is just as much about supporting teachers as it is building capacity within them. You want your teachers to get to a place where they can continue growing on their own after their coaching cycle is over. This foundation of reflection is laid through questioning and conversation and will be essential in helping you and your teachers achieve their goals.

Megan Purcell is a Digital Learning Specialist and Certified Dynamic Learning Project coach in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD located in Carrollton, TX. She enjoys working with teachers to help them elevate their teaching through the use of impactful technology tools and strategies. Megan holds a masters degree in Educational Technology, which she earned overseas at the National University of Ireland in Galway, in addition to being a certified Microsoft Innovative Educator and Apple Teacher. She is a former high school English teacher who loves learning, technology, and helping make life easier for her teachers. She believes that every student should have access to current technology in order to develop 21st century skills necessary for participating in a global society.

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The Power of Questions in Instructional Coaching

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Advice is overrated. I know that may sound strange coming from someone who is writing a blog which is essentially providing advice, but just hear me out. How many times has someone offered you "advice" on how to do your job? How many times has that "advice" actually been beneficial to you as a professional?

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This article focuses on growth mindset and how a manager can foster the growth mindset of employees. It is geared toward businesses but can easily be applied to instructional coaches in schools.

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A coaching culture that supports a growth mindset hinges on expanding an employee's belief boundaries, starting with understanding how their beliefs and values are influencing their emotions, which in turn are driving their behaviors and actions.

Mindsets are a powerful thing. They can be deeply ingrained-and difficult to change. Stanford University Mindset Psychologist Carol Dweck, one of the world's leading researchers in the field of motivation, famously studied the behavior of thousands of children. She found that when they believed their intelligence and abilities could grow, they had a desire to learn and, as a result, were willing to embrace the challenges necessary to keep achieving more. They didn't give up in the face of criticism or setback.

Dweck coined the term "growth mindset" to describe the mindset of these children, as opposed to those with a "fixed mindset," who believe their intelligence is static and, therefore, are more likely to avoid challenges and negative feedback, ultimately plateauing before they ever achieve their full potential.

The correlations to the workplace aren't hard to see. If you're a manager or HR professional, consider the different employees you've worked with and developed over the years. Were there some who seemed eager to tackle the tough assignments and put in the effort, able to bounce back from setbacks and find the lessons in others' success?

Contrast that with the employees who gave up easily when any obstacle got in the way, who looked for ways to avoid challenges and didn't see the point in putting in the effort. They probably ignored useful feedback and felt threatened by others' success.

Growth Mindset Coaching

Growth mindset employees tend to be high performers because they believe they can keep achieving more. Even though work problems have become increasingly complex and the environment keeps changing, they're driven by an inner motivation that says, "I can keep learning and rising to the challenge."

Fixed mindset employees often stall out-or worse. They believe they can't, and so they don't.

Coaching Growth Mindset Beliefs Starts with the Manager's Mindset

To build high performance across the organization, managers should encourage and promote a growth mindset among all employees. To do that, they first have to believe that the solutions to the challenges their employees face can be found within the employees themselves. Too many managers have their own fixed mindsets about what an employee's growth potential might be, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When managers assume that their employees' ability to learn and adapt are finite, limiting their horizons for personal and professional growth, it can cause good company cultures to deteriorate, strategy to derail, talent to be squandered and results to suffer.

A growth mindset is essential not just for employee performance but also for the manager's performance as an effective coach.

Expanding Belief Boundaries

Great coaches understand how an employee's belief boundaries will affect what they perceive as possible, and how these boundaries either help or hinder progress towards achieving higher levels of performance.

So, what are belief boundaries? Over time people form certain beliefs about themselves, and these beliefs influence their view of what they believe they can achieve. As a result, they:

Form boundaries around their own inner beliefs.

Make assumptions about their abilities that directly relate to their inner beliefs.

Use inner beliefs as a mental paradigm that controls and regulates their actions, feelings, behaviors and abilities.

A coaching culture that supports a growth mindset hinges on expanding an employee's belief boundaries, starting with understanding how their beliefs and values are influencing their emotions, which in turn are driving their behaviors and actions. When coaching efforts shift from providing feedback to building self-discovery, belief boundaries incrementally stretch, creating an emotional openness to learning new skills and behaviors.

Building a Growth Mindset Coaching Culture

Here's an action plan to get started building your growth-mindset coaching culture:

Senior Leadership Steps

Create new expectations and clear accountabilities for coaching, with all levels of managers responsible for improving their teams' behaviors, attitudes and skills.

Communicate and model core organizational leadership values and behaviors, emphasizing that coaching is an authentic, honest desire to develop managers and their teams to their full potential. Without this, other management levels will not follow.

Middle Management Steps

Encourage coaching as a tool to achieve business results.

Reinforce that coaching is also about building a shared purpose, connecting coaching conversations with organizational values, direction and strategy.

Coach the coaches, using the power of questions coupled with listening to gain an accurate picture of how frontline managers are effectively leading and coaching.

Frontline Management Steps

Understand the drivers of human behavior-emotions, beliefs and values-using these insights to break through perceived blocks inhibiting employee success.

Use the power of questions to build employee self-discovery.

Know when to be non-directive (listening, questioning, clarifying, to promote creative thinking and idea generation) and when to be more directive (giving advice and training).

Respond to resistance by uncovering the true root cause of employee disengagement, and treat failure as an opportunity to learn.

When a manager sees more in their employees than they themselves see and is able to express a genuine confidence in their ability to succeed, employees will rise to meet higher expectations. Expanding belief boundaries and building a growth mindset at all levels improves problem solving and increases creativity and innovation across the organization. And as new levels of success occur, employees will continue to form new behaviors and keep improving their performance.

Terri O'Halloran

Vice President of Client Development

Insightful Perspectives and Tips to Help You

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Form boundaries around their own inner beliefs.

Make assumptions about their abilities that directly relate to their inner beliefs.

Use inner beliefs as a mental paradigm that controls and regulates their actions, feelings, behaviors and abilities.

Create new expectations and clear accountabilities for coaching, with all levels of managers responsible for improving their teams' behaviors, attitudes and skills.

Communicate and model core organizational leadership values and behaviors, emphasizing that coaching is an authentic, honest desire to develop managers and their teams to their full potential. Without this, other management levels will not follow.

Encourage coaching as a tool to achieve business results.

Reinforce that coaching is also about building a shared purpose, connecting coaching conversations with organizational values, direction and strategy.

Coach the coaches, using the power of questions coupled with listening to gain an accurate picture of how frontline managers are effectively leading and coaching.

Understand the drivers of human behavior-emotions, beliefs and values-using these insights to break through perceived blocks inhibiting employee success.

Use the power of questions to build employee self-discovery.

Know when to be non-directive (listening, questioning, clarifying, to promote creative thinking and idea generation) and when to be more directive (giving advice and training).

Respond to resistance by uncovering the true root cause of employee disengagement, and treat failure as an opportunity to learn.

Terri O'Halloran

Vice President of Client Development

Terri partners with our clients to strategically plan, implement, and sustain high performing sales and customer service cultures that achieve...

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Growth Mindset Coaching Improves Performance - Integrity Solutions

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A coaching culture that supports a growth mindset hinges on expanding an employee's belief boundaries, starting with understanding how their beliefs and values are influencing their emotions, which in turn are driving their behaviors and actions. Mindsets are a powerful thing. They can be deeply ingrained-and difficult to change.

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How to write SMART goals (with examples)

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SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Here, we work through an example of how to write them.

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This infographic serves as a great visual for an instructional coach to use themselves while also sharing with the teachers and maybe even some of the students that they are working with.

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I've been thinking a lot about growth mindset lately and what this means for us coaches.

A few years back we read the book "Mindset" by Carol Dweck with our staff and did some really great learning around it's central message: it's not just our abilities or talent that brings us success - but whether we approach our goals and work with a fixed or growth mindset. If you haven't read the book, here are a few of my favorite excerpts to help give you some more background:

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone - the fixed mindset - creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character - well, then you'd better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn't do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.

There's another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you're dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you're secretly worried it's a pair of tens. In this mindset, the hand you're dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way - in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments - everyone can change and grow through application and experience.

As you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads to another-how a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road.

At the time of reading the book, I was totally pumped up and inspired to work on my own growth mindset, but I haven't honestly thought about it for a long time. Then last week I happened to hear a really terrific podcast with Carol Dweck as the guest, and I got to thinking about it all over again.

After listening to the podcast that morning and heading into school, I found myself much more aware of different fixed vs. growth mindset thoughts that came up in my head that day. And when the fixed thoughts came up, I was bugged with myself, because "Hey! I'm a coach! I should be radiating a growth mindset!!"

But the truth is, I'm not always growth mindset perfect. I get down on myself and can be hard on myself. I can sometimes be harsh in my judgment of teachers qualities and abilities.

Now do I need to be perfect? Maybe not. But I can certainly be more aware, and take steps to get better.

So what's a helpful first step in this growth mindset building process? How about changing your thoughts and words. Check out the infographic below for ideas on what this might sound like.

And how about some specific ideas for how to foster a growth mindset at your school and in your coaching?

Read the book "Mindset" as a staff and facilitate discussion circles.

Embrace the idea and word "YET"

Develop and use growth mindset statements with staff consistently as part of school culture.

Make the connection between "process" and "achievement" in your feedback.

Incorporate growth mindset activities for PD icebreakers.

Emphasize learning as a process.

Create a growth mindset language wall in the PD room - help teachers recognize when they are having a fixed or growth mindset

Highlight mistakes as an opportunity for learning.

Work with teachers to develop a bank of language for feedback that can foster a growth mindset in students.

Read "How Children Succeed" with staff, and watch the Angela Duckworth Tedx video.

YOUR TURN

In the comments below, I'd love to hear:

What are YOUR hidden fixed mindset thoughts? How can you adjust this to a growth mindset?

What's one thing you can do to foster a growth mindset at your school?

Thanks for spending some time with me. Happy Friday and I"ll talk to you soon!

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Growth Mindset - What Does this Mean for Coaches?

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I've been thinking a lot about growth mindset lately and what this means for us coaches. A few years back we read the book "Mindset" by Carol Dweck with our staff and did some really great learning around it's central message: it's not just our abilities or talent that brings us success - but whether we approach our goals and work with a fixed or growth mindset.