The coachee continuum: how coachable are you?

^{A bi-weekly T&L post for staff at Community Schools Trust}

When live coaching isn’t received well…

Every moment in teaching matters. That’s why we don’t wait the traditional 24 hours for feedback on teaching. Or calendar in formal lesson observations. We act in the moment – live. Why ‘get better’ if we can ‘get better faster’, right?

“If you’re not still learning, you’re already dying.”

(Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy)

Alive time versus dead time

In ‘Ego is the Enemy’ by Ryan Holiday, ‘alive time’ is when we actively use our time usefully. This is in contrast to ‘dead time’ which is to spend our time passively. Holiday says we can’t always choose our circumstances in life (or in the classroom…) but we can choose if we make our time ‘alive time’ or ‘dead time’.

Live coaching is one way we make our time ‘alive time’ – stepping in, in the moment, in order to slightly improve our craft, perfectly captures the idea of actively using time usefully. The cumulative effect of incremental improvement over time as a result, is significant. 

We’ve explored ways to create a healthy culture for live coaching in our schools and importantly, to create this culture, we make sure we start by doing it (Michael Beer). 

You can read more about why we live coach here and ways to live coach here.

Criteria for successful live coaching:

When live coaching is done well:

• To the students it looks like team teaching
• To the teacher being coached, they believe the coach is invested in their ‘accelerated development’.

LOTS of training for live coaching happens across our schools. It occurred to me though, we haven’t given a lot of attention to how we RECEIVE live coaching. As much as it is on the coach to sensitively and effectively step in on ‘imperfect’ practice when needed, surely, much of the success of live coaching relies on the recipient and how they receive it?

The coachee continuum

If you were live coached, consider where you might place yourself on this helpful ‘coachee continuum’ made by Assistant Headteacher, Raeanne Meade…

Let’s consider the criteria for successful live coaching again:

When live coaching is done well:

• To the students it looks like team teaching
• To the teacher being coached, they believe the coach is invested in their ‘accelerated development’

The response examples on the continuum clearly indicate that the live coaching has not been successful. Neither of the two criteria have been fulfilled – the students will likely pick up on the awkward exchange and the response from the coachee suggests they not only reject the feedback given in that moment and likely do not believe the coach is invested in their development.

Now of course, it could be because of a number of reasons and some perhaps legitimate. I will entertain this for one moment: let’s say the feedback was rubbish. The responses in that continuum, or similar, serve little purpose other than express the annoyance of the coachee and perhaps ‘save face’ – but save face to whom? 

Even if it was rubbish feedback, responses like those in the continuum don’t really help anyone – not the coach, students or the coachee.

We’re exploring ‘coachability’ in this article: our capacity to receive and be open to critical feedback, in order to improve in our craft. As much as it is the coach’s responsibility to fulfil the criteria of effective feedback, so too is it the coachee’s; if we don’t believe our coach is invested in our development, and our reaction to their live coaching is likely to show it, it also won’t look like team teaching to the students. 

Which brings us to the other end of the coachee continuum:

Raeanne suggests using live coaching as an opportunity: publicly praise, warmly receive, ‘get in sync with each other’ – the success of live coaching, as much as it hangs on the coach, it does too with the coachee.

We are ALL recipients of live coaching at Community Schools Trust (CST). Below are 3 strategies to try when receiving live coaching. If utilised, they will fulfil the criteria for effective live coaching.

First up, here’s a strategy to keep it casual… 

1 Have a chat with your coach

Example: 

• Coach: Miss, should we get the class to turn and talk before they try to answer this question?
• Coachee: D’you know what Miss, what a great idea. It will give us ALL a chance to be ready with an idea to share.
• Proceed to use ‘turn and talk’ to correct the ‘imperfect’ practice the coach has live coached you for.

Here’s one that involves taking advantage of the coach’s subject knowledge – which is great since most of our coaches are subject experts this year:

2 Ask the coach

Example: 

• Coach: Sir, shall we ask the class to provide more than one reason when discussing who is most to blame for Eva Smith’s death in An Inspector Calls?
• Coachee: Good idea. Out of interest, who do you think is most to blame Miss? Here you can use your coach to help you model what you expect from the students.
• Proceed to ask for more than one reason in students’ responses – correcting the ‘imperfect’ practice the coach has live coached you for.

Finally, my personal favourite strategy:

3 Feign emotion

Example:

• Coach: (also feigning emotion) *gasp – Miss! I am certain I thought you said this task should be in silence…I think I can hear some – 
• Coachee: -*gasp – I think you’re right Sir! I think I heard that too! (Dramatically Be Seen Looking). 
• Proceed to reiterate expectations and correct the ‘imperfect’ practice the coach has live coached you for.

*Of course, you don’t have to be as dramatic as this, but it’s more fun when you are.

Here’s an equally dramatic quote from Holiday to end this piece:

“Your ego screams for people to acknowledge you. But you must do nothing. Take it. Eat it until you’re sick. Endure it. Quietly brush it off and work harder. Play the game. Ignore the noise; for the love of God, do not let it distract you.”

(Ego is the Enemy)

Be coachable. Make your time ‘alive time’. Be on the right side of the coachee continuum.