COACHING MATTERS IF WE WANT GREAT SCHOOLS!

Our colleagues and our children and young people are unique, talented and creative. We start every day, very week, every month, every year with such enormous possibilities and such enormous potential. And yet we all know that the current education system which is driven by a command and control culture and steeped in blame, mistrust, irrelevance, seems to bore so many, disengage so many and fail so many. Where does it all go wrong?

Whether we like it or not children, young people, colleagues and friends live up to, or down to, our expectations of them.  We need  to replace the current toxic destructive climate of fear with learning leadership, beautiful systems and intelligent accountability. We need to engage colleagues passion and enthusiasm again so that they feel good about themselves. So that they will want to work with us, and will go beyond the call of duty for us. So that they will allow us to try new things, make mistakes and get things wrong because we have gained their trust, their loyalty and their commitment – rare commodities in today's dog eat dog world. That is the real strength of a coaching culture; a culture that is constantly, relentlessly and uncompromisingly asking us to learn and develop to be our brilliant best.

So if we want brilliant performance and outstanding outcomes we must coach colleagues. Only then can we raise and stretch their awareness of their uniqueness, their strength, and their potential. By being appreciative, supportive and caring we help our colleagues overcome the limitations the system has imposed upon them, and significantly develop the possibilities and opportunities available to them. Great coaches leave a legacy of people who know their strengths, know their abilities and, as a result, reach beyond what they believe is possible. Great coaching is a relationship that sees colleagues at their very best; challenges them to examine their own gifts, talents and aspirations and, ultimately, holds them accountable to become their brilliant best.