1. Lesson 8: Review of Lessons 5-7
Coaching
Lesson 8: Review of Lessons 5-7

2. 3 Steps to Powerful Interactions Coaching
Step 1: Be Present to Coach
Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
See video #15: Jill quiets her agenda.
See video #19: “Helena acknowledges tension and how to repair relationships”
See Video #27 “Diana on Using Questions to Lead to Problem Solving”
Use the 3 steps whether you are corresponding via or text, on the phone, doing an observation, or having a brief conversation in the hallway.

3. Step 1: Be Present to Coach
Clear your static
If you decide that the quality of your relationships is important because the relationships will advance your work with practitioners, then you have to find a way to turn the static into “background music.” This is necessary so you can focus on the person or people in front of you. A focused interaction that lasts a few minutes has endless positive possibilities.
Do a quick “Me Check:”
Ask yourself 2 questions:
How am I feeling now?
How can I adjust to fit and connect with the other person?
Once you get the hang of it, a quick “Me Check” will take less than a minute

4. Step 2: Connecting as Coach
Review: 3 Strategies for Connecting as a Coach
Three strategies to connect with practitioners and build positive relationships that provide the security a coachee needs to be open to exploring, experimenting, discovering, and learning in your work together: 3
Be Trustworthy
Listen to Learn
Communicate to Form Partnerships
Intentionally choose words and phrases that communicate that you are aware that you have as much to learn from the coaching relationship as the person you are coaching.

5. Digging Deeper into Step 2
Connecting as a Coach
Communicate to Form Partnerships
Putting the other practices in place helps coach and coachee build a bridge and find common ground.
Your Coaching Stance:
You are more likely to “communicate to form a partnership” by:
Checking in with the practitioner about how he/she would be most comfortable communicating.
Posing a question that invites the practitioner to talk about his/her decision-making.
Calling attention to intentionality by using facts to describe the practitioner’s actions and the impact they have on parent’s and children’s learning
Starting conversations with “I notice” statements to validate the practitioner’s strengths.

6. Discussion/Reflection:
What are some of the words or “catch phrases” you use to communicate that you are open, interested, and willing to learn together in a partnership with others?

7. Using Your Coaching Stance
Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Using Your Coaching Stance
Use your coaching stance and apply a strengths-based perspective by inviting the practitioner to talk about something he/she feels confident about in his practice.
“Let’s think together about the practices in which parents, caregivers, and children are engaged in learning.”
You may suggest that you might observe (or video or photograph, with parent permission) these moments so that together you can analyze how these moments work so well.

8. Review of Coaching to Extend Learning
Quick Tips
Periodically review your role and that of the coachee and restate that the coachee’s interests, needs, goals, and questions determine your shared agenda
Work collaboratively with coachee to help him/her formulate measureable goals and state goals clearly
Take notes during observations and use notes as a reference in providing feedback and discussion linked to the practitioner’s goals.

9. 4 Strategies Coaches Use to Extend the Learning:
Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
4 Strategies Coaches Use to Extend the Learning:
Coaching to extend learning is a 2-way professional development conversation in which you apply these four interrelated Extend Learning Strategies to stretch the coachee’s learning:
Focus on goals you set together
Notice “moments of effectiveness”
Use prompts/questions to encourage “thinking together”
Document plans and progress together

10. Strategy #1: Setting Goals Together
Coaching to Extend Learning
Strategy #1: Setting Goals Together
“People change when the change is meaningful and important to them.” Margaret Wheatley, 2001
Shared goals are established through conversations between coach and coachee.
The goals began by the coach observing and noticing strengths the practitioner demonstrated. When the coach shares the strengths he/she noticed and then remains quiet so the practitioner can reflect and respond, the coach creates a space for the practitioner to describe aspects of the work that are important to him/her.

11. Digging Deeper into Step 3
Strategy 1: Focus on Goals You Set Together
“My role as a coach is to help practitioners articulate their own goals and return to those goals over time to keep them relevant. Often I will simply ask a practitioner to talk about something they want to keep in mind in their work with parents and children, and usually what they describe is a goal that we can focus on during coaching.” Monica, Coach from Arizona

12. Step 3: Coaching to Extend the Learning
Strategy #2: Notice “Moments of Effectiveness”
When the coach offers strengths-based feedback to the practitioner, the coach describes the effective practice observed (like a mirror for the therapist) and explains the positive impact the practice has on parents, caregivers, and children.
Moments of effectiveness are stepping stones that create a path between where a practitioner is today and where he/she can be as you work together
Example [preschool director to classroom teacher]: “I noticed you intentionally labeled your shelves with both words and pictures and that helps children learn to match the word with a picture. I’m interested to hear about this decision and how the children are responding.”

13. Step 3: Coaching to Extend the Learning
Strategy #3: Use prompts/questions to encourage “thinking together”
Do you ever catch yourself slipping into “fix it” mode?
Offering advice on how to do something “better?”
Telling someone how to address a concern they’ve just shared?
ASK if he/she would like a suggestion – Sometimes a practitioner will say they’re not sure how to do something. That’s the coach’s que to ASK, “Would you be interested in hearing what I’ve seen other therapists try?” or “I have some ideas about that, if you’d like to hear them.”
By doing this, the coach expresses respect for the practitioner as a professional and as a learner and allows him/her to ask for ideas.
Coaches say this is familiar territory. Irene writes that as she continues to learn Powerful Interactions coaching techniques, she is “working on talking less and doing more thoughtful questioning and listening.”
That is the essence of this strategy.

14. Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Strategy #4: Document plans and progress together
The process of documenting work together needs to address all three steps of a Powerful Interaction:
Be present: (take a moment to look back over notes)
Connect: (ongoing conversations, written communications, etc focused on the work together and building the relationship)
Extend learning: (writing things down allows coach to step back and clarify thinking. Figure out together how to keep it going to support intentional goal setting)

15. Tips for Documenting Plans and Progress Together
Coaching to Extend Learning
Tips for Documenting Plans and Progress Together
Extend learning – Documentation extends learning (step 3 of a Powerful Interaction). In the coach-coachee relationship, rather than simply relying on conversation and memory, the coach moves the learning ahead by using documentation to capture the story of your work together. Write down:
shared goals/plans/next steps
specific actions/responsibilities you each commit to
questions you discuss together
new ideas you want to explore
examples of the practitioner’s moments of effectiveness and WHY (the impact the practice had on caregiver and/or child learning)

16. Strategy #4: Document Plans and Progress Together
Why Document?
Documentation sustains ongoing conversation
Documentation keeps you focused on goals
Documentation supports accountability and reciprocity
Documentation reveals progress and change over time
See video #25 – “Michael on Taking Notes”
If it feels awkward at first, experiment until you find the right method for you. Keep it on your “to-do” list until it becomes a natural part of your coaching practice.

17. Review of Lessons 5-7
Discussion:
What stood out to you this time around - and why?

18. Putting It into Practice:
Coaches’ Homework for Lesson 8:
What element or elements of this lesson offered you guidance towards your coaching skill goal (identified in lesson 2 as a skill you’d like to strengthen)?
What concerns do you have about peer coaching other EI professionals on your team to change practice?
Coaches will post their answers in the blog space on the team’s site: prior to Lesson 9 to document their work and to be accountable to the team!