After 30 years in the field Elena Aguilar gathered all of her experience and learning and put together the most powerful book on coaching we've seen -- Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching. Elena sees coaching as the way -- one conversation at a time -- that we transform our schools.

In this deeply insightful conversation she shares the importance of coaching more than the teacher BEHAVIORS we are all used to coaching. She shared an example of how, when she coached a teacher to change her behavior -- and change her classroom from rows and direct instruction to groups -- once Elena left, she reverted back to the rows. Elena asked, 'Why?" and the teacher was honest in saying she just didn't believe that groups were the best way for students to learn.

 So Elena has come to the conclusion that for coaching to be truly transformative, we need to coach teachers' BELIEFS, BEHAVIORS, and ways of BEING, or the "Three Bs" as she calls it.

This approach to coaching is so successful because she acknowledges that teachers are human, and we need to address the emotions that are involved in the job.

 Listen to this great conversation, and you'll walk away with several ideas you can use immediately. Elena shares how you can transform that staff meeting you're planning by cutting out some of the content and carving out 6 minutes for people to connect before diving in.

She also shared a few tools that she uses in her coaching -- the Spheres of Influence and Gaps Framework -- and once you hear her explain them, you can use them in your conversations and coaching with staff as well.

Overall, Elena's ideas from her book Arise all aim at helping you to COMMUNICATE better with staff and creating the CONDITIONS so your staff can thrive.

Learn more about Elena and her work: https://www.brightmorningteam.com/ 

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues. Additionally, if you have other non-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].