COACHING REQUIRES TRUST

After my retirement in 2004, I was eager and committed to work and study to be the best leadership coach I could be for other administrators who were still leading schools around the nation. Then, quite unexpectedly, I accepted the challenge to return to the role of an elementary principal. I can assure you, it has given me a new view and sense of commitment and excitement about the need for coaching.

In my estimation, there are few jobs that present as many challenges as that of principal. We are asked to wear so many hats - be a master of curriculum and personnel management issues, building managers, as well as persons who build and maintain relationships with students, teachers, parents and community. In many cases, we are trying to build trust with the very teachers who we hope will embrace change. The role of principal can be very lonely and in the fast paced, often reactive world of schools, a personal coach can be the link to a principal’s proactive, consistent focus on improvement. Our business counterparts are turning more and more to coaching as a solution for moving from “good to great” and for a CEO, the coach must be, by definition, someone external and independent of the organization. Should principals expect less?

To really be effective as a principal you come to the realization that people are more important than paper. People are the resource that need to be nurtured and are worthy of your investment of time in them. Being in a school and district that were new to me, much of my time during the first year has been spent building relationships. I believe very strongly that it’s an investment that will reap many benefits as years go by. Trust has been found to have a very big impact on schools that are successful. Some findings suggest that when there is a greater perceived level of trust in a school, teachers had a greater sense of efficacy – the belief in their own ability to affect actions that lead to success. Can anything tie more closely to our goal as coaches than to reach that end?
Trust is a major component for all of us whether we are coaching or being coached and it is so worth the investment of time in laying this great foundation for other things to come.

During this year, I have studied and embraced five key components used to measure trustworthiness from the work of Tschannen-Moran and Hoy’s (1998). They have been very useful to me as a principal and as a coach. They speak about the following:

Benevolence – having confidence that another party has your best interests at heart and will protect your interests.

Reliability – referring to the extent to which you can depend upon another party to come through for you, or act consistently, or follow through.

Competence – belief in another party’s ability to perform the tasks required by his/her position.

Honesty – the degree to which a person can be counted on to represent situations fairly – integrity, character and authenticity are all dimensions of trust.

Openness – how freely another party shares information with others.

Although trusting relationships don’t guarantee success, schools without trust have very little chance of improving. As a principal and coach, building trust with clients or staff can be the beginning of great things to come.

Brewster, C. and Railsback, J. 2003. Building Trusting Relationships. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. ERIC document.

By: Jane Bidlack, Member and Coach, CFR

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