Lifestage

talent development & coaching

Developing a strong talent development and coaching culture within your school requires that you first assess existing practices and how they align with best practices in adult learning. Start by seeking feedback from those most impacted by professional development and career planning resources – the staff. Review results from staff surveys, host targeted focus groups, attend staff training sessions, and observe 1:1 coaching meetings to conduct your current state analysis. Critically synthesize your findings to recognize persistent trends, then explicitly identify the current strengths and weaknesses of your talent development culture.

Utilize the key discoveries from your current state analysis to draft a comprehensive vision for talent development across the organization. Collaborate with leaders and staff throughout the process to align everyone on the same vision for success. For each goal, emphasize the underlying reason, such as building career pathways, strengthening instructional practice, or investing in staff members. Then, clearly define success metrics for short-term, long-term, and process outcomes. An example short-term outcome is “80% of staff are satisfied with the type of coaching they receive”. A long-term outcome could be “the retention of high-performing staff members improves by 10% after the implementation of a coaching program”. Finally, a process outcome might include “100% of instructional staff members receive 30-minute bi-weekly coaching from an instructional coach”.

Start by defining a performance development philosophy and outline specific strategies for each success metric that align with your organization’s overall vision. Thoughtfully define who is responsible for each strategy within the organization and how various stakeholders will work together throughout this process to bring it to fruition. Developing a culture of coaching requires both manager training and staff member investment, so explore creative avenues to generate strategy ideas from all relevant stakeholders before advancing to the design phase. This could include feedback surveys, principal meeting discussions, or optional focus groups with staff.

Talent development permeates the organizational structure and involves nearly every member of an organization. Given this widespread ownership, it is critical to establish the necessary systems and collaborations that will guide everyone to success. The responsibility for designing and implementing new coaching structures should rest with individual team leads who understand their context best (e.g., principal managers, head of operations), and consequently, your defined strategies should encourage buy-in from these individuals. Schedule regular meetings with team leads throughout the process to ensure their continuous engagement.