NBOA President and CEO
I don’t know about you, but I’m a self-professed Olympics fanatic. Needless to say, this summer’s games in Paris have energized me in the final weeks of summer. My daughter Samantha was a competitive gymnast in her youth and early teens, and those memories come flooding back when I watch the Games.
I was inspired further by the Olympic spirit while reading a recent Forbes article, “The Secrets of Olympic-Level Coaching in the Workplace.” Author Mark C. Perna, who writes frequently about engaging Gen Z and Millennials employees, shared findings from a recent study by DDI, a global leadership consulting firm. DDI’s president is a professional athlete, so that may be one reason why the company has a particular interest in coaching.
This article made clear that coaching in the workplace has a measurable positive impact. The survey found that employees who received quality workplace coaching were more than four times more likely to feel that they have a clear development path as a leader, and almost three times more likely to feel accountable for being an effective leader. Furthermore, organizations with strong coaching cultures are 1.5 times more likely to be among the top 10% of financial performers in their sectors.
Organizations with strong coaching cultures are 1.5 times more likely to be among the top 10% of financial performers in their sectors.
Coaches are not limited to supervisors and should not be thought of as providing top-down advice alone or motivating singular talents, DDI president David Tessman-Keys shared in the piece. Rather coaches inspire a team to work together, provide each other constructive feedback and motivate the collective. The marks of an effective coach include curiosity, growth mindset and ability to see the big picture, he asserted.
Curiosity
Let’s say you need your business office to consider a new process that will address an administrative bottleneck. Why not ask your colleagues to offer ideas and possible solutions, rather than instructing them with the solution you see off the bat?
Growth Mindset
This means no matter how long you’ve been at your school or in the business of independent school business operations, you accept that you always have something to learn. Maybe the new hire coming on this summer has something to show you about tactics in auxiliary management, for example, or a perspective on the strategic plan.
The Big Picture View
In mid-summer, so many business officers are occupied with the audit, which necessarily pulls you into the weeds and details. Your mind may be tuned into getting everything exactly right so you come away with a clean report. But soon enough boards will be embarking on retreats, senior administrators will be convening to frame the outlook for the coming year, and staff too will need to understand the larger goals for the year, no matter their role. Ahead of a new school year is the perfect time to step back and discuss the big picture view with your colleagues, as you see it and learn how they see it too.
In a context where faculty and staff retention and recruitment continue to play an outsized role, and competition for finance and accounting staff is as challenging as ever, all of us in independent schools must make an effort to put our best coaching forward.
While much of the DDI survey findings focus on the positives of strong coaching, the article also shares that the outcomes of poor workplace coaching are stark: high potential employees are more than twice as likely to leave if they experience poor or no coaching in their workplace. In a context where faculty and staff retention and recruitment continue to play an outsized role, and competition for finance and accounting staff is as challenging as ever, all of us in independent schools must make an effort to put our best coaching forward and create work cultures where our high-performing colleagues want to stay.
It’s certainly something I think about in terms of NBOA’s staff — how we can not only support individually tailored professional development but also invest in efforts that build a strong staff culture and capacity to provide feedback and encouragement across the board that will help us move forward. If you’re an Olympics fanatic like me, I hope you enjoy the games ahead. Even if you’re not, I hope you go into the next school year with a strong coaching mindset that will help your school get off to an outstanding start.
Follow NBOA President and CEO Jeff Shields on LinkedIn.
