LEaD Fellows Coaching

“I found coaching to be immensely helpful, restorative and motivational. It has given me fresh verve and energy.”

“It was an excellent experience and has helped me to reflect on my career development and teaching.”

Feedback from LEaD Coaching Fellows

This year, the LEaD fellowship scheme allowed four academics from School of Health Sciences to access coaching sessions designed to enable them to reflect on and develop their teaching.  Coaching is a safe, confidential space used as an educational development and reflective practice tool.  In partnership with the coach the LEaD fellows were invited to reflect on their educational role, explore their teaching and take the next steps in their professional development.

The fellows worked with one of three coaches:

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  Dr Linda Carter has worked with LEaD for a number of years as a coach as well as facilitating team days and designing and delivering an in-house leadership programme for professional services staff.  She uses creative approaches and encourages reflection as well as actions.

• Dilly McDermott is an Education Consultant.  She offers a workplace-based, teacher

  

  development process where academics are observed, supported and coached.  This approach has been successfully used at Cass.  The method is described as a cross between executive coaching and an education master class.

• Anne Benson works at the Tavistock Institute.  She is an organisational, team and leadership development consultant, coach and clinician.  Anne’s coaching practice uses mindfulness.

  

The fellows were matched with coaches and engaged in coaching and/or teaching observation over the first half of 2016.  The fellows also came together in April to share experiences and feedback and further develop their coaching skills.  The feedback about the experience was overwhelmingly positive and in some cases transformative. The fellows captured and agreed these five major benefits of the coaching experience:

• Access to expert advice
• Time to reflect and think
• Developing coaching skills
• Building confidence
• A profound impact on approach and teaching. This included making specific teaching practice improvements, having a space to discuss teaching, finding new perspectives and learning a new approach to bringing about change in careers and the educational experience.

The fellows were keen to expand and extend what they had learnt.  This included continuing to meet as a group and supporting each other.  There was a desire to consider creating a wider sustainable coaching culture particularly within SHS and enabling others to develop coaching skills.  The coaching experience was successful in its goal to enable the fellows to reflect on and develop their teaching and learning practice.  It also boosted confidence and positivity, gave ideas and new skills, changed perspectives, created a support network between the fellows and opened up consideration of how a coaching approach and teaching and learning discussion could be expanded.

The fellows will be reporting on their experiences of the coaching on this blog later this summer.

A small number of LEaD fellowships will be available to City staff to access educational development coaching in 2016-17.  Do contact LEaD for more information.  Organisational Development also offers management and leadership coaching in certain scenarios and is piloting an approach to create an internal coaching culture at City.