The following article was authored by ACSA Educational Services Executive Michael Bossi.
Please be assured that your professional organization understands the challenges of your new position and is here to support you.
I was recently beginning a presentation on leadership coaching for principals, as I often do, with a quote from a second-year principal reflecting on her introduction to educational leadership: “No one can be fully prepared to meet the demands of the job. No one can fully understand the principalship until she is in the leader’s chair.” A wise and experienced superintendent sitting in the first row commented, “You know, it’s no different for superintendents.”
Her words made me reflect upon a metaphor for leadership offered by Thomas Jefferson 200 years ago. Jefferson posed that the person with the ultimate leadership responsibility must necessarily have a view that no one else possesses. He places the true leader on a hill with his supporters and followers fanned out below. The leader, at the apex, finds that the climb is steeper the nearer one draws to the top of the knoll. From his vantage point, he alone can see over the top at what waits beyond. Even those supporters of highest rank just a step or two behind can’t see over the horizon from their point of view. So, too, the leader at the top can turn around and look down the hill and from his unique position holds a view shared by no one else.
In a school district, these are the views of the superintendent. The first time one sees them, for the superintendent new to the role, as well as for the superintendent new to the landscape of a district, the view is exhilarating. Frequently, gazing ahead and back, the superintendent is given pause to ask, “Now what am I really seeing? What is that?” Some elements of this new view may also bring a sense of, “Oh my God. I didn’t expect this.”
Here is when ACSA comes to the superintendent’s aid. There are a number of well-established programs designed to support California’s superintendents. The newest is Executive Leadership Coaching.
The role of the Executive Leadership coach is to support the superintendent. The coach helps the superintendent to reflect upon what he or she sees, to interpret and prioritize the challenges posed by the job, to anticipate and plan for growth, and to build the capacity of the superintendent to effectively lead the district given his or her unique skills set and style, and the circumstances and culture of the district. The superintendent-coach relationship is entirely confidential and founded upon a high level of professional ethics, competence and trust.
Typically, executive coaching is intensive, contextualized, one-on-one support focused on the achievement of the school board’s goals as well as upon other personal/professional needs and desires of the superintendent.
Coaches are trained and certified in the Blended Coaching model, developed by the New Teacher Center at UC Santa Cruz and provide consultation in areas of new learning; collaboration on new initiatives; and support for reflection, the building of anticipation skills, and feedback on communication and leadership behaviors. The coach is entirely dedicated to the development of the superintendent, to extending a quiet hand, helping the superintendent to be the very best he or she can be.
Only experienced, successful, up-to-date superintendents are provided as Executive Leadership coaches to ACSA superintendents.
Further, our Executive Leadership coaches are supported by a statewide ACSA/NTC network. With this resource, the coach can call upon his own experience, and that of network colleagues to provide consultation services in student achievement data analysis, budget, board policy, board-superintendent relations, collective bargaining, strategic planning, construction, facilities management, community relations, legislation, political action, or any other area of need.
While Executive Leadership Coaching is a support service to superintendents that is invaluable unto itself, it is also a wonderful complement to assist the superintendent in the adaptation, contextualization, and implementation of professional development offered through the ACSA/Springboard Executive Leadership Center and through ACSA’s Leading the Leaders.
Superintendents should also be aware that the ACSA/NTC Executive Leadership Coaching program is endorsed by the California School Boards Association.
The greatest challenge faced by our Executive Leadership Coaching Design Team has been to truly make leadership coaching for the superintendent accessible, appropriate and meaningful to new and experienced superintendents in growing districts, to urban and suburban superintendents, and to superintendents and even principal/superintendents in smaller, rural, declining enrollment districts.
We have developed four Executive Leadership Coaching Service Options:
Diamond Support
• 22 on-site coaching sessions, including observations as appropriate to goals.
• Unlimited phone and e-mail access to coach.
• Individualized goals (board and personal/professional).
• $10,000 per year.
Platinum Support
• 14 on-site coaching sessions, including observations as appropriate to goals.
• Limited phone and e-mail access to coach.
• Individualized goals (board and personal/professional).
• $6,600 per year.
Gold Support
• Hourly on-site, phone and e-mail coaching sessions.
• Guaranteed contract appropriate to goals, with options for expansion as needed.
• Individualized goals appropriate to contracted coaching services (board and personal/professional).
• Rates negotiable (location/travel, on-site/off-site, goals).
Silver Support
• Geographic cohort, individually designed to serve smaller districts in a defined area in more rural counties.
• Often combines “group coaching,” fostering the building of local superintendent support networks, with “individual coaching” to board and personal/professional goals.
• May include on-site, phone and e-mail coaching.
• Rate negotiable depending on location/travel and services.
With the completion of our first Executive Leadership Coaching training in late May, we will have more than a dozen wise, experienced, successful, well-prepared coaches to serve California’s superintendents.
To find out more about this exciting new service, please contact ACSA Director of Leadership Coaching Michael Bossi at (916) 329-3842 or mbossi@acsa.org. We are confident that we can provide a coaching support program to meet your needs.