Reinventing How Work Gets Done: Coaching, Technical, and Leveraged Leadership

By: Jill Pancoast, President, The Breakthrough Coach

Leveraged Leadership Work is the process of reinventing how technical work actually gets done. It re-imagines your organization beyond its current structural constraints and grows your next generation of leaders.

When I present The Breakthrough Coach’s school leadership training, participants regularly ask questions about the distinction we make between Coaching and Technical Work, and how both endeavors impact the quality of their instructional leadership. Their wonderings often sound like:

• “If I’m in my office talking to a teacher about their evaluation, is that Coaching or Technical?”
• “If I’m eating lunch while supervising recess, is that Coaching or Technical?’
• “Running Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): Coaching or Technical?”

By the end of the course, they come to understand the difference between the two and start asking themselves good questions like:

• ”Is this Coaching Work that only I can do?,”OR
• “Is this Technical Work best handled by my front office staff?” 

Once asked and answered, Breakthrough Coach Graduates know how to empower their staff to take ownership of the Technical Work required to run front office operations, which then frees them up to do the mission critical Coaching Work of observing teaching and learning, (i.e. practicing instructional leadership in real-time). This self-reflective question, “Is it Coaching or Technical?,” becomes a go-to tool in their school executive toolbox, and is a catalyst for reinventing how work gets done.

Coaching vs. Technical: Please Explain 

We define “Coaching Work” as being on the sidelines at a “live game” or “practice,” observing your “players” in-action. When you’re in Coaching Work mode, you do not occupy a position on the field. You’re simply on the sidelines watching and considering how you might talk to your “players” to improve their performance. 

“Technical Work” is defined as the hands-on tasks required to run your school. When you engage in technical work, your active participation and labor is required to complete the tasks before you. 

Examples:

Introducing a Third Category: Leveraged Leadership Work

Then there’s a third category I call “Leveraged Leadership Work.” Leveraged Leadership Work frees a school executive up exponentially and positions an entire school community for future success. Using the prior examples as a baseline, here’s what I consider Leveraged Leadership Work:

• Identifying 5-10 future school leaders on your team, having one-on-one conversations with each to learn about their career ambitions, and then training the “excited & willing” to lead effective PLCs.
• Enrolling a committee of retired community volunteers whose sole purpose is to support school safety and orderliness, which includes supporting your school’s car line twice a day.
• Empowering your PTA Chair to build an extensive parent volunteer network in which each family member takes a shift on cafeteria duty once a year (I actually participated in this).
• Taking said teacher on a “compare and contrast” classroom visit with you and then having them present to their colleagues what they learned about their own teaching from this exercise.

Leveraged Leadership Work is the process of reinventing how technical work actually gets done. It re-imagines your organization beyond its current structural constraints and grows your next generation of leaders. It channels untapped energy and builds community. It frees you, the school leader, to do more of the instructional leadership work you love, more frequently. However, Leveraged Leadership Work requires a slow and deliberate “ready, aim, fire” approach, which can only happen after you’ve spent significant time doing Coaching Work from the sidelines.

Take it from our client, Christi Elliott-Earby, Executive Director of The GLOBE Academy in Atlanta, GA: “TBC reignited my passion for leadership by allowing me the time to develop our next generation of school leaders.”

If you’re looking to move the needle towards significantly more Instructional Coaching or Leveraged Leadership Work, schedule a call with us to learn about our Personal Coaching Program, or attend an upcoming Breakthrough Coach Foundations Course near you!