No Strings Attached

How Leadership Coaching Has Enriched our Teaching

Abstract:: Two university professors share how their involvement in leadership coaching has influenced their teaching practices. They stated that as university students, they learned about leading, but were not taught how to lead. As new professors, they realized that they were utilizing similar teaching strategies as their own teachers, with a minimum of hands-on, practical experiences. Once they were trained as leadership coaches through Springboard Schools and began to spend time at school and district sites coaching principals and superintendents, they found that their teaching strategies changed dramatically. They brought in more current research with examples of practical application in local schools and modeled professional development strategies in their courses. Above all, they found that they connect the worlds of theory and practice on a daily basis.

Practical Leadership, Fall 2004

Abstract:: Opportunity for group study by graduate students on current topics related to management not otherwise included in curriculum. Practical Leadership is an interactive seminar where students receive repeated coaching and real-time feedback on their own leadership capabilities from their peers and the instructor. The course is structured around a set of readings. However, the key component is each student's own self-assessment. These self-assessments are done by the students in the first week of the semester. The areas for improvement that the students identify are then targeted in the weekly role plays that are customized for each student in the class. The goal of the class is for each student to increase his or her own leadership abilities through an ongoing cycle of practice, feedback and reflection.