Middle Leaders Certification in Coaching

This programme is for teams of middle leaders who will have the opportunity to learn how coaching is a powerful leadership skill that can help a middle leader to empower those within their team or their sphere to work together to achieve the collective goals and ambition for learning and development

Leading from the Middle – A coaching certification programme for middle leaders

This programme is for individuals and teams of  middle leaders who will have the opportunity to learn how coaching is a powerful leadership skill that can help a middle leader to empower those within their team or their sphere to work together to achieve the collective goals and ambition for learning and development

The cost per person is £1,500.00 or we can offer discount for groups of participants who want to work together to learn how to coach in their capacity as middle leaders

What does the Middle Leadership Coaching Programme consists of:

• Work with expert coaches to enhance your leadership and coaching skills and focus on how to use coaching to build the capacity, self-worth and self-belief of every member of a middle leader’s team or teams
• Learn the skills that will allow you to lead a team with presence that gives the confidence to empower others to accept responsibility for change and challenge and the process of continuous improvement and high quality outcomes for all
• Develop as a coach so that you can create a culture where those within your sphere of influence  are confident, can identify their own strengths, resolve their own problems and issues and be part of a culture of continuous learning
• Create teams that work together to ensure that they are all working together to achieve the whole school vision and intent for high quality outcomes for all staff and students across the whole organisation
• Learn the feedback and feed forward techniques that mean all staff are part of a process that leads to the highest quality learning outcomes and where continuing professional development is an integral part of the planning process
• Be a part of a growing number of educators who can see that coaching is the way to create an outstanding school where there is a synergy and belief in excellence and high – quality outcomes for all

Why learn to coach as part of your role as a middle leader?

• Coaching allows teams to work together to have the confidence and self-belief to manage change and accept challenge 
• Creates opportunities for a collective understanding of the whole school, departmental, pastoral or administrative goals and priorities
• Builds resilience so that  individuals can find their own solutions and become more self-aware and positive in their roles and with their colleagues
• Fosters trust in the middle leader and all those they work with so that there is a belief that together high quality outcomes emerge
• Ensures those within the sphere of influence of the middle leader feel confident that they play an important role in the success of the organisation

How the Middle Leadership Coaching Programme is structured?

Module 1 – Leading and empowering to achieve the vision

Content:  The first of three in-depth and challenging training opportunities that make up our Leading from the Middle Coaching Certification Programme.  It will be delivered either as a full day or as two half days and we have the flexibility to offer in-house or online depending on circumstance and need. This first module sets the scene by focusing on the vision for change, challenge and impact. Have the coaching language, the confidence and the commitment to clearly state the purpose and communicate the vision and ambition for continuous and purposeful improvement. Foster in others the realisation that they have the potential to share in ambitious strategies for systems and people transformation. Reflect on your own strengths, know your gaps and your own learning agenda. Plan how to build on your skills as a leader and be a visible and determined advocate for excellence and continuous improvement. Be aware of yours and others’ potential. Reflect on how well-defined the vision for change, challenge and impact is and ensure there is sufficient clarity so that teams and individuals can translate it and turn it into reality.

Overview

How will this module be of benefit in you as a middle leader?

Middle leadership requires great skill in translating the whole school vision or intent so that teams can implement and deliver.  This module provides the platform for understanding how coaching can enhance the role of the middle leader and ensure that those they work with have the confidence, the self-belief and self-awareness to find their own solutions and deliver their own goals that lead to successful outcomes for whole organisation improvement. Where middle leaders learn to coach they demonstrate that they have presence, trust others to be an absolute part of the solution and encourage innovation and creativity in how goals are met. Understanding the intrinsic difference between leadership and management is helpful in defining the role of the middle leader which is a pivotal one lying between the senior leadership team and the teams that will deliver the many policies and strategies set out in the quest for continuous improvement. There role is to lead on strategic decisions and the quality assurance principles that underpin them but it is also to manage their teams and support them to manage change and challenge in their pursuit of excellence.

Module 2 – A deep focus on managing change and creating resilient teams

Content: This second module focuses on how coaching helps middle leaders to support their teams to manage change  In this module we are looking to enhance the coaching skills that will support the middle leader to empower others that they manage and support. We provide some highly interactive tools and techniques so that middle leaders deepen their understanding of the coaching skills that will help them to manage others to find their own solutions and solve their own problems. Middle leaders bring with them real scenarios that they can work on to practice and develop their coaching skills and build a much deeper understanding of how through coaching they can support teams and individuals in their quest for high quality outcomes for students and staff. Those taking part will use a range of coaching models and tools and techniques to focus on imaginative approaches to managing change and challenge and build resilient and effective teams that ignite the spark of innovation, creativity and continuous improvement. It is to the power of professional conversations that we want to lead middle leaders so that they can work closely with their teams and individual colleagues to share good practice, raise the profile of the positive and see problems as challenges that can be solved. We use a number of tools to support a deeper understanding of the effect change can have on the individual and how middle leaders can use coaching to ensure that those they manage have the coping skills to move towards exploration of and commitment to change.

How will this module be of benefit in you as a leader?

This module builds on the learning in module 1. We are focusing on the tools and techniques that will support the middle leader in the pursuance of excellence through the use of a range of coaching skills. We ask that middle leaders bring with them actual scenarios that they can use as part of their exploration of how coaching can support them in finding solutions or celebrating success, There are many roles and responsibilities within the sphere of the middle leader so the focus could be on curriculum, behaviour, data – handling, the pastoral process and well-being, teaching and learning or quality for instance. What we want is for the middle leader to have the confidence and the skills and attributes to build a culture where change is seen as positive and failure is seen as an opportunity for learning. Middle leaders can then take their skills to continue to practice and gain in confidence as coaches in order that others can take on the responsibility of managing change and that there is a culture of trust and a deep belief that through coaching individuals will be able to achieve their goals and make a significant difference.

Overview

• Understand emotional intelligence and how your own actions are instrumental in influencing others to change. Understanding a little about the theory of emotional intelligence can build a deeper understanding of the characteristics that give the middle leader the confidence to lead and manage
• Learn how to develop highly tuned active listening skills. Active listening is one of the hardest skills a coach will ever learn and raising awareness of the qualities of an active listener is powerful in revealing how much there is to learn
• Begin to learn the power of positive questioning with a deep and incisive look at what it is that makes a question change someone’s perception, change their mind or think differently about the decisions they are making
• Focus on the different aspects of middle leadership within the organisation by asking for examples of specific scenarios where individuals can coach others towards a deeper understanding of how a problem can be solved or a way forward found. 
• Learn how to feedback positively and in a way that is received as a welcome way forward for the individual through an understanding of the difference between  mentoring and coaching and instruction and facilitation
• Focusing on how to move towards self-reflection for those we coach, when can we let go, when do we know they need support, how can we manage individuals who are part of a team come together to achieve their goals
• Take away some tools and techniques that will support further reflection and coaching practice in readiness for module 3

Module 3: Managing highly effective teams through coaching

Content: In this module we look in detail at how to manage teams and how through having a range of deeply embedded coaching skills teams can work more effectively and cohesively and understand their role in realising the whole organisation drive for continuous improvement. It is through the development of highly effective teams  that middle leaders can deliver the highest quality outcomes. It is also important that the middle leader knows the strengths and qualities within their team or teams and can build capacity or play to the strengths of individuals within the team or teams. Honing coaching skills as part of developing as a team leader is powerful. In many situations it is the middle or team leader who is the driver and who finds himself or herself wearing a range of different hats and having to change them frequently to firefight or address an unresolved issue. Where middle leaders learn how coaching empowers others to take responsibility for the change or challenge that needs to happen there is a much more cohesive model and more is achieved. The middle or team leader has more command and is more in control and can lead the team in a much more cohesive way. Coaching is about trust and confidence. nurturing the potential of others and have the power to elevate and accelerate others towards their own success  builds highly successful teams that will deliver the organisational goals. How will this module be of benefit in you as a middle leader? This module provides the middle leader with an in-depth look at what makes a successful team and how through careful and positive intervention through professional dialogue and coaching teams can work together to successfully deliver their goals and objectives linked to their own specific area of strategy or improvement. The make up of a team is an interesting area of research and we use various interpretations and models of how to define the most effective teams that will deliver for the organisation. We know that the best way for a middle leader to manage their team is to believe in their ability, be ambitious for them and to focus on their strengths and what they can achieve. This module asks middle leaders to assess their team or teams and what they think their ideal team might look like and then to focus on the strengths of their current team and what needs to happen through professional development and learning to enhance their team and move it from their current team to their ideal team. We look at why teams exist and how through the use of coaching skills and techniques we can strengthen the qualities of the team and ensure that the middle leader has the confidence to give their teams more responsibility.

Overview

• A focus on the qualities and attributes of a team and the absolute necessity for a middle leader to have the skills and attributes to manage the nuances of the different characters that might make up that team. We use a model of intentional change focus in detail on how to assess the qualities of the team or teams that a middle leader might manage. We provide time for reflection and shared time to coach others towards their own understanding of their team, the gaps and learning agenda that will ensure that their ideal team emerges
• We look at how coaching can support the leadership of the team through a focus on managing tensions and conflict, establishing protocols and focusing on the approaches to leading or managing a team can have on its ability to perform
• We then begin to look at the purpose of teams and the processes that will ensure they can deliver on the goals and vision they have been asigned. Within this process we also focus on reflection and use coaching skills to support the middle leader to share their thoughts on what they have achieved in managing a team or teams, what have they learnt and how would they change their practice next time
• This is the third and final module in this programme and we provide the middle leader with some tools and models to take away to use to continue to develop as coaches and as middle leaders. Our focus is on models that can support them to manage change and models that can support them in their own goal setting and their own aims of creating a culture of continuous improvement

  On Completion of the course

We offer a Certificate in Middle Leadership from Learning Cultures Limited on completion of this programme. The programme will provide evidence of up to 30 hours of CPD for those who take part. The content complements but will not duplicate any of the National Professional Qualifications.