Podcast 388, Coaching for Principals with Viv Grant (5-2-20)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I speak to Viv Grant who is Executive Coach and Director of Integrity Coaching. She was a keynote speaker at the 2020 annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network. Among the topics we discuss are the following: Identifying your stories as a school leader: why are you in the profession? What motivates you? What inspires you? What brings you joy? Her story and how she began to articulate it for herself The importance for principals of recognising and articulating their inner, subconscious narrative How underlying thoughts and experiences can affect a principal’s ability to have difficult conversations Becoming aware of when the old narratives no longer serve us Getting our back stage narratives aligned with our front stage performance The role of the Centre for School Leadership What coaching for principals involves Just like social workers and psychologists get “supervision” in their work as a matter of course, so should school principals because as well as being leaders of curriculum and instruction, many of them are practising aspects of psychology and social work. Why school development and human growth and development go hand in hand and why offering coaching to principals is a way of appreciating their taking on this important role. Is coaching something that is needed on an ongoing or on a needs-only basis? How coaching for a principal works Qualities a coach needs to have in order to work with principals How coaching differs from mentoring Why supporting coaching for principals is a good investment for a school Why coaching is the norm in several other sectors How she turned around “failing” primary school How to bring about change at school level The source of a school’s vision Her book called Staying a head: The stress management secrets of successful school leaders The challenge of creating time to develop the inner work of school leadership Pauline Lysaght Jones and Mary Fuller David Whyte’s poetry John O’Donohue