In the journal article, Principal and Coach as Partners, Metamorphosis founder Lucy West raises provocative questions about the roles and relationships between coaches and principals. She challenges us to consider what it means to work as partners. Lucy invites us to consider the limitations of hierarchal leadership and explores newer, more effective leadership styles. 

Building trust, investing time to learn alongside teachers, and having the courage to be imperfect can do wonders. Lucy West, originator of Content Coaching, makes a case for principals taking the time to understand math content and pedagogy to strengthen a principal’s capacity to truly support teacher development.

When was the last time a principal invested time to learn alongside teachers and coaches at your school? Leaders who take a learning stance alongside teachers inspire and encourage teachers to keep growing. Educator, Cindi Rigsbee, raises the same challenge in her Ed Week article, Principals: Supporting Your Teachers Doesn’t Have to Be Such Hard Work, “An administrator leading with the heart of a teacher is important to ensure a positive school culture.”

Another sacred norm Lucy’s article challenges is confidentiality. How much more effective could teachers, coaches and principals become if they embraced transparency? Transparency about what one is working on, practicing or learning, in their profession is healthy. Yet it remains a challenge on all levels: principals, coaches, teachers, and students. In her talk, Brené Brown speaks on the power of vulnerability, which is often triggered by transparency. She explains why it is important to be real with each other if we want to build trust and the capacity to work on difficult issues. How many of us feel comfortable being transparent with the people we work with? As leaders, how many of us foster an environment where people feel safe to fail, take risks, speak up and learn new ways of teaching and communicating?

The article, Principal and Coach as Partners, provides several real-life scenarios to highlight the impact and pitfalls of principals’ actions in supporting or inhibiting successful coaching initiatives. The pitfalls are many; however, the ideal is working publicly and collaboratively to find sustainable solutions to improve teacher and student learning. This is the dream.