A Learning Experience with Elena Aguilar
Last week I had the opportunity to share space with 150 coaches and educators at Bright Morning Consulting’s Core Collection Sampler Workshop. Led by Elena Aguilar herself, the three day workshop explored the transformational practices outlined in each of the author/educator’s books — Art of Coaching, Art of Coaching Teams, and Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators. What I appreciate most about the institute was the intentionality of every moment. In addition to leaving with a full spirit and tangible ways to improve my coaching practice, I also feel I’ve extended my repertoire of facilitation moves.
What makes Aguilar’s work resonate so deeply with my own philosophy, is the focus on transformational coaching, which is centered in exploring behaviors, beliefs, and ways of being — not just that of the client, but the coach as well. It is also critical to point out, transformational coaching extends beyond the individual to the institutions in which we work, the students we serve, and the society in which we all live. Why? Equity — in the most simple terms, so that every child gets what they need every day. And so, learning about coaching means opening up oneself and looking inward, while maintaining curiosity and actively listening to the client. Aguilar is not shy about the design decision to slow down in order to create this space, and the transparency she offers as a facilitator cultivates trust between her and participants.
To support understanding, learning activities throughout the course of the workshop provided opportunities to set intentions, engage in personal inquiry, explore text, practice coaching conversations, and reflect. Aguilar established strong learning conditions up front to support participants’ connection to the work. What I found to be particularly useful were the daily personal inquiry questions. As my coaching context has shifted to external partnership versus school-based personnel, my personal inquiry throughout the learning experience was definitely different than it would have been in the past. Being in the early stages of defining my work as an external partner, approaching the concepts with a clear lens helps me make the most of the learning experience. Here’s an example of my learning record from Day 2:
Personal Inquiry: How can I develop leaders’ capacity to engage their teams? What is my gradual release from modeling, to doing alongside, to observing?
Inquiry Reflection: It is important for me to step back and do more listening in the contexts in which I support ILTs; restructure my leadership check-ins to slow down and create a learning space before diving straight into “doing.” The role of the coach is to help the client surface what is within, rather than provide fixes and solutions.
The opportunity to synthesize daily learning by returning to the personal inquiry question each day helped to solidify the concepts. By the end of the third day, I left the space with the right balance of takeaways and next steps, with a clear picture of how to use my new tools and understanding where I want to focus my practice. I’m eager to bring this new learning to my current and future coaching relationships!
You can find more information on Elena Aguilar’s work at https://brightmorningteam.com/