Hello, friends. Welcome to the Bright Morning podcast. I'm your host, Elena Aguilar. And in each podcast

episode, you'll hear me demonstrate how you can lead conversations that build connection and spark change.

If you have ever been frustrated in a conversation with your manager, this episode is for you.

I'm going to share with you one strategy that will diffuse your frustration and unlock new possibilities.

I started thinking about this when I was recording my end-of-year

conversation with admin skill session for the Learning Library.

Before I got into all of the details of the session, like the email templates, the

agenda, scripts, and so on, I knew I needed to step

back and start with the concept of coaching up. So this idea, coaching up, invites us to consider

taking a coaching stance when we interact with or talk to people in roles with positional power.

So if you are a site-based coach and you are having a conversation with your principal,

who might even be the person who evaluates you, you can take a coaching stance.

And that's what we call coaching up.

For people without a coaching background, there is a lot to learn to be able to do this.

But for a coach, this is really just putting many of your

skills, your coaching skills, to practice in a new context. There are a whole bunch of reasons

why this is a really helpful and effective stance to take.

So first, when you take a coaching stance, you can use all of your coaching tools.

And hopefully, you are starting to feel like you have a lot of coaching tools.

When you draw on these coaching tools, you benefit from the confidence that comes with being comfortable and well practiced with an approach.

Second, by taking a coaching stance, you can shift into working from the dispositions of a transformational coach, which means that it might feel easier to be curious,

compassionate, and courageous. When we are interacting with people who have more power than us, it's common to unconsciously shift into more of a passive stance and feel like we're at the mercy

...