A Coaching Approach to Learning and Leadership

What Is Coaching?

In recent years, coaching has moved beyond the sports field into classrooms, staffrooms, and boardrooms. Contrary to popular belief, coaching is not about instruction, nor does a coach provide ready-made solutions. Instead, coaching creates space for individuals to think, reflect, and arrive at their own answers. At its core, coaching is about helping people unlock their potential and empowering them to discover the path forward for themselves.

Unlike coaching, mentoring places more emphasis on advising. It typically involves an ‘expert’ drawing on their own experience to offer guidance to someone with less experience. The concept of mentorship stretches all the way back to Greek mythology. In Homer’s Odyssey, when Odysseus leaves for the Trojan War, he entrusts the care of his son, to his trusted friend Mentor. Mentor is instructed by Odysseus to “Tell him all you know” (Homer, 268) which highlights the foundational idea of mentorship as sharing wisdom. This nicely outlines the distinction between the two pedagogical approaches. Where a mentor might say “Here’s what helped me”, a coach would ask “What do you think might help you?”  In coaching, technical knowledge takes a backseat. The emphasis is firmly on the coachee, they are the expert in the room and there is a fundamental belief that they have the answers within themselves. This approach fosters a much more neutral, non-directive experience for both parties. Coaching and mentoring are both undoubtedly valuable, each serving a distinct purpose. Selecting the appropriate approach would depend entirely on the context and the individual needs of the person. Mentoring offers clear advice and guidance but may inadvertently limit the mentee’s sense of agency and possibly encourage passivity. In contrast, coaching empowers self-discovery, but it is time intensive and, if the individual is unaware they are being coached or is expecting direct answers, it may feel frustrating or unproductive. This highlights the importance of one of coaching’s fundamental principles: the coachee must be open to and aware of the coaching process. Without that readiness, coaching can fall flat.

The Art of Listening

How often are we truly listened to? And by that I mean, you have someone’s undivided attention. No hi-jacking or interruptions. No comparisons, unsolicited advice or judgement. Just presence. This kind of deep, intentional listening is a rarity in our fast-paced, solution driven world. Most of us, even with the best intentions, struggle to listen well. We are often so caught up in our own thoughts, agendas or in the urge to fix or respond, that we forget the value of just listening. Hearing what is being said, without reacting is not passive, it is powerful. It creates space for trust and clarity. The act of truly listening really is an art.

Active listening is fundamental in effective coaching. It means being fully present, withholding judgment, and tuning into a person’s verbal and non-verbal cues. According to Aguilar, listening “without fixing, rescuing, or solving” allows individuals to process and reflect more deeply (Aguilar, 58). It can be difficult to process important issues internally. Often, before we can gain any depth or momentum we get sidetracked by what we should cook for dinner that evening or what time the kids need collecting from football. “Our minds seem reluctant to explore and will seize on any distraction to avoid it” (Coaching Culture at Work) An effective coach can interrupt this pattern. Articulating your thoughts in the presence of an active listener can help you to gain perspective and clarity. Without external input or judgment, you begin to dismantle self-constructed barriers, paving the way for forward thinking. It can be transformative.

Powerful Questions

Active listening opens the door for meaningful questions. A great coach will ask the right question at exactly the right moment. I have been fortunate enough to see this in action this year during my Coaching Culture at Work course, led by James Wright. An expert in his field. James modelled active listening, followed masterful questioning. The questions he posed seemed perfectly crafted for that individual, tailored to their unique context and delivered just at the right moment. This is a skill that undoubtedly takes years of practice to master.  Seeing this in action made me reflect on my own approach and reinforced how much questions matter. As teachers, we know this. The clarity, type and timing of a question shapes the response. In coaching, a single well-asked question can have a ripple effect. Much like the butterfly effect. Just as a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can set off a chain of events in another, a powerful coaching question can unlock deep insights that spark meaningful action. Poor questions can limit thinking, while powerful, well-timed ones can transform it.

The GROW model was developed by Sir John Whitmore in 1992. It is one of the most widely used coaching frameworks, helping guide coaching conversations. Each stage of the GROW model invites a specific type of thinking, helping individuals move from where they are, to where they want to be using carefully considered questions. These questions, when combined with the principles of active listening and timing work like magic, unlocking the coachee’s own insights and possible pathways forward.

Here is an overview of the GROW framework and examples of the types of questions that might be used at each stage:

Coaching in our Schools

As you can probably tell by now, I am a strong advocate for coaching. That said, I’ll admit that I am quite late to the party. The benefits of coaching have been widely recognised for quite some time, across a broad range of fields including business, sports and leadership. Research continues to support its value; as performance consultant Timothy Gallwey noted, “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” (Gallwey, 20) Effective coaching has consistently been shown to boost both individual and team performance by building confidence, encouraging reflection, and fostering accountability. Beyond the inspirational rhetoric, the evidence for coaching is strong. Recent Meta analyses show coaching delivers a 0.4-0.7 effect size on performance and wellbeing (Theeboom et al.). In education specifically, a review of 60 studies found that coaching delivers substantial gains in instructional practice and meaningful improvements in student achievement (Kraft, Blazar and Hogan). Against a backdrop where 78% of UK education staff report stress and four-in-five report work related mental health symptoms, structured coaching and reflective supervision are not just ‘nice to haves’, they are a credible workforce strategy (Education support). So, with that in mind, here are some coaching questions for you:

• If you had more clarity, what decisions would suddenly feel easier?
• What is one small change you could make this week that your future self would thank you for?

And one for the leaders:

• How do you currently create space for others to grow? Where could you do more?

Reference List

Aguilar, Elena. The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation. Jossey-Bass, 2013.

Education Support. “Teacher Wellbeing Index 2024.” 2024. Education Support, www.educationsupport.org.uk/resources/for-individuals/articles/teacher-burnout-and-how-to-avoid-it. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.

Gallwey, W. Timothy. The Inner Game of Work. Random House, 2000.

Grant, Anthony M., and Louise Green. “Developing Coaching Cultures in Schools: The Role of Leadership.” Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, vol. 1, no. 1, 2008, pp. 254–68.

Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles, introduction and notes by Bernard Knox, Penguin Books, 1996.

Knight, Jim. Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected. Corwin, 2016.

Kraft, Matthew A., David Blazar, and Dylan Hogan. “The Effect of Teacher Coaching on Instruction and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 88, no. 4, 2018, pp. 547–88.

OpenAI. ChatGPT. 2025. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.

Theeboom, Tim, Brigitte Beersma, and Annelies E. M. van Vianen. “The Added Value of Coaching: A Meta-Analysis.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, vol. 13, no. 2, 2014, pp. 279–301.

van Nieuwerburgh, Christian. An Introduction to Coaching Skills: A Practical Guide. Sage Publications, 2017.

Whitmore, John. Coaching for Performance: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership. 6th ed., Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2022.