Consulting Description

Linda Gross Cheliotes has over 38 years of successful educational experience, including fourteen years as a school administrator. As principal, she transformed her underperforming school to a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. She was named a National Distinguished Principal in 2002 and holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership.

For the past two years, Dr. Gross has been a coach and trainer with Coaching for Results, Inc, a national consortium of school leadership coaches. She is a founding member and coach for NAESP's principal mentor certification program. Dr. Gross currently works with the New York City Council of School Administrators' Educational Leadership Institute, providing professional development for assistant principals who aspire to become principals. She has presented numerous professional development programs at the national, state, and local levels.

Dr. Gross is a member of the International Coach Federation and the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Foreword by Simon T. Bailey
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
1. Coaching Conversations: The Link to Change
What Is a Coaching Conversation?
Why Our Brains Need Coaching
Why Trust Matters
Holding Difficult Conversations
Moving Toward Coaching Conversations
Summary
Reflections for Practice
2. Coaching, Mentoring and the Leadership Continuum
Leadership Practices Continuum
How the Continuum Works in Practice
Being a Coach-Like Mentor
The Case for Being Coach-Like
Summary
Reflections for Practice
3. Committed Listening
Listening Assessment
Moving to Action
Components of Committed Listening
Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
Value Silence
Unproductive Patterns of Listening
Listen Without Obligation to Act
Summary
Reflections for Practice
4. Powerful Speaking and Questioning
Expressing Positive Intent
Avoid Advice
Ask Powerful Questions
Summary
Reflections for Practice
5. Reflective Feedback
The Importance of Feedback
Three Types of Feedback
Options for Offering Meaningful Feedback
Responding-on-the-Fly
Framing an Important Conversation Using Reflective Feedback
Journal Reflection About an Important Upcoming Conversation
Using the Reflective Feedback Frame to Support Excellence
Reframing Resistance
Summary
Reflections for Practice
6. Moving to Action: A Way of Being
The Basic Framework
Study 1: Using the Reflective Framework in a Supervisory Coaching Conversatio
Study 2: Using the Reflective Framework for Large Scale Challenges
Next Steps
Summary
Reflections for Practice
Appendices
Appendix A: Powerful, Open-Ended Questions
Appendix B: Reflective Feedback
Appendix C: Reframing Resistance
Appendix D: Reflective Feedback Framework for Coaching Conversations
References
Index