Often, depending on someone’s line of work, they do not enter into a job knowing exactly how to do the work required by it. Such is the case for educators and even educational administrators and other school leaders. They must earn undergraduate degrees and, typically within a certain amount of time, also a master’s degree.
Schools leaders are also normally required to have spent a number of years in classroom teaching positions or other similar roles before they can secure a job as an administrator. However, they are likely to still need plenty of on-the-job training either before or after they begin their job for the first time. This is due to the fact that their education did not adequately prepare them for the reality of what to expect from a school or the job in general (Wise & Hammack, 2012). For example, a new school principal may only have attained administrative experience as an assistant principal, or they may have only worked as a classroom teacher.
If they are entering into a new school they have never worked in before, school leaders may be new to the environmental factors and conditions that exist within the new building, also known as culture and climate. Yet, they are now thrust into a position where they are required to lead staff and students, foster meaningful relationships with stakeholders, and lead organizational success. This work may require some help from either a consultant or coach to better prepare the new school leader for how to handle their new and unfamiliar responsibilities. So, the question is does a school leader need a leadership coach or consultant?
Identify a workplace goal or task for which you might hire a consultant or coach
In the case of an educational leader who is newly hired as a school principal, it would be wise to hire a leadership coach or consultant to help them. Many times, mentorship programs are even required of new school principals as they are for new teachers. It is best for these new school leaders use data and evidence to focus on between one and three large goals to improve themselves and/or the school. In doing so, neither the school leader nor the coach or consultant will feel overwhelmed by the challenge of trying to do too much at one time.
Roles of a consultant and coach
Cumberbatch (2016) noted the differences between the roles of a coach versus a consultant. The author pointed out that a coach’s main objective is to work with someone to develop the skills that already have. Cumberbatch further explained that a coach helps someone develop their purpose, brainstorms with them, and motivates them in their business. Furthermore, many coaches also address mindset issues such as limiting beliefs, fear, and self-sabotage (which are extremely important to address). They also provide support and accountability to ensure that someone is following through on their action steps.
On the other hand, Cumberbatch described a consultant as more of an expert you turn to for help with your organization. The author noted that consultants teach you skills you don’t know, analyze your organization, and create an action plan for you to implement. They are well versed in planning and strategy, which they use to help gauge the organization’s vision and direction. Business consultants analyze leaders’ goals for the organization and help them create a plan of action required to actually accomplish those goals.
A coach can be viewed more as a partner, while a consultant might be looked at more as an advisor to a leader or their organization (Cumberbatch, 2016). Therefore, a school leader or principal may be better served by a consultant, especially in cases where a school’s or district’s success has been declining. A consultant would have the ability to analyze the organization, the leaders’ vision and goals, and create a plan of action for leading necessary changes toward attaining those goals. Hiring a consultant will likely provide a more expert approach and more instant success instead of a coach working with the school leader to develop skills they already have.
Cost-benefit comparison
Since I am largely looking at this question from the standpoint of school leadership, it is difficult to determine the cost-benefit comparison of hiring a leadership coach or consultant in terms of financial losses and gains for a school or district. There are other non-monetary benefits that could be gained, however. The cost of hiring a consultant to work with a school principal, depending on how long the contract’s term would be, would likely cost the school or district tens of thousands of dollars. However, they would potentially benefit from more staff and student success, typically measured by standardized test scores based on a normed set of learning targets or standards. For public schools, better test scores are almost as valuable as monetary gains. For towns and cities, they are. Better schools often mean a higher population and perhaps, through higher property taxes, for example, a more thriving community.
Costs of using a consultant versus the costs of a coach
As an example, the Heads Up Educational Consulting group costs $3,250 for 2-3 days of consulting (Heads Up Educational Consulting, n.d.). If a school needed 12 days of consulting, they would end up spending around $13,000. On the other hand, due to high turnover among school principals, it is estimated that the cost to develop, hire, and onboard each principal is $75,000 (Culbertson, 2017). Therefore, spending the $13,00 for 12 days of consulting, or even more days if the school chooses, may be more cost-effective over a long-term period.
Conclusion
Clients, or in the case presented in this paper, school leaders, often have a perspective on how to solve the problem they are facing but want to make sure their thinking is correct, or perhaps they are missing an obvious answer to a problem. So, they turn to a leadership coach or consultant to come in and provide their opinion (Nuth, n.d.). This practice may not only be sound when faced with a problem but also when a new school principal is hired.
Since consultants can provide advice and ideas based on their experience helping other organizations and their leaders, and an outsider’s perspective, they provide great value. Nuth also added that since consultants can sometimes work with several different organizations and may have even consulted an organization through the same problem in the past, they can provide a perspective based on what they have seen work (or not) before. And given this experience, they can often bring new and innovative ideas or possible challenges to the table that new school leaders probably wouldn’t have been able to see on their own.
References
Culbertson, J. (2017, September 6). 7 reasons why districts need to invest in principal coaching [Web log]. Retrieved from http://www.insighteducationgroup.com/blog/7-reasons-why-districts-need-to-invest-in-principal-coaching
Cumberbatch, C. (2016, June 22). Business coach vs. consultant: Which one is right for you? [Web log]. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chanel-cumberbatch/business-coach-vsbusines_b_10563390.html
Heads Up Educational Consulting. (n.d.). Backgroud and fees. Retrieved from http://headsuped.com/background-fees-2/
Nuth, A. (n.d.). Good to know: Why companies really hire consultants [Web log]. Retrieved from https://www.themuse.com/advice/good-to-know-why-companies-really-hire-consultants
Wise, D., & Hammack, M. (2012). Leadership coaching: Coaching competencies and best practices. Journal of School Leadership, 21(3), 449-477. Retrieved from http://rowman.com/Page/Journals
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