Practicing What I Preach: Why I Survey My Coaching Clients

"We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve." - Bill Gates

One of the core expectations I have for the principals I coach is simple:

Ask for feedback.

In fact, I encourage every campus leader I work with to administer climate and culture surveys multiple times throughout the school year. If we truly want to improve our leadership, strengthen relationships, and build better schools, we need to know how others experience our leadership.

As coaches, we should hold ourselves to the same standard.

Each year, I ask the leaders I serve to complete an anonymous coaching survey. The purpose isn't to collect compliments. The purpose is the same reason I ask principals to survey teachers and staff: to identify strengths, uncover blind spots, and understand where growth is needed.

This year's results were both affirming and humbling.

Across the survey, leaders reported strong growth in three areas that matter deeply to me:

• Increased confidence as leaders

• Improved ability to work effectively with staff and communities

• Growth in their overall leadership effectiveness

Many leaders described coaching as providing clarity during difficult decisions, accountability for important goals, and a safe space to think through challenges. Several first-year principals noted that coaching helped them navigate uncertainty, build confidence, and remain focused on what matters most: improving outcomes for students.

What I found most encouraging was that the comments were remarkably consistent. Whether serving veteran principals, assistant principals, aspiring leaders, or first-year campus administrators, leaders repeatedly mentioned four themes:

Clarity. Coaching helped them sort through competing priorities and focus on what mattered most.

Confidence. Leaders felt more prepared to make difficult decisions and trust their professional judgment.

Accountability. Weekly conversations helped turn ideas into action and intentions into commitments.

Reflection. Coaching provided dedicated time to think deeply about leadership challenges instead of simply reacting to them.

At the same time, the survey also identified opportunities for improvement. Leaders suggested additional support around topics such as PBIS implementation, resilience and stress management, intervention systems, leadership collaboration, and increased opportunities for in-person observations and feedback.

Those suggestions matter.

Just as I tell principals not to defend survey results, I believe coaches should resist the urge to explain away feedback. Feedback is a gift. The goal isn't perfection; the goal is continuous improvement.

One of the greatest lessons I've learned as a coach is that leadership can be incredibly lonely. Principals spend much of their day supporting others, solving problems, and making decisions that impact entire communities. Yet they often have few spaces where they can think openly, process challenges, and receive honest, unbiased support.

My goal has never been to provide all the answers.

My goal is to help leaders discover better questions, gain clarity about their priorities, and take meaningful action toward their goals.

As another school year comes to a close, I am grateful for every leader who trusted me enough to be part of their journey. More importantly, I am grateful for their willingness to provide feedback so I can continue growing alongside them.

After all, if I expect school leaders to embrace feedback, I should be willing to do the same.