Best-selling author and coaching expert, Elena Aguilar, brings weekly tips, tools, and wisdom to educators with one goal: to help you thrive.
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What listeners are saying…
Elena Aguilar is a force in conversations about school leadership, teams, and equity. To read her books and attend her workshops is some of the best professional development you can ask for. Only one episode in, I can already tell these podcasts will stay with me for weeks, months, years, as I think about how we can build a more equitable world through schools. The hard work involves countless daily interactions and conversations, and Elena helps model and ask questions about how to do that best.
surfinglibrarian
I’m so glad I got to binge on this podcast this long weekend before starting the new school year. It’s a niche that I have not found, and I find these episodes so enriching and rejuvenating. I feel more in community with other educators who are grappling with tough questions re: equity, leadership, etc. Thank you for your work, Elena!
xwu1
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We know support comes in many forms. For some, the way they can or want to support us is via shout-outs on social media, likes on Instagram, sharing the podcast with friends and reviews on iTunes. Those make a big difference for us and we are so grateful for each and every one.
For those who can and want to do more, we invite you to become a Friend of the Show. For the cost of a cup of coffee a month, our Friends keep our show ad-free and accessible to all. They also receive an in-episode shout-out, automatic entry for a spot in our 2023-24 Onward Book Club, the opportunity to submit questions and ideas to our podcast team, and special invitations, such as being offered the opportunity to be coached by Elena on our coaching conversation episodes.
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Episode 155: How to Build Your Team’s EQ
If you want a team that can engage in healthy conflict, one that experiences high levels of investment and low levels of resistance, you need to focus on emotional intelligence (EQ). The first step is to grow an awareness of your own emotional landscape. Today’s episode provides you with the knowledge and tools to get started. […]
Episode 154: How to Close Your Coaching Conversations
How our conversations end matters. A lot. In this episode, Elena provides 5 tips that will allow you to close your coaching conversations in a way that elicits positive emotions, allows your coachee to tap into their sense of power, and cultivates resilience. […]
Read More… from Episode 154: How to Close Your Coaching Conversations
Episode 153: How to Determine Your Coaching Conversation Area of Focus
What do you do when a coaching client doesn’t know what to focus on during your time together?
If you want to feel confident in answering that question, this is an episode you won’t want to miss! Elena shares four tips for guiding the conversation when your client has many priorities, maybe even competing priorities that will not only help them figure out where to start, but will also build their decision-making capacity in the long term. If you’re a coach, leader, parent, or anyone who wants to take a coaching stance, this episode is for you! […]
Read More… from Episode 153: How to Determine Your Coaching Conversation Area of Focus
Episode 152: Transformational PD: Part 3 – Responding to Resistance
Have you ever faced resistance while facilitating? Us too! In this final episode of our Transformational PD mini-series, Elena is joined by Bright Morning teammate, Maria Dyslin, to discuss and demonstrate how you can navigate resistance as a facilitator before, during, and after your meetings and PD sessions. […]
Read More… from Episode 152: Transformational PD: Part 3 – Responding to Resistance
Episode 151: Transformational PD Part 2: Six Transformational Tips
What do I do when an activity I planned just isn’t working?
How do I respond to a question that I don’t know how to respond to?
My agenda is too full but everything is essential! What do I cut? […]
Read More… from Episode 151: Transformational PD Part 2: Six Transformational Tips
Episode 150: Transformational PD Part 1: What It Is and Why You Need It
Today Elena is joined by Bright Morning teammate, Becky Barstein, to explore these questions and many more in Part 1 of our three-part Transformational PD mini-series. If you design or facilitation adult learning, this is an episode you won’t want to miss! […]
Read More… from Episode 150: Transformational PD Part 1: What It Is and Why You Need It
Episode 149: Coaching Resistance: Part 3 – Coaching Demonstration
It’s been two months and the teacher you’re coaching still hasn’t implemented the strategies they agreed to. What do you do?
In today’s episode, Elena demonstrates her approach to coaching this type of “resistance” and then pulls back the curtain to explain her coaching moves. […]
Read More… from Episode 149: Coaching Resistance: Part 3 – Coaching Demonstration
Episode 148: Coaching Resistance: Part 2 – Preparing OURSELVES
On today’s episode, Elena and Bright Morning teammate, Nick Cains, discuss what they do to prepare themselves to coach resistant clients, and how they tend to themselves as coaches of color who often coach across lines of racial difference. Listen in for concrete strategies and several stories that help bring them to life. […]
Read More… from Episode 148: Coaching Resistance: Part 2 – Preparing OURSELVES
Episode 147: Part 1: How to Eliminate Resistance in 5 Steps
Elena hasn’t experienced resistance in her coaching conversations in over a decade. In this episode, she shares her five step process to eliminate resistance in your coaching conversations (…and really, in any conversation). This is the first in a three-part Coaching Resistance mini-series you won’t want to miss. […]
Read More… from Episode 147: Part 1: How to Eliminate Resistance in 5 Steps
Episode 146: How to Set Yourself Up For a Great Year
Resolutions don’t work for the overwhelming number of people, but we know what does! In this episode, Elena shares the simple, research-based, strategy she’s using to support her in making 2023 one of the best years yet. Listen in, grab your free resource, and take the first step in making 2023 a great year. […]
Read More… from Episode 146: How to Set Yourself Up For a Great Year