How to Nail Your Instructional Leader Interview

0:00 Welcome to another collaboration conversation where we talk about anything and everything that has to do with building compete Civ Vision driven teams because this is where you Unleashed your impact. I am KC W impact coach and consultant and of course, the host of this show. Now Today's show is going to get started in just a few moments, but I want to take a quick pause real quick for you to introduce yourself in the comments. Let us know. Know who you are where you're from. And what it is that brought you to the show. I'm excited to begin today's content. So if you are ready, drop a hashtag ready.

0:42 And let's get started. Hey everybody. Welcome to the new coaching group tonight. I have KC W with me. Oh, she's over there. We are talking about how to nail your instructional coaching interview. So if you are coming into this now live, then drop us and say hi. And tell us why you're coming in from and tell us if you are doing an interview of coming soon. And also, if you are on replay, drop us. #Replay because we know a lot of you will be watching this on replay. Even as we have new members coming into the group. So, let me just give you a quick overview. If you are new to the group, we have had so many new members. Come into the group lately, this is a new to coaching group and it is where you can learn how to transition from classroom to coaching.

1:35 And I started this group over three years ago now and it has grown to over 7,000 members. Casey has been a member like from the beginning, she's been hanging out with me. And so, So we one of the things that happens is when new members come into the group. I always try and connect with them in a DM. So if you're a new member definitely drop us a hashtag new member so we can see you or waiting for your comments to come in. So be sure to say hi and I connect with members and dams and one of the things that I've we've seen posts about in the group and I've seen in several DM's, even just today question that that we have a lot of teachers coming into the group who are looking to become instructional, coaches, or Teachers who have been tapped on the shoulder.

2:17 I was call this a little tap, tap tap from Administration that says like, hey we want you to apply for this instructional coaching position. And it sometimes comes as a surprise that you would be like asked to apply, but you're really an amazing Runner teacher and you would be a great fit. So it's really common for new people, who are coming new members, who are coming into the group, to be looking to transition to coaching. And so, this is a great place for you to be. Be and tonight we're going to be talking all about how to prepare for your interview and giving you all sorts of tips and strategies. So KZ W is going to introduce herself and she's going to take it and share with us some of these amazing strategies that she has here to tell us a little bit about, like, your interview background that you were wrong. Yeah.

3:03 How you are? Like, such an interview Guru. So, I am Casey, Watson impact coach, and consultant alongside my day-to-day work, as an instructional coach. That my district. And I have to tell you that in the beginning of my journey of interviewing, I have always loved interviews. I don't know what it is about it. I think it's just like this Challenge and I've always been the kind of person I'm going to be really honest with you guys and vulnerable and just hear me out, but it's kind of like dating like I want you to want me but I don't really want you, you know. Like I've have some of those Jobs where I'm like, oh I'm going to interview because I really want you to hire me but I really don't want to work here just because I love interviews that much. I think it's my 3 coming out, right? Like my any G 3.

3:56 Woo is to its extreme when I get ready for interviews but about 10 mL know, 15 years ago probably about 13 to 15 years ago. I found a school that I was like this is the school that I have to work out and I went to Review and the first year that I went to interview, I was asked lots of really great questions and I found myself fumbling because I wasn't prepared for that interview. I'm going to tell you, even one of the questions that was asked, was what is a professional book that you are reading right now and I was like, whoa, this schools legit, like they're asking me about professional reads and I'm not reading anything right now. And so In my Panic instead of just being vulnerable and honest about that.

4:48 What I did instead was I said yeah. So I go to, I go to a bookstore sometimes and I'll sit on the end of the island. Pull out a book and read it. And I read a book about this one thing recently and it was like, what am I, you know, your brain saying like stop talking, like you hurt, your mouth is like it's continuing to talk and the They're harsh part about that. Is it wasn't just me. Interviewing it was several people interviewing. So they had three people answering questions at the same time. It is so awkward. I was intense. So I left that interview and of course, I did not get that job but I went again the next year, but here's what's different about the next year.

5:38 The next year that I went in, I had had coach, I had someone who coached me, He threw here's what they might ask, there's how you might respond. But even more than that, like, let's really dig deep and to understand like what the hang-up is for you in interviews. So you can work past it. Because I think so often we think about interviews is I got to know my stuff, but really so much of it is. I gotta know how to present myself and know what my triggers are so that I can combat those and have a successful interview. So since then since that 15 years ago at that job, I have been in countless interviews myself and for multiple different positions I mean you know you know you can last year even when I think three different and I love it.

6:35 I love every bit of it but that's not the only thing you interviewed. Just an interview. I think I do. It's pretty, it's sad. I probably need to stop. Top. But I also love being the interviewer. Any time I get a chance to be part of a committee or pull a committee together, I am on it. It's my favorite thing to do because you're really if you know what you're looking for, you can be really strategic and intentional when you interview other people and it's the same for the interviewee. If you know what people are looking for, you can be really strategic in mindful about how you approach the interview. So, That's what I have to say about that.

7:15 Okay, well, I mean, let's just dive in here. We're going to start with strategies. Are we going to start with tips? What are we starting with? So, here's what I want to do first, I want we have a lot of people who are saying they have interviews coming in, by the way, Texas, well that's Amber members. We have an opening for an icy position in my district and applied, yes. We're going to be helping Amber through her process for sure. Got Nashville. Bill. Southern PA, Texas. We're gonna Texas friends and I think this is Jessica Crawford, but her name is not happiness. Yes, Jessica.

7:56 Okay, look sleepy. I know she's been sick today. So we're feeling a little sleepy. So Mom, I might have to hold her but you didn't, you can share with us what? You're going to say. You're happy. So we have a feed. There are few things that I want to do. Actually number one, I want to know from you. Guys who are here with us live tonight. What your primary questions are like, what comes to mind when you think about interviews? What makes you nervous anxious? What are your questions? Drop them in the comments and we'll try to address those as they come up and as we have time, I also want you to know that at the end of this live, we are going to have a padlet with some great resources resources for you. So I'm going to tell you what the padlet is going to include the padlet is going to include Glued a graphic that gives you four major tips that you're going to want to focus on when you're preparing for an interview that padlet will also include an interview preparation worksheet to help you go through some of those, those four key Concepts. They loving Richie, I didn't do it. You can do it online, digitally, or you can print it out if you're a pen to paper and then we also have 12 questions that you might Asked in an instructional coaching interview but they're not in any particular order and that's the number one question that we get in the group. What questions do you think?

9:24 They'll ask? Yes. So that's really why we decide to do this session because every year this time of year, it happens that somebody drops that question the group and, you know, it's always very common question. So we want to make sure we have those quick resources and EasyShare for you, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And the twelve questions that we are going to give you their that you will be We asked some variation of those questions so when you look through them you're not going to think about them as like a point-blank black-and-white question, that will be asked but you can, you can think to yourself. What are the variations of this question that could be asked. So are we ready to dig in? We Are Awesome. Okay.

10:05 I can't wait, tell me more. So, four major things that you want to think about that, will help you to stand out, or I'm going to list all four in there. To go through them. Okay, number one is, do your homework. Number two is know, yourself. Well, number three is focus Less on content and more on coaching. And number four is rehearse instead of memorized. Yeah, these are really good. I'm so excited. Okay, clearly I was so excited like Christmas morning. Alright, so number one, do you?

10:45 Your homework. This is probably one of the most important things you can do before you even begin thinking about the interview itself. You want to do your homework about the school and as you're doing your homework about the school, you are looking for several different things, you're thinking. What is it that the school is all about, what is their Vision, their mission, their core values. You can find all of that for most of the time on their district homepage, right? Or there can, His homepage. But you also might take it a step further and you might consider. Okay, what is the makeup of this campus? What is the makeup? Not only of, like, demographics of students, but what about teachers and administrators how many teachers are there per grade level?

11:35 How many teachers are there in the whole school? How many administrators are there? What are their titles do? They already have instructional coaches? If If they do already have instructional coaches, you might want to do a little bit of homework to figure out, how do they utilize their instructional coaches right now? Yeah, especially to like District level yes because the district level position or or building level position. And if they have coaches at the district level, you know, sometimes it's hard to find that information but the more you can understand what they have put in place for a coaching program in the district. Yes. Can also give you a big picture view. Oh versus like just what's happening at that school? Yes.

12:19 So if you are not most most of you are working in the environment where you have the district level and the school-based to yeah. Uncle so yeah and that's a good point because you can for most districts you can go to their campus or their site page and look at their Department of curriculum and instruction or their Department of teaching and learning. And you can see like, what is do they have an The coaching program and then may not have it specifically lined out, but you can get an idea of what their goal is for teaching and learning. Then strategic plans do sorry, like just mentioning. Yeah, like on that District site, there's also strategic plans that tell you what the district is working on way bigger than just that one building.

13:07 And for you to have some awareness of that if this is not a district that you've been working in and you know what's going on, then knowing what the school. And what the Is focusing on, that's why they're hiring a coach just to get those things moving. Yeah. So being aware of the bigger District goals, this is an important piece to it because that's also what the principle is thinking about is those bigger District goals because that's what the her boss is telling her she needs to do. So you got to start thinking bigger definitely outside of that. One building you're applying to I love. Love love that. I love the idea of like if you're doing your homework you are whitening. Your limbs Right? We're taking an ink Eagle's View perspective of this school. And with that said, Allison really, you could also a lot of schools have or a lot of states have reports for each district in the state that you could look into. So, for example, Texas has the TA PR, which is the Texas. Oh, something performance report. Yeah, academic performance.

14:13 I should know that because I live in Texas. That means is they're hard acronym to remember all acronyms. We have them all in education so you can look at that to to prepare yourself for, you know how like what are the things that they really want to focus on as a district and as a campus, what could be some possible goals? So do your homework. You also want to think about what is the culture right now go to their social media pages. That's going to help you decide what they care about and what they want to promote. So go look at their social media pages.

14:55 Okay, number two or number two, we're ready for number two, when somebody okay, two quick things to keep in mind. Somebody said are, we are we going to do all four? Now we are going to do all for now. So you're going to get everything right here in this one session. This is a single Session 1 and N. So if you are wanting to know all the details, stay to the end, we have got Thing for you right here. And then later, maybe we can talk about resumes because Elizabeth Taylor asked about resumes that's on your list, too, right? Yeah. Yes. Okay, yay. Hey, let's stay with us. If you want to hear about resumes as well, okay? Okay. Number two is no yourself. Yes. No, no, no yourself. No, I mean, like, we're really hammering in on the know yourself. Let's fix it.

15:40 Know yourself well, but this is huge. I feel like this is like my soapbox about it, but you have fur. Okay, I'll go first then you tagging because we both know. Wait we both know that knowing yourself matters. I'm going to say almost more than anything else. Yes, I think some people can push back on that but it's so true. You know that one of the questions they're going to ask is will tell us about your strengths and what are your areas of weakness or growth rate and we I heard somebody the other day say You know, when they asked me that question, I usually say because they were told in one of their college classes, when you show your weeks or weaknesses, you share them, basically as strengths. And I was like, no, no no, no, no, we're not doing that. I don't know if anybody is an office fan but there's an episode where Dwight's doing his owner interview or with someone else.

16:41 No, I think he's doing an interview with the lady and he's like, and what are my weaknesses? Genesis my weaknesses are that my strengths are too good or, you know, something crazy like that. What's there to much. That's what we write. And so that actually is one of my weaknesses for a boy, to have an issue with that. But I know why. Because I'm a to and I know many G number and I know how sometimes I can be too and pathetic, maybe just a little bit. Well, Say that again. But how do we do this? Hey, we know this. Well I want I was gonna say to like this interview is really more about how you fit into the story of the school and that's one of the things that we have on this graphic because it's so important. How do you fit into the story of this school? So you want to lead with your own story? What is your, why why are you coming to this position anyway? Now I will tell you so many people, especially instructional coaches.

17:43 They leaned into well I just want to help teachers or I want to teach teachers what I know and you're going to want to steer clear of that instead. What you're going to want to do is think truly about a deeper greater. Why what is that your core for why you go into education because that's not really going to change, you know? Like your Y is probably rooted in what you want to do for students and that will remain the same in an instructional coaching position. But you also So want to think about like what is your personality type lean into your knowledge of what what your weaknesses are, but be ready to be vulnerable out, vulnerable about that and address it in a way that shows. I know that this is an area that I'm working on. And here's what I do to ensure that that doesn't get in the way of My Success for the success of others. You can also think about like what is your working genius or if you Can the Myers-Briggs assessment? You can look at those personality types and really highlight some because those are specific. Yes, I do.

18:52 Actually, I recently took that Myers-Briggs which this is not it. That I have like, studied deeply. It has a really, really quick report and it literally has strengths and weaknesses. Now, it will take, you know, less than, you know, 10 minutes to do the test. And then you get this report and you're reading it going. How do they know me so well? Yeah. That one's that 16 personalities.com. If someone will put that into the chat for us, like literally the number 16, personalities.com that would be a great quick one and often some schools who have done personality work will ask you to have that. Yeah so it's good to go ahead and do it and know it even if they don't ask you for it you could still bring it up.

19:37 But one of the things that I think and I think you're going to get to this little bit with your next one. So don't want to jump the gun. Much. But when it comes to knowing yourself in your weaknesses, new coaches are usually like thank you, Michelle for putting that in. Hi, by the way, come on into our bear backstage because you're going to come on screen soon. New coaches are often like, just not very feeling, very confident about this because they feel like they don't understand the role very well, and they often think that their weakness is going to be that they don't have knowledge of the content, or that they haven't. Aunt, taught, a grade level, like, those are the fear things that come up in this coaching thing is like own about to go. Start coaching Elementary, and I've never taught first grade, and that must be my weakness.

20:25 That really is not your weakness and we'll talk more about that in number three, but I want, I think you want to lean into a personality. Not going to see this more and things that are things that you want to work on personally all the time. Like these are things that you're probably working out at home too like I'm really bad at being disciplined. Doing the dishes like maybe this doesn't come up in the interview, but I just know that I'm bad at discipline with things that are just have to be done every day. I don't have that tenacity Casey. That's one of the working. Geniuses is tenacity. Don't have that sassy and sometimes, I'm bad at finishing, I'm great at starting that I'm not great at finishing, and that's something that I'm working on and I'm really mindful of.

21:06 And so, by talking about a personality weakness, that that really is something deeper than And I don't and I don't think it's a good thing for you to go into. Like I don't think I know enough because that is you and we'll get into that. But that's you not understanding coaching you, not knowing enough content is not a weakness, right? I must and really firm on. That is not a weakness and we are going to teach you how to not, you know, how to not worry about that here in the group. But I'm, I'm getting on a tangent. So what else do we need to do or know ourselves? We've got personality typing test with the, the one called working. Genius, is that working genius.com? It's $25.

21:47 So it's not free but it's really good to and and then there's the Enneagram which you can also do a free test. For I don't have a link for that one but there's just some different ways for you to dive into personality typing and really be ready to talk about some of those Personality. Yeah, weaknesses rather than the other ones. Yeah. I actually have I mean in all of my interviews when they talk about your strengths I always Bring up. I bring up for me. Usually, it's the my strengths finder. Oh yeah, my top five strengths. And my number one strength is what I want to tell you my top one because I don't like it.

22:29 But my second one, my second one is futuristic. And so, because I know that my strength is to look far into the future and able to Envision things and craft a vision. I'm also an inventor Then I know that one of my areas of growth is tenacity, like you said, so I am great at wondering and coming up with inventions and I leaned into the people that I know that really strong at tenacity to get certain things accomplished. So that does a couple of different things are like, oh we can see not only how she contributes to our organization but also that she's willing to lean in to other people.

23:12 Yeah. And we have we say things like Oh I'm great at Teamwork but we've got to be a little bit more specific about that. Yes. And when you know your weakness when you can say I'm not great at tenacity, then you can also say what I look for in collaborative. Partners is somebody who's going to help me get something to the Finish Line. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Because that's what I need in my life. That's like a sea. But we probably aren't great for each other. My name is Xiao rui for that who may or not be here tonight. But she's our tenacity lady. She gets to the Finish Line, right? Okay. What's our number three?

23:53 I got a type that one in number three is focused Less on content and more on coaching. Yes. Okay, this is where we were going before. Yeah. Lesson content more on coaching because you are not most likely. You are not interviewing for a content-specific. Roll. Even if even if you aren't even if you aren't exactly. Still going to work on coaching. Yep. So even if you're like, oh, but I'm Gonna Be A literacy coach. Okay, great. And knowing that content is awesome. They're going to ask you some questions about the content, but they're going to ask far more questions about of things that relate to coaching itself.

24:40 So, you are thinking about Friendships with teachers, you are thinking about how to build relationships. They're going to just give him, they're going to ask you that they're going to be asking about what coaching looks like to you. What is your schedule possibly look like? How do you support peers? So it's, you are going to ask how do you handle resistant teachers? Absolutely. That's one of the questions that I have listing on of those things have to do with content, for instance. So you have to really be thinking Thinking about this world. And just FYI, if you need somewhere to go to get answers to these questions in new coaching groups, a great place.

25:22 And then the new to coaching YouTube channel has like video after video after video, answering a lot of these questions for you. So, if you're ready to Deep dive, ya know, as you were listing those, I was like, have a video on that. Have a video on that that. And I know you probably have a video on like core values. Yeah. What are your core values as? A coach mmm-hmm and we have this assumption sometimes, you know, I said it earlier like we think we want to help teachers do better things and you want to give them all of your knowledge. That is your way right now of thinking that you want to support them. But in reality, you're not trying to create more minimis, that's not what an instructional role is. What you're doing is seeing those teachers as X. Spurts and you are thinking, what core values do? I have as an instructional coach, that helped me to raise the potential of all of these teachers and thus support our students will.

26:27 Yes. And if you have time, like, if your interview is not like next week, then the book that you need to grab, is the coaching habit by Michael bungay, stanier, because it will give you this basic idea of coaching that we're talking about. That is this book is removed from educational coaching necessarily but it will help you. Understand? What coaching truly is, it's about less advice, giving more listening and asking questions. And so this book is quick and super easy to read. And it's always the place that I recommend new coaches start. So, if you have a little bit of time, that's the book that we always recommend to think about how if you're like, well, how do I start understanding coaching?

27:10 I don't understand that. That's a great place to start. And then, of course, obviously the videos and the group will get you started as well. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's kind of like the little the last little piece of that Focus Less on content more on coaching. No, just a handful of experts, just a spoonful. That's all you need. You don't even need to know. All there is to know that all of these coaches say, but you want to know just a few expert. So you can say, you know, I've started to look into the work of Jim night. Yeah. That way. School with the one just does make it easy. If you are just walking into that, just start with him, it's enough. I also have a video playlist that is all his videos from his YouTube channel. And he talks about his seven partnership principles. They are the most fabulous place to start. Probably even better than the coaching habit book. Go watch.

28:03 Tonight's seven videos about his partnership principles and you will understand the bigger picture about coaching really quickly, and then you'll be able to say, well, I've looked into the work. Of Jim night and I understand more about Partnerships and what coaching is supposed to be like just being able to have a little bit of that knowledge to step into is really important. And when they ask you the question about resistant teachers to be honest, you don't know how you're going to handle resistant teachers. If you've never been a coach, that's a really unfair question. Yep. Them to ask you in my personal opinion, but they're going to ask you because they know it's a part of this situation. And so what you want to be thinking about Is the answer to how you're going to just work on building relationships with that teacher, and that's the answer to the question. Like, you can't go too much more into it because it really depends on the situation.

28:55 But relationship building is the basis for all the coaching work that you're doing. So when they ask you questions about, how would you build relationships with teachers, you want to be thinking about natural and organic ways that you would interact with teachers that would build natural and organic real relationship? Soooo and then if you have resistant teachers, they're ones that are harder to break through with and that you have to continue to connect with personally before they're really willing to trust you. So that is a very short version of other videos that you can go watch. But this idea of answering that question, the core answer is relationship building and that is a personal connection with teachers to win their trust that will help you become someone that they Austin open doors to our coaching and listen, there are absolutely going to be questions that you're like, I don't know.

29:50 I don't know. I've never done this before right and your mind might go blank. That's why coaching like interview coaching is really important because we can get down to the deeper level of like what's going on for you really and what can you do in those moments when it's like, you know freakout mode. Yeah. Or I've lost everything in my brain because the last thing you want to do is come up with an answer or what you think could be possibly right because and that gets us to number four, which is rehearse instead of memorized right? Yes. Number four is rehearse instead of memorize.

30:33 Here's what happens and I'm going I almost was like, oh, I don't want to give the twelve questions that might be asked because our some Some of our Tendencies is to take the questions and to script out exactly what you would say here. Here's the problem with that the problem with scripting out. What you can say is number one. You are most likely not going to bring that with you and say hold on just a moment. Let me look for how I scripted that out in these questions because I knew you were probably going to ask that. No one would ever do that but they also it's going to be a turn-off if you like have it open and you're looking through to see, where is my answer. And if you try to memorize and you have nothing there, your brain is doing too much at once you're trying to consider what the question is, and understand that fully, but your brain is also trying to recall what you memorized and your brain cannot function.

31:42 Well, that way. Way. Yeah. And, you know, and it's hard because you don't, you want to feel prepared, but you also want to really try to trust your, like, you have so much that you're bringing to the table. And I think this is hard for someone who's applying for a new coaching role, because you don't know what you're bringing. You don't even know what you're really applying for. Right. And you only have your teaching experience to lean on and so but you have a lot to bring to the table. So going more from like an instinctual kind of gut response. He's To be more genuine and they're going to see you for who you really are. You're memorizing. Even if you did a ton of rehearsing then it still feels like a little bit calculated or robotic, but yeah, the more natural you can come into it and more genuine. I know you'll feel nervous and that's hard but just trying to share who you are and what you believe about teaching. And why you believe that this would be your next step in your career.

32:41 Is it really you know is a part that you can bring in who you are? Yeah absolutely. And with that in mind, like the being nervous, you know, your Tendencies. So you have to take a moment before you go into the interview and say, what can I rehearse right now to get me through this interview? Well, for example, I know that sometimes when someone speaking and asking me a question, I'm not fully attentive to what they're asking, I'm focused on other things. Like I'm focused on what I'm going to say. So I know that probably what I'm going to have to practice or rehearse. Is what can I say when I need them to repeat the question? Oh, okay.

33:26 I know I can say I can only, you know, can I have a moment to think? Or can I have a moment to think, while you re read that question for me? And that gives you a little bit of a break, a little bit of time to breathe. I have, as an interviewer had people who have been extremely vulnerable and honest and paused and said, I need some time to think about that, is that? Okay, absolutely. Take some time to think about it. And then after they've said that they said, you know, I have to be honest, I'm not quite sure and that's something I have to lean. Two other people to learn about, or I would really like to get more information about that. Can I write that down?

34:12 I pray it was the interview and I said, I have to share with you how wonderful it was that you just did that not just in this interview but in future interviews you're going to want to do that again. They need that feedback and feedback is okay to give to interviewees in the moment, but it's fantastic. Yeah. So you might also think about keywords and phrases that you do want to hold on to something to ground yourself in as you're answering these questions. Like I know for sure that I want to talk about differentiation, I know for sure that I want to talk about relationships, I know absolutely that I want to talk about Jim nights impact cycle or Allison.

35:01 What are some other like keywords or phrases that people could anchor to? To make them feel a little bit more comfortable and relaxed when they're being asked questions. Yeah, I mean I think the the partnership principles that Jim Knight talks about is just a big one because it has to do with the idea of building relationships and creating an environment of equality in coaching, so that it's not a top-down environment. But I just, I think it's those other components around, like, just understanding coaching and some of the coaching, you know, Language about questioning listening, not advise giving and how you can just really use. Even the idea of what I just would want to really want to get to know teachers and ask him a lot of questions and help them come to their own conclusions and listening and getting to know teachers and doing what the best. Shank Sherry Saint Clair calls a listening tour. Thanks for a second, Harry Sinclair. Cause a listening tour.

36:07 And you know, so like the different little things that you could be doing to You can have those things kind of written down. Yeah. The last thing that I have on that little portion that you'll see on the graphic that we have for you on the padlet is this phrase think about Poise pace and presence? Mmm, those three things matter. How are you poised? What is the pace of your conversation? And how are you showing them that you are present? Because one of the major things about instructional coaching, is that? You are present and they're going to want to see that reflection of you in the interview. Yeah, I mean they are wondering too. I think sometimes we don't think about this because we're so used to being a teacher and even though you are not an administrator, as a as a coach, you're still kind of being dissed, they're deciding whether or not you would be a good fit on their administrative team.

37:08 Because you would be sitting at meetings where you would be, have you would be in the meetings with the principal Cool. And with the assistant principal like you're there looking to see if you would be a good fit interacting with them, they want to rapport with you. And then that is going back to that kind of coming across truly as yourself and natural because they're wondering if you'd be a good fit on their team and that's different from hiring a teacher when they're trying to hire a teacher there who they are trying to see like a little bit more about like yes, culture fit, but qualifications and Experience in these types of things. This interview is a little bit more like do we want this girl on our team or this guy on our team. So just be aware.

37:52 Like that's one of the things they're really trying to get from you and that the personal connections you make with them are what my twin that over. Well, I have to tell you a little story. One time I was interviewing someone with a team of mine and I think in hindsight, I think she was wanting to come across as really, Like comfortable. Like when I come here, I will be comfortable with you, but it was too comfortable because and crossed her leg over like this and like dug in her eager and flicked. It was like, okay somewhere between those two places, overly professional, no sticking your finger in your ear, no land right in the middle guys. Let's run it right in the middle. That's what we want to be.

38:46 Oh, okay. Is there more before we bring Michelle on, those were the four things. Okay, let's go back to that palette for just a second. I'm going to put it back up here and I did post it in the comments. And on here, we are going to drop some of the resources that we've already mentioned to you. That we didn't quite know. We were going to share but things like Jim nights partnership principles videos. I'm going to put those on here. Some of my videos that will help you with prepping that are or like just get to know. I have a video series called the six things. I wish I knew as a new instructional coach, those would help. So those will be on this tablet. So when you are watching, or if you're catching on replay, go ahead and check that out. And you'll find these things over here. So let us introduce our dear friend. Michelle, you can unmute you.

39:33 There you are. Can you? Are you? Are you that? Hi. Hi. How are you? I am all the All the feels. It's a big day is a big day. Okay. Introduce yourself to everyone. So, they know a little bit about you and tell them about your move and your interview, so give them a little back story, and then we'll talk some more. Sure. So I'm Michelle. And I am from Chicago suburbs. I'm here now, I am preschool Early Childhood instructional coach in a building that specializes in special education and my background is in dual language. Spanish, And my family is going to be uprooting and we are going to be planting new roots in Arizona this summer and I am going through the interview process. Now, yeah, yes, but this process like I mean, we before we even knew you were moving, we've had some conversations but then when you knew you were moving, but it still was months away. You've been thinking about this for a while, and a lot of the personality work that we did in the Breakthrough, Circle in November and December.

40:46 We did a deep dive into the Enneagram. We also learned about the working genius, like, when we work through that, that was like deep personality work that now has come. And played a really big role in this whole interview process, like not just in the physical the actual interview but in your preparation and your response to. So I've got to have you talk a little bit about that because I think it is a powerful layer of interview that we don't think about. Yeah. So when I first met with Casey, we kind of talked about knowing who you are and what is some of those things that make you feel anxious or uncomfortable in interviews? Or what are the tendencies that you've noticed and I think going through Enneagram and learning about my working genius. And and just embracing the fact that for years, I thought I was the one.

41:36 But now I realize that my nine with a wing one, just knowing those Tendencies about myself and how I can't could respond, but pushing through those things and and seeing like, I, I would rather make peace then then, Go for it so but I can't go for it when I'm feeling very confident in my three in my three. So going through that process of like you were mentioning the different personality test. When I learned about Enneagram, I was like, oh I feel seeing. I feel like oh, that's why I do that. You know. And it's really helping me to understand what are what is it?

42:19 That brings me joy in my work. What are the things that I love about what I do and what are those things that I What am I working? Geniuses those strengths that I have but also those things that like I can do but they really drain me and trying to find this balance of putting all those things together in this new opportunity. Yeah. And also like even just understanding where your emotions are coming from and preparation right before. And during and after like a lot of emotions come up around interviewing, there's nervousness, there's worried that you're not going to be like, remember everything, you know, and I feel That's helped. You catch yourself from being overly, emotional.

43:00 I mean you still have emotions but you kind of say like I know what this is. This is me overthinking it. I think you're in that acknowledging stage. Like yeah, really becoming more hyper aware of. Oh, I just did this and I did this because I'm, you know, in this in my nine or even my three just having the vocabulary to to be able to verbalize Eyes. Makes such a difference. Yes, absolutely yeah. That deep work and the Breakthrough Circle was very enlightening for so many members. Okay? So last week or I was actually thinking like it was last week that we got on a call and started talking about prepping you for your interview. So what was most useful for you and that conversation and then tell us about how you said in your interview? All right so Knowing my Tendencies. Yes, Casey really reminded me of using those pausing phrases like it is okay to pause and have something like let me think about that.

44:05 Being able to make those connections of how you were saying different like a book that I referenced the podcast that I just listened to just like showing them that little extra inch of like, This is extra work that I'm doing outside of it to learn more about coaching and the process and then really being able to not memorize because I am a memorizer and so I had like four typed out, sheets of like all every possible question that I could think of before you all are sharing your your 12 questions.

44:47 And so I'm like have all these questions. I'm like, okay, I cannot memorize these. He's let me like condense it down to one page and even this one page that I had, I'm like probably could have like made it into a half sheet but just, that preparation working knowing that I'm not going to script my answer. But I just want to be me. Like that's the most important part. It's me as a person. And I think something that you both spoke to me very much is about. It's not about it's a now. I can't know if I can say it. But like, is this the best fit for me? Like, yeah, what makes and this is actually one of the questions that I ask them in my interview.

45:29 I said, what makes this the best place to work. Hmm, good question. Yeah, that's them off guard because the panel of people were like, you know, let me get my answer ready, you know, they weren't ready for me to talk to them with that. So yeah, but I wanted to know like, you know, this is the best place for me to work. Why? Like, yeah, what do you bring to the table for me? I think sometimes we don't realize how much power we have in the interview process like we think that we're just being interviewed and then they will decide. And then we will just do what they say. Like, I'm sorry, no, maybe you haven't come through into your maturity enough yet. If you are feeling like, it's a one-sided thing, you actually hold the power. You are the one who is choosing whether or not you want to work at this place.

46:16 Then this interview is so that you can interview them about what this job is. No It's interesting because we just don't think about it that way. But the more you can flip the script and realize like this is not a high-pressure stakes in situation because it's really your choice, you know? If they if they say, no. Then okay, you didn't have much of a choice to go with, but you are the one who ultimately chooses, if this is the right environment for you. You know, it's not so great when you hear a no but you are interviewing them as much as they are. Interviewing you. I think that was probably We my winning question like over. Yeah, I mean having only two years of experience and instructional coaching and I would say that I have learned so much from participating in the new coaching group and participating in breakthrough Circle.

47:08 But like, yes, I'm getting that awareness of coaching. I don't have content specific to what they were necessarily asking, but going back to that organic a boat. Like we're going to build relationships and we're going to do it together and I don't have all the answers, but I'm going to lean on my co-workers for that as well. Yeah, being realism. Yeah, and this is just such a hard place for coaches because they get really stuck in thinking that they don't know enough content to do this job and it's just not true. So if there's one thing that you can hear from us tonight, if you're prepping for an interview and you are thinking about taking a role you need to know that coaching is not About content knowledge.

47:53 And if you think that, that makes you not prepared or not ready or not qualified, or any kind of fear that's coming up around content knowledge, it's not true. I once coached an AP Physics teacher and I know nothing about AP Physics and we had a fabulous coaching relationship. She's got all the content and I brought all the expertise about instruction. And that's really what creates the partnership. So just don't allow yourself to get stuck in thinking that, that is going to Qualify you for the work? Yep. Absolutely. So Michelle you sent me your cover letter and your resume and all the things. So what other like what kind of tips would you say worked for you for that? I don't know.

48:37 I know you were like really, oh, thinking about it. So I think for my cover letter K CA asked you about this and she's like you had told me, you know, you've got 30 seconds To catch their attention to tell your story in that opening part of your cover letter, and so that's what I did. I, you know, I was looking at my cover letter from when I first applied to teaching 12 years ago and it was like a mile long and I was like, you know, I don't want to read all this thing is like, there's I don't think that there was anything wrong with making it like, short and sweet and to the point and then that provides a way for them to ask more questions out of you.

49:22 Here. And then the same thing. With, with the resume Allison, you were great with providing me with, you know, example template and things just to go off of and I gave me a time. Give me a chance to reflect on what are all of the different hats? I've worn as coach as teacher. What leadership opportunities have a participated in and really build some self-confidence in preparation for the interview to like, hey, this is me, let me show case. Myself. And this is why you want me like but it's also what I want, you know. I don't balance and match. Yeah, but I think it is a lot about the confidence piece.

50:04 Like I think in the coaching situation alive times teachers get tapped on the shoulder and like literally asked to apply and that LEDs you lead you to a place of not feeling as confident, because you weren't even sure you wanted this job in the first place they told you, but, but then then you have the coach who like really did feel like I'm ready for this. I'm ready for this work. I'm ready to step out of teaching and both of those situations you really have to just realize like you are qualified for this, or they would not have tapped you on the shoulder if you got tapped on the shoulder or that's a really big acknowledgement. And if you're trying to step out on your own, then I already know you're qualified because you are a runner who is ready to go and do the next thing. And so this, this insecurity that might settle on you. I just just want to bring bring you back to a place of realizing like you have a lot to bring to the table. Don't hide it.

50:58 Don't feel like you can't share it and realize like you are ready. So Casey? What other tips you have about resumes or prepping for these like cover letter resume pieces because we did. So I have a question about that earlier. Well really probably the number one thing like Michelle was saying like you're for your cover letter that first couple of sentences is you To have a trigger there. That's what needs to trigger them to want to know more about you. So start telling your story and truly what I can say and Michelle had a great story. We when we first started talking about her interview, one of the things she was talking about is why she wants to do what why she wanted this position and the story was beautiful.

51:46 And I was like, that's what you tell them because we live and breathe in store. Or he's so just be okay with telling your story and being authentic with that said, while I'm going to say two things that kind of contradict each other, you are resume and cover letter are less important than the actual interaction. You have with the people who are interviewing you, however, your cover letter and resume are the things that get you the interview. So think about Cut Clarity think about Simplicity and think about impact. So just consider those things for cover letter and resume. Because most likely they're going through several different cover letters, resumes to decide who we going to interview and then the interview is where you want to put your time and effort.

52:47 Yeah. And I do think like design of Say it shouldn't be like, whoa, like jump off the page at you. But if it looks designed, it's going to stand out more like literally from the pile. And so if you have not used canva, then I would just recommend going over to canva choosing a resume template and putting all of your word document pieces, just move copy and paste them over into a canva template. It's just going to look a little bit more professional. How do you feel about them? Putting a picture on there? Well, I was just gonna Say, you know, I think we used to even when I was coming out of college, there were pretty strict, rules about resumes and cover letters, and I had to have this, and it needed to look a certain way. I think we're beyond that.

53:34 Yeah, I think we have moved into a such an Innovative time that we're looking for people who stand out, who are Innovative and creative and it's okay to push the limits a little bit. Like you said, don't just like, you know, we want it to still look like a resume, but it's okay. Okay. To bring your own unique spin to it. Yeah. And I think clean is the key like, pleat quickly readable skimmable, all those things are most important but I also think if you have a little bit of design element to it, something that is just I catching, I think that's great. I think a picture of you is really helpful and somebody had asked about portfolios. What do you recommend about like having a link to of virtual portfolio?

54:22 Have you done that or well, we talked about that Michelle. What did you in that unit else? What you did Michelle, you did that? I forgot. Follow-up. So I interviewed and then that next day, I sent a thank-you email for the opportunity and I really feel like that's been one of my strong suits and my role and I wanted to be able to share with them. The amount of I'm not a technology coach but I feel like I've embraced it and run with it all the changes and different things that I had made for my district. So, I did send them in that email. I said I also wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a virtual portfolio of mind that can be linked here and I actually stopped when they had opened it because I had forgotten to like give access to a couple of documents.

55:08 So I could see that they had opened it up and they were requesting access to my documents. Yeah. Wearing that like view history and yeah. What was the format? How did you collect everything? So everything that I have Organizes in my, Google site for a coaching and I'm happy I can share, I can link it in that we can find. Yeah, I can link it in there and it's just a collection of things that I've used, you know, it's my, my coaching updates, it's my one of the week that I take in use with my staff. It's, you know, just organizational features like here's where you can access resources for all of the different things that we have. Whether it's a building wind document or whether it's documents, I specifically, Created. It's my virtual space to organize all of all of the things.

55:57 Yeah. And if you are like, because you've been an instructional coach, so you have those things. Yeah. Some people are teachers coming out of the classroom. Don't think that you can't put things that you're doing right now into that digital portfolio because you're doing things, most likely if you're wanting to like Step Beyond your classroom, you're already doing things that a coach might do. So just think, think broadly about that? Yeah, well I mean, think about the things that you do that are, you know, data collection, kind of oriented or like a creative technology integration piece, you're probably doing things above and beyond even though you don't realize that you are and so you're like, oh, isn't everybody doing using? This will every day in their class? I freak.

56:49 No, no, they're not. So go ahead and Share that. I even think something as simple as exit tickets, that was the strategy that I used all the time. If there was a way for me to put that in a portfolio, I would have so, like, you know, these just strategies that you're using that, you would be able to share with other with teachers, those are things that you can easily try and at least share in a conversation piece of the interview or in a portfolio. If you can what platform did you use to create the portfolio. She said she used Google sites sites but So think padlet is a really great one, because if you create a padlet, you can put all sorts of links on it. You can do it kind of faster than building a whole site if you don't have one already.

57:34 So that would be good to also, you know, even pictures of you working with kids, you know, things like that. Talking about how you have lead and done teacher leadership. If you have ever if you've presented any sessions at any conferences or even professional development sessions at your school, You'll put a put one of your PowerPoint on there. Like, what did you present to the school if you did that? So, look thinking for just thinking of ways that you can showcase what you can do and if you are using Google suite at all, I mean, you could just drop all of those things into a Google drive folder and share that drive folder with.

58:14 And so then you don't have to worry about formulating or creating some sort of website or space. But they have access all those and Spot till yes. So I think there's definitely some easy ways to do that for sure. Okay. Friends out there if you are still here which we have several people who are still here, let us know other questions you have and we will work on answering them for you. We've got one curious to see a sample of eye-catching resumes. I have one that I can share. I can put that on the padlet. It's not like I haven't looked at in a while but I think has some eye-catching elements to it but But we also can just point you straight to Canvas. So when you are using canva, if you just use the search bar at the top and type resume, you will get all sorts of templates that you could look at and choose from. And so you don't necessarily have to have seen an instructional coaching one but just grab one of those templates.

59:09 So canva will kind of do the Pretty part for you. Yeah and I will say I'm like if you guys ever want to shoot us a message like a Facebook message and say Hey I have this question real quick. What can you tell me about this one question or hey can you just take a glance at this resume or do you have a couple or what are some specific instructional coaching things I could include we can easily respond to those those Facebook messages? Yes, absolutely. So we are, we loved DMX? We would love to connect with you in a DM. So you can send that as a Facebook DM in. So that's usually a great way to get in touch with us so that we can help you with these things as you have. Kitchens and as you get closer to it, you might have more questions.

59:55 You know as you get closer okay, I'll link to the padlet again, I will put that back up. There you go. Padlet, backslash faithful coaching bats last interview. Okay, so tell us what is most useful for you tonight? As you are listening in here thinking about this interview that you have coming up or thinking about a possible desire to want to coach, what kind of things have been helpful for you. As you have as you have been listening, have some links To those all those different personality tests, we will link those in the padlet. We have the link to the coaching habit book will link that in the padlet. I also have a video where I talk about these seven questions that you can check out.

1:00:40 So you know you can you can do it without buying a book. Basically, we've got tons of content for you, that is right here available. Oh, by the way, Texas Academic performance reports you did get that right. Right? But pick your damper are dropping that for us. I am. So what's most useful for you as you are thinking about this? Or if you have any other questions for us, will stay on for another minute and see if there's anything else. Would love to hear. So glad you came tonight. So another thing too, is recently in the new to coaching group, I did a big challenge, Kickstart your coaching Cycles Challenge, and so, in that, I taught the organic coaching Michael, which is really a way to naturally and organically can start coaching Cycles with teachers.

1:01:29 So coaching Cycles are one of the things that probably will come up in a coaching interview. And if you're not familiar with those, they're basically when you are working one-on-one with the teacher and an ongoing ongoing work with her around a student, Focus goal. And so, I teach that in my Kickstart your coaching Cycles challenge, which is also available in the course it was, it was live sessions, but Now it's in this in my online course, so I'll put that in the palette for you too. If you want to grab that online course right now it's at a special limited time price. So you can just take a look and see if you think that that would be a good fit but it'll walk you through the entire process from figuring out who you're supposed to start coaching Cycles with two. How do you start them?

1:02:13 And then how do you actually create student focused goals have conversation? So it walks you through the whole thing. So that might be helpful for you to if you're just trying to prepare Pair for understanding, like, what goat, what is going on with coaching? Yeah. And if you are really interested like you feel like I need a coach and I need someone to do some deeper coaching, you'll see a link on the padlet to get in touch with me and you can look into taking next steps for us to partner together so I can coach you through the interview process very much like I did with Michelle. Yes, and that is so valuable getting someone to coach you through it. And I really think it's Unique in this. Relation where you're going from classroom teacher to coach. And you really want this totally new job that you don't understand, yet, you really would benefit from getting a coach to coach you through this.

1:03:07 And even just having that experience of being coached can be something you can talk about about the power of coaching, and what you've experienced yourself. So, really, really think it will be beneficial for you. Okay, Chelsea says, what about those questions? You ask the interviewers at the end of the interview. Like the one that Michelle was talking about. What else do you have about that? If you just keep asking them what they thought was. What does a successful first year as an instructional coach? Look like to them? Yep it's a good one. Absolutely. I think to we and I think we talked about this Michelle and you already were thinking I just want to ask a few questions like limit yourself to maybe.

1:03:56 Be 45 is stretching it because when you get to the end they're going to be thinking, okay? Either you want this job or you don't, you know? Like so we have to be really careful about that about what you asked. I think it's about Clarity. I think you're asking questions to clarify. The questions you have about this role in what they think it's going to look like. And in, in the sea, this is the weirdest thing y'all. These coaches, they go through the interview process. S, they get information at the interview and they hear nothing. They get hired that they hear nothing until August and they're just all summer long. They're just waiting and wondering what it, what is this job and is anyone going to tell me about it? And trust me they find us here in the new to coaching group and we help them but the truth is is like you aren't going to get a lot of information from them after the interview and it's like what do you mean?

1:04:52 They're not going to tell me about my job? No there. Are not there. They don't know what your job is much more than, you know. So asking questions, like, what is the vision that you have for this role? How do you envision a coach? I'm spending her time. What are the what are the school and District goals that the coach is going to be contributing to like those were some things that you need answers to? Because this is your time to get it because until you meet with your principal which is going to be later. Well that later you're going to feel like you need answers to these questions. So when you ask those to take some notes and write some things down about that Vision because it may be the thing that you end up building the whole coaching program around, is that thing they told you in the interview, ask that?

1:05:39 Yeah, I think everything that you have put on your 12 questions. I things that we had talked about either in the preparation or during the interview process. So for me it was so incredibly helpful to go That my coaching role where I am now, when I got tapped on the shoulder. Yes, I'll do it too now. Actually. Interviewing and having it be my first interview in 12 years to feel more knowledgeable and confident and going through the process. Yes, absolutely. Okay. Amber said and then we'll sign off here. Thank you. Number two, knowing yourself while and being able to discuss my y on a deeper level is very helpful, but overall, everything is super helpful and she will be reaching out.

1:06:23 Soon. So we're so excited that you are going to be hanging with us. We're going to help you through this process. Amber. We cannot wait. So ladies and gents. Thank you so much for hanging out with us tonight. We are so appreciative and we hope that you will come and hang out in the new coaching groups more. You'll follow up this padlet. Check out all these resources. Follow up with me and KC or even Michelle and ask us and we will help you. We are here for you tag us in a post. If you have a question posted in the new to coaching group and then tag us and we will get back to you in the comments. Like that's really us. We really like hanging out with you. So, post these things ask us your questions. Let us help you through the process. We are here for you through it all. Okay, and we'll see y'all next time we go live, okay.

1:07:06 See you later. I want to give a big thank you to you guys for tuning in and I would love for you to do me to solid favors. Number one, if you've enjoyed this or any other shows, please hit subscribe. I've got a lot of great, gas and content coming up and I don't Don't want you to miss any of it too. If you know someone who may be interested in building cohesive Vision, driven teams that collaborate well share this show with them. And until next time, I want you to go off and have the great collaborative conversations that help you and the people you work with two completely.

1:07:47 Unleash Your impact. See you later. Don't want you to miss any of it too. If you know someone who may be interested in building cohesive Vision, driven teams that collaborate well share this show with them. And until next time, I want you to go off and have the great collaborative conversations that help you and the people you work with two completely. Unleash Your impact. See you later.