Jim and Story with Alexis Mulvihill, Head of School, Trinity School NYC
REPLENISH
Senior leaders in independent schools give a great deal of themselves (time, energy, expertise, empathy) to sustain the sense of community vital to a school’s culture. They have truly emptied the tanks across the years of COVID and in the spotlight of an intensifying political divide. Our coaches–all with significant school leadership experience and extensive coach training from iPEC–partner 1-to-1 with these school leaders in a thoughtful and creative relationship to “refill the reservoir” and elevate their professional potential.
THE WAY WE WORK
Each of our C@A coaches has deep independent school leadership experience and year-long training by iPEC, a leading global professional coach training organization. Our coaching program has two dimensions. First, we offer high-level one-to-one coaching via Zoom every two weeks to each senior leader across the school year. Second, we provide senior leaders at independent schools the principles of professional coaching through our exclusive workshops that bring together school leaders from across the country and within our cohort to share challenges, craft solutions, and commit to folding a coaching mindset into their leadership skill set.
THE COMMITMENT
1
Coaching Skills Training by C@A
Coaching skills offer a valuable addition to the capacities of your school leaders. To that end, C@A provides two virtual workshops on the tenets and practices of coaching. The first is offered in the summer, before C@A coaches and their clients begin their partnership to help clients make the most of their coaching sessions, learn the basics of a coaching mindset, and interact with school leaders from across the country. A second two-hour workshop scheduled for January will review coaching skills and explore how to hold “crucial conversations.” Both workshops are designed exclusively for independent school leaders who are part of the C@A cohort. A corollary benefit is the opportunity to build relationships across multiple independent schools.
2
Ongoing Coaching by
Coaching@Altitude
After the virtual seminar on coaching skills in the summer, each school leader will be paired with one of our C@A coaches and will meet twice each month over Zoom in confidential coaching sessions across the school year. Utilizing iPEC’s Core Energy Coaching Process, our coaches will help school leaders articulate their values, work through barriers or limiting beliefs, and manifest success for themselves and for the school enterprise. Our approach includes key metrics that will affirm the value added through a partnership with Coaching@Altitude.
Cost of Services, 2024-25
For the two virtual workshops–one in the summer of 2024, the second in January of 2025–as well as up to fourteen 55-minute one-on-one coaching sessions with a C@A coach across the 2024-25 school year, the cost is $5,000 per enrolled school leader. For returning clients who have already attended the virtual workshops, the cost is $4,000 per school leader. Because our financial partner and co-founder, Stephen Badger, continues to subsidize Coaching@Altitude, these prices represent a substantial discount.
On an in-person visit, Jim Leonard with Julie Sherrill, Head of School at The Gregory School in Tucson.
Shift-Positive 360 Feedback Plus One-on-One Coaching
With several client schools (Trinity School NYC, St. Andrew’s School, and Cambridge School of Weston), we have developed a robust 360 process that, paired with coaching, provides clients specific feedback from close colleagues on how they can grow their leadership. The traditional 360 feedback process often falls short due to its design and implementation, focusing more on what’s not working well rather than how a leader can lean further into positive behaviors. We have adopted a Shift Positive 360 method articulated by Steven Berridge, CEO of Change Positive, that takes a solution-focused approach. We help individuals and schools curate a culture that values consistent and open dialogue about performance, where colleagues become allies in each other’s professional growth. Reach out to Jim Leonard if you would like to learn more about the Shift Positive 360.
Additional Services Offered
We are available to lead administrative retreats to bring leadership teams together and provide meaningful skills training to advance a school’s culture and practices. Coaching@Altitude has provided in-person workshops, half-day and full-day, with senior leadership teams on the following topics:
- Developing high-functioning teams (Green Vale School; St. Francis School, Austin; The River School, DC; Cambridge School of Weston)
- Creating an Empowerment Leadership Culture (senior leadership team, Trinity School NYC)
- Effective board governance (St. Francis School, Austin)
