Jim and Story Leonard at Trinity School, NYC, with C@A clients Steven Kolman, Upper School Principal, and John Allman, Head of School.
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
Our program has two dimensions. First, our C@A coaches–trained by iPEC, one of the leading global professional coach training organizations and with deep leadership experience in independent schools–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.
Together, we will help you stay grounded in your core values while you identify goals and aspire to altitudes that will elevate the culture of your school.
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, 2023-24
For the two virtual workshops–one in the summer of 2023, the second in January of 2024–as well as up to fourteen 55-minute one-on-one coaching sessions with a C@A coach across the 2023-24 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, 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.
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 at independent schools on the following topics:
- Analysis of team strengths and dynamics (VIA Strengths Assessment)
- Create a culture of meaningful feedback for leadership growth
- Strategies for effective crucial conversations
The way Jim was able to read the room and create a space where people were open, honest and reflective was the perfect ending to this year. The conversations and the thinking (both reflective and forward) Jim had the leadership team do was exactly what we needed. I could tell by the way the group engaged and responded that they trusted him as our guide, and I left feeling very hopeful about the future of the school and the team.
Emily Vitris
Head of School
St. Francis School, Austin, TX
May, 2023