How coaching builds better leaders on both sides

Janet White is a Partner in AI & Data at Deloitte and a coach in our Coaching Programme. She believes that a coach’s role is to ask insightful questions and empower coachees to find their own solutions. Her experience reflects how the long-term partnership between Teach First and Deloitte brings together educational expertise and business leadership to drive meaningful change across the education sector.

Why did you become a coach with Teach First?

Teach First and Deloitte have a great relationship, and this programme makes it easier to give back. For me, coaching is a give-back activity, and the volunteering element works really well. I feel lucky that Deloitte gives all colleagues 3.5 hours of time to volunteer per month. I’m looking at the next generation of leaders who are being shaped from a very young age through the education system. Working with teachers who are on the front line of educating and bringing up our next generation of citizens, humans, leaders – that felt like a really good way for me to support schools.

Since I’ve been coaching with Teach First, I’ve also become a school governor. So I’m getting more involved in the education sector after understanding the challenges facing teachers.

Being a part of the Senior Coaching Programme stream

The really good thing about coaching is that, as a coach, you don’t need to have the content and industry knowledge to bring out the best in people’s own thinking and potential. But what I’m finding is that, as a leader in my own industry, there are many parallels with leadership in other industries, including building relationships, prioritising time and energy, and dealing with situational issues. Working with leaders means the conversations can be more peer-to-peer in understanding, which I think works really well. I hope the coachees also gain that level of insight from the questioning.

Coaching teachers into leadership

Our monthly coaching sessions are very coachee-led, so instead of being regimented, we’ve tended to arrange the next session at the end of each one. Coaching is all about growth between sessions, so having that time for the coachee to reflect and take action has helped.

I love both my coachees – and maybe teachers in general are this way inclined: they’re very reflective, logical, methodical, and excellent coachees. They’re naturally very good at reflecting, learning, and working out what the good options are for themselves and as a result, personal growth happens.

The most rewarding thing about the programme

What’s been most rewarding is unblocking a train of thought, or opening up pathways to different ways of thinking. Very often, as mature, experienced people, we come to a problem with solutions we think we’ve already got. Part of the coaching conversation is opening up different options and getting the coachee to think about different points of view.

It’s really exciting for the coachee to go from “I’m not happy” to actually seeing the potential opportunities within where they are – and weighing up the pros and cons as a whole person rather than just reacting to the situation.

That makes different opportunities and options far more appealing.

The benefits of becoming a Coach

Because we’re coaching in a leadership environment, there are a lot of similar situations that I encounter myself. The coaching sessions aren’t about us as coaches, but as we have the conversations, I actually learn from the coachees – from what they’re experiencing, and how they’re coming up with their options and solutions. It expands my horizons on how to solve problems, because it opens up insights into how other people work through things. And as we’re talking about leadership issues and solving them, a lot of that is very transferable. I often have my own ‘aha’ moments. And the other thing is that coaching is a practice – and actively being in the programme keeps those muscles working. That’s another reason I enjoy being a coach.

What would you say to other potential coaches?

Being able to coach and see the results is really, really rewarding. And as I said, I’m learning myself as I’m coaching – on different approaches to solving problems.

A lot of people think coaching is about advising, and it’s not. Coaching is the best way for me to help people – getting them to come up with their own solutions, rather than telling them how I’ve done it.

Helping every child fulfil their potential

For 20 years, Deloitte and Teach First have helped young people believe in what’s possible. Read more stories involving colleagues, pupils and volunteers whose lives have been changed through the power of opportunity.

Read more about the partnership