Coaching Attributes: Positive Assumptions

This post adds to the series about personal attributes that you can enrich this summer and bring to your coaching in the fall. If you haven’t read them already, check out previous posts about presence, lightening up, and gearing up. Today, let’s explore the attribute of positive assumptions, a way to look up as we think of others.
 
Having positive assumptions means presuming good intent, making generous judgments, and seeing the best in another’s performance. When we are consistently generous in our assumptions about others’ efforts, trust increases.
 
Through his character Nick in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1993) shares wisdom that applies to having positive assumptions: “Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.” Positive assumptions restrain judgment.
 
Feeling judged siphons others’ energy into defensiveness and self-protection. As we intentionally step away from judgment, we can ask questions instead that help us to understand someone else’s thinking. As we listen to responses, we’ll likely recognize some brilliance in the person’s thinking that we hadn’t been aware of before. There will be pleasant surprises.
 
Here's an example of me not having positive assumptions: My husband is currently recovering from surgery, so I get to do a lot of things for him that he would normally do for himself. He asked me to move a piece of equipment in the hospital room. I didn’t put it where he wanted. We both got a bit perturbed as I shifted the equipment inch by inch, my assumption being that he didn’t realize how in-the-way the equipment would be if I put it where he was pointing. I had a negative assumption. When I finally realized that he was trying to read the label on the equipment so he could tell me what to order on Amazon, I knew how wrong my assumptions had been. Instead of having negative assumptions, I could have asked, in a positive way, “What are you wanting to do?” or “Why do you want it there?” Or I could have simply have moved the equipment where he pointed, having positive assumptions that there was a good reason he wanted it there, instead of a negative assumption that he wasn’t aware. Clearly, I can work on having more positive assumptions! Right now is a good time to practice.
 
I tend to do better at school. When talking with a teacher this spring, my question was filled with positive assumptions when I asked, “As you think back on the lesson, what were some of the times when students were engaged in higher-level thinking?”
 
When I asked another teacher, “Why did you give students more time to work?” I fully-expected and got an answer that demonstrated the teacher’s thoughtful decision-making.
 
Another time, I observed a fourth-grade lesson on multi-step math problems. What initially stood out for me were a few things that seemed problematic. I realized I had made negative judgments based on these observations and I needed to shift my thinking to give the teacher the benefit of the doubt. So I took each observation that concerned me and crafted a question. 
 
For example, I had noticed that Marjorie (the teacher) put a star on the paper of a student who had an incorrect answer. I wondered why, and asked Marjorie what it meant. Rather than responding that she hadn’t noticed the answer was incorrect (which I’d incorrectly inferred), Marjorie explained that this student’s effort had significantly improved. I was reminded that I should begin with positive assumptions.
 
When we realize our initial inferences may have been off-target, we can give someone the benefit of the doubt. Asking questions from a place of positive assumptions often prompts an insightful explanation. Because coaches have ideas and experience, it can be easy to jump to judgment. When we realize we have made judgements, we can shift our thinking to a place of curiosity. “Hmmm, I wonder why she might have done that?” we ask ourselves, and then we can construct potential reasons through a positive lens.
 
Questions that grow from positive assumptions encourage teachers to explore their own intentions, enhance understanding, and support a respectful relationship between teacher and coach. In our personal interactions this summer, we can practice having positive assumptions so that this attitude can follow us into the school year. Positive assumptions presume capability and empowerment, lifting our view of others.
 
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Treat YOURSELF to PD for coaches! Come spend 2 days (Aug. 1 & 2) in Northwest Arkansas with Jim Knight, Vicki Collet, September Gerety, Afton Schleiff and a host of other coaches at the NWA Instructional Coaching Conference. Be:
Ignited. Illuminated. Inspired.
For the cost of the included lunches ($35), you can take your coaching to the next level!
 
As a coach, I know how hard it is to find PD that is just for you. Well, this is it!  I'm excited to have received a grant to sponsor the conference, and I hope you'll join us! Register here:
 
https://tinyurl.com/CoachingConf2023
 
Check out this flier for details and reach out to me (collet@uark.edu) with questions and suggestions.
 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:

How we can miss trauma:
 
https://blog.heinemann.com/trauma-responsive-pedagogy-how-we-can-miss-trauma
 
 
Emergent reader booklist for thinkers:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/little-levels-big-thinking/
 
 
This quick video about the see-think-wonder strategy:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/free-videos/
 
 
Ways to make faculty feel welcome:
 
https://www.fastcompany.com/3039232/5-ways-to-welcome-your-new-employee-to-the-workplace
 
 
The power of knowing our “why” in achieving goals:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSaN8hTkXpk
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Hooray!!! My book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner is available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: JUN2023 for 15% off plus FREE SHIPPING. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
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