The Art of Coaching Teams: Building Resilient Communities that Transform Schools

by Elena Aguilar

The missing how-to manual for being an effective team leader The Art of Coaching Teams is the manual you never received when you signed on to lead a team. Being a great teacher is one thing, but leading a team, or team development, is an entirely different dynamic. Your successes are public, but so are your failures—and there's no specific rubric or curriculum to give you direction. Team development is an art form, and this book is your how-to guide to doing it effectively. You'll learn the administrative tasks that keep your team on track, and you'll gain access to a wealth of downloadable tools that simplify the "getting organized" process. Just as importantly, you'll explore what it means to be the kind of leader that can bring people together to accomplish difficult tasks. You'll find practical suggestions, tools, and clear instructions for the logistics of team development as well as for building trust, developing healthy communication, and managing conflict.

Inside these pages you'll find concrete guidance

Designing agendas, making decisions, establishing effective protocols, and more Boosting your resilience, understanding and managing your emotions, and meeting your goals Cultivating your team's emotional intelligence and dealing with cynicism Utilizing practical tools to create a customized framework for developing highly effective teams There is no universal formula for building a great team, because every team is different. Different skills, abilities, personalities, and goals make a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective at best. Instead, The Art of Coaching Teams provides a practical framework to help you develop your group as a whole, and keep the team moving toward their common goals.

Genres: Education, Leadership, Nonfiction, Teaching, Professional Development, School, Audiobook

359 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 29, 2016

About the author

Elena has trained thousands of educators across the United States and abroad in transformational coaching. She is the author of four highly acclaimed books: The Art of Coaching, (2013) and The Art of Coaching Teams, (2016) Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators (2018) and the Onward Workbook (2018), and the forthcoming Coaching for Equity (August 2020). She is a regular contributor to Edutopia and ASCD’s Educational Leadership, and she was a blogger for EdWeek Teacher for many years.

Elena Aguilar is an author and the President of Bright Morning Consulting. Her expertise derives from twenty five years as a classroom teacher, instructional coach and leadership coach working in diverse school environments. In her role as a consultant, she has partnered with leaders in public and private organizations across the United States and abroad. Elena is also the co-founder of Kenya Big Picture Learning, and she’s on the advisory board of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Elena holds a BA in history and Latin American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MA in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her teaching credential from California State University, Hayward, and she also holds an administrative services credential.

Elena lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, son, and two cats. When she’s not coaching or writing she enjoys traveling abroad, photographing birds, hiking, drinking coffee and reading fiction.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHY DOES EVERYTHING ELENA AGUILAR TOUCHES TURN TO GOLD??? Must-read for anyone who's part of or leading a team of any kind. Ordered copies for my entire team to read!

[Kris Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Congratulations to me! I am now a Technology Integration Coach with Noblesville Schools.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so good. So, so good. If you are in charge of a team, or *want* to be in charge of a team, or think you *will* be in charge of a team, this is the book for you. Just order it. I received this book as part of an endorsement program I'm in. I will be re-reading it over the summer. So many great resources (and the website is on point too).

I deducted one star because, as much as I liked this book, it's just *full* of typos, to the point where I found it distracting. Here's hoping they sort that out in a future edition.

But don't let that stop you. You and your school need this.
P.S.: Going to be reading all her other books soon.

[Laurie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid book. There are plenty of resources and examples. It covers all things that one needs to lead a team. This was extremely useful to me. This will be a book I will pull off the bookshelf frequently.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not in Education. I am in sales. This is a great book on being a leader, how to reflect, and facilitate hard conversations. The way she offers a path to 'building your capacity' to avoid burnout was both intuitive and helpful. Loved it.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best professional book I have ever read. It's hard to find work books that are truly told through a culturally competent lens and Elena has nailed it with this one.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who leads a team, no matter where, should read this book.

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

team leader summer reading assignment
lots of good stuff here -- some review, some new approaches

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great introductory book with useful tips on how to approach team-building and community-development within an organization. It addresses and gives prominence to the core motivator of our actions, decisions, and behavior, namely our emotions. It helps leaders understand that the EI of a group of people needs to be placed in the forefront before getting down to ‘business’. The use of random quotes from other authors, philosophers, poets, spiritual leaders, etc somehow doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the content nor does it help emphasize the main points. It makes the reader wonder what’s the reason for including them - to lift up our spirits? To fill in and decorate the pages? To provide evidence of thorough research? Also, many parts of the book serve the purpose of advertisement and self-promotion with references to the author’s website. Though we are aware of the commercial aspect of the book, it would be nice to execute such promotion in a more subtle way.

[Evin · Rating 2 out of 5]

While strong narration and interesting anecdotes throughout the story kept me reading, there simply was too much fat and not enough meat to digest in order to make the book worth reading for my particular department. As a peer (and not an outside coach), Aguilar does not address the other dynamics that may be at play. My hope is that there would be WAY more protocols and ideas and less stories about the difficult/challenging team. Give me something to immediately use!

[Elissa Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-4 stars - there's a fair bit I can take away from this, however a lot of the communication suggestions would be completely shut down in most contexts in this country (Australia), so some of this is context-specific. It was great for slowing me down and getting me to think about the various components of teamwork, team building and the need to monitor communication within team settings. I'll just have to find other strategies to use on top of those provided in this book.

[Marjie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for anyone who is in a leadership position -- in the field of education or not!

[Terry Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am typically a person who bucks against structures and protocols. I’d engage in them, but in my own facilitation and leadership of teams, I’d tend towards a much looser structure. This book has challenged me to think deeper about who that works for, who it doesn’t, and how it effects the trust within and impact of the teams I’m on. It is full of great tools and reflective questions. As with all books and articles, it emphasizes how important time is for the success of teams in schools, and yet, so little time is prioritized for it by our systems and by us as educators.I definitely recommend this for any one who is leading or facilitating a team this coming year!

[Keegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a MUST READ if you work with teams. Whether you're a facilitator or a team member, you will gain understanding of all the components of team work, how those come together and why each kids so critical. Aguilar gives readers anecdotal examples of teams that didn't work and ones that did, from her own experience. She also gives readers tons of practical tools and templates to easily implement their own group work.

Aguilar places students at the heart of her work and reminds teams that everything we do is for the social, emotional, and academic needs of our students. KEY!

I'm so glad this book was recommended to me! It has changed my practice for sure.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good: There is a lot of practical advice here you can put in motion right away. Agulair is knowledgeable and experienced. She understands what it's like to work with teachers and her ideas are both exceptional and practical.

The Bad: Her writing lacks empathy for the struggles teachers and coaches face. She comes across as "no excuses" which I find off-putting in the public education setting. So often there are hurdles that deserve acknowledgement.

Overall, I enjoyed her work and I would consider it to be in my top 5 education-related reads.

[Andria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was well laid out. It revisited some old coaching concepts that I knew and presented new concepts as well. It definitely foreshadowed that an equity coaching book was possibly forthcoming. I liked the comparison of the two teams and it was definitely realistic that her high functioning team wasn’t perfect maneuvering through group dynamics. Some of her paraphrases had “I” in them which is different that how I was taught to paraphrase. It was well written and engaging. And lots of protocol ideas for meetings and pd.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for my student-centered coaching practicum that starts in October--my "30 minutes of professional reading per school night" got me through just about a chapter a day, and the book is outstanding: honest, useful, detailed, and clear. Aguilar's emphasis on the ethical, personal importance of leadership and its role in creating transformative schools is powerful and inspiring. I have so much to practice!

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting listen. Though it was related to education, I can see A LOT of it apply to any team, regardless of industry. I enjoyed the dialogue of various scenarios and the optimal way to handle it. I have only seen a few of the resources but they seem very valuable. I recommend this for anyone who is within a team, big or small.

[Karen Berlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful framework to enhance facilitation and team coaching skills, including lessons from veteran coach Elena Aguilar. Helpful tools and resources are embedded throughout, with a particularly valuable facilitator core competency self-assessment and other effectiveness measures offered in the appendices.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good guide to supporting teams in schools. Drawing on psychology, the work around emotional intelligence, and a number of frameworks around group functioning and dynamics, Aguilar distills a clear vision for the essential elements for supporting the creation and nurturing of teams of adults that are able to improve the outcomes for students. A really useful text!

[Andy Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate Elena Aguilar's honesty about her struggles starting out as a team leader.

She balances reality with a clear vision of what leadership can become when supported by your organization.

And she acknowledges that with the wrong sort of leadership, this work can become impossible.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had so many great strategies for working with a team, leading a team, and simply working well with others. Elena has a lot of examples, which helps the reader see what her ideas look like in action.

[Sarah Wechsler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elena Aguilar is one of my educational crushes. She nails it again with this book with the perfect balance of mindset and practical approaches to lead teams. She understands humans and interpersonal dynamics that occur during and within a team! This was a great read to prepare me for. Y new role!

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book you can have no matter your position - a coach, instructional leader, department chair, administrator, team lead, etc. Yes, yes, and buy a million sticky notes before reading because you will mark up every page!

[K Ogie · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a work assignment book, this one was pretty inspiring. It will take more than the one read through to truly unpack all it has to offer but I found much of the suggestions and formatting to be reasonable, relatable and necessary in an urban school district.

[Brandi Andrews Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started leading a team last year, I wish I would have had this book! It is filled with action steps and resources that will help guide the forming and facilitation of effective groups. I cannot recommend this book enough!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I had read this over the summer before beginning my coaching journey. Great book! Lots to think about and implement so my coworkers can be heard and we can get out of the toxic environment we find ourselves in!

[MIKI DIVIRGILIO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hello peeps. Can we make this the required reading for all leaders, especially the one with ego with no self awareness 😬 EI matters🙌 so many real life everyday examples ( some are too close to your experience that makes you wonder… was she watching us?) Thank you Cara for sharing😉💛

[Cassie Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more I read from Aguilar, the more of a believer I become. I read this as a book study with some of the coaches I support who are implementing and supporting new collaborative efforts in their buildings. It has been so powerful for reflecting, planning, and problem solving together.

[Brit Sikes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on audio first while waiting for the print copy to be delivered. I will be returning to this text throughout the year while working with our school leadership team and other teacher teams. Excellent resource - wishing I had read it sooner!