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Coaching

Navigating New Roles as an Instructional Coach

By Sasha Robins and Kim Cofino
08-Oct-25

What do brand new coaches, experienced coaches moving to a new school, or current coaches working with new school leaders all have in common? The need to learn how to embrace their informal leadership to become advocates for instructional coaching. New coaches may have never considered this idea before. Coaches moving to a new school may be surprised to find out that their school leaders do not have a clear vision for instructional coaching. Current coaches may be dismayed to uncover that new leadership doesn’t share the same vision for instructional coaching that their previous administrators did. In all of these cases, these coaches might be navigating a new aspect of their role: informal leader. In order to develop or sustain a coaching program where teachers are opting-in to coaching engagements, coaches have to be proactive about building a coaching culture. This requires coaches to see themselves as informal leaders, and to advocate for coaching with teachers and leaders.

In this article, we’ll share Sasha’s case study as an experienced coach moving to a new school, and highlight the connections between her experience navigating this new role, and the ways that educators new to coaching, coaches at a new school, or coaches working with new administrators, might face similar challenges.

Sasha’s Story

In 2016, I accepted my first international teaching role. Upon arriving, I was introduced to the school’s coaching program, which was offered to all new staff. From the outset, I knew it was a service I wanted to embrace. Each school has its own culture, and I saw this coaching opportunity as a chance to become a “student” of the learning culture. It was a way to understand both the school community and my teaching practice in new ways while having built-in support to grow.

For three years, I worked closely with my coach, who helped me deepen my reflective practice and refine my craft as an educator. This experience reshaped my own professional goals and aspirations, instilling in me a passion for continuous growth and learning, which led me to become a coach myself. Fast-forward to today, and I’m now at a new school, in a new country, where I was hired as an instructional coach with the goal of building a coaching program. It’s often said that coaches are leaders, which is something that is easy to ignore since the coaching role doesn’t entail positional power. In my new role in a school that did not have a coaching service or coaching culture, I realized I would have to be leading the process, with the support of my administrators. Coming from a setting where I was deeply familiar with the curriculum and had established relationships, I found myself having to stretch into this new informal leadership perspective by intentionally building strategic relationships, advocating for instructional coaching with school leadership, and developing sustainable structures for building a coaching culture with my teaching colleagues.

This shift has also required me to adapt quickly, especially as my role now spans all divisions, from pre-K through Grade 12, where approximately 30% of the staff had little or no previous exposure to coaching. The diverse range of needs across these levels has pushed me to expand my informal leadership skill set, deepen my understanding of adaptive coaching, and craft tailored strategies to support teachers and students at every stage.

Overall, this transition has been an incredible opportunity to grow, to learn new approaches for effective coaching, and to reinforce my commitment to helping educators achieve impactful outcomes in the classroom.

Embracing Your Informal Leadership as an Instructional Coach

As we can see from Sasha’s story, recognizing and embracing your informal leadership, as a coach, is a key step to building a coaching culture in your school, to working with more coaching partners, and to ensuring that your coaching program grows and thrives.

If you’re struggling with:

being given so many non-coaching responsibilities,

dealing with teachers who are resistant to coaching,

trying to help your school understand the value of coaching, or

not being given the support you need to make coaching a success,

This might be because you’re hoping (and expecting) your school leaders, or your potential coaching partners, to know what coaching is and why it’s valuable. You might be expecting the program to grow just because you’re there, without realizing that you may have to lead the conversation with both school leaders and your colleagues.

So many coaches get hired into the position and think that they will just “start coaching” but in reality, coaching is more than just coaching conversations. Building a culture of coaching means that you may need to lead the work with teachers and leaders to understand coaching, which means you need to be able to articulate the value of coaching to your coachees and your school leaders, and you need to have the vision to grow your coaching program – all of these are aspects of leadership (even if they don’t feel like it right now).

When we think of leadership, we often think of the person with the title, and if (or when) we don’t have a title, we don’t consider ourselves leaders. But there are many ways to be a leader – with or without the title – and as a coach, you are in a position of leadership too. This is a type of informal leadership, called relational leadership, because you lead through relationships rather than formal authority. The difference between the stereotypical type of leadership we tend to think of first, called positional leadership, and relational leadership is that positional leadership holds power through the title (by virtue of their job description and title, they are a supervisor and compliance is essentially required). A relational leader may or may not have the formal title, but regardless of their job title, they are able to influence and lead change through relationships.

Relational leadership focuses on inclusion, empowerment, purposefulness, ethical behaviors, and process orientation – all things you’re already doing as an instructional coach. Even in a formal leadership position, it’s well documented that relational leadership skills are beneficial, especially in schools. As coaches, we know everything we do is based on relationships. We know that relationships are the foundation for all of our work. So even if you don’t think of yourself as a leader yet, you are. And you’re building essential leadership skills that could support you in a formal leadership position too.

Five Steps to Navigating Informal Leadership as an Instructional Coach

In most schools, coaches are the people who know the expectations of their job best, and that means that they are also responsible for communicating what they do, and how they can support others. It may feel scary at first to think of yourself as an advocate for coaching, but that’s likely what you are!

Below are five ways you can become an advocate for instructional coaching by embracing your informal leadership, with specific examples from Sasha’s journey to establish a coaching program in her new school.

1: Set Clear Expectations

One of the tricky things about coaching is that, because we’ve all heard the word “coach” before, teachers often have preconceived notions of what coaching is, and what it isn’t, but those aren’t always correct. Coaching can be implemented in many different ways in many different settings, and teachers can carry both negative and positive experiences with them from previous schools and coaches. This means coaches must help teachers understand the work they do. Clarity around your role is an entry to trust and growth.

Sasha’s Story: One of the most effective ways I used to create clarity and build trust with the teaching staff was to attend the collaborative grade and subject meetings across the school. This allowed me to have a conversation rather than make a presentation. Teachers felt comfortable asking a range of questions in a familiar environment, and they had many, but this was an opportunity and a time and space where we had no competing agendas, just a goal to clarify and create understanding.

2: Ensure a Shared Vision

For any instructional coaching program to flourish, there must be a shared vision and a strong foundation of clarity among all stakeholders. Without clear alignment and understanding, even the most innovative initiatives can struggle to gain traction. Building a shared vision collaboratively with teachers and administrators is more than just beneficial; it’s essential. Without a strong collective understanding of why coaching matters, some may view it as optional rather than integral to school culture.

Sasha’s Story: One of my earliest meetings was with the senior leadership of my school where we worked together to define what coaching would mean in our context and agreed upon the action plan going forward. This was followed by further conversations with my direct administrators (the elementary and secondary Principals) in order to establish what our coaching partnership would entail.

3: Measure and Share the Impact of Coaching

Coaching holds a unique place in the school ecosystem. When you’re a coach, and you have little to no contact time with students, it’s essential to collect and analyze data on your own coaching work so you can see what’s working and what’s not. You can then present that data to your immediate and senior leadership team to help them understand the impact you’re making as a coach. Advocating for coaching requires constant, clear communication and providing evidence of its impact. Resources often go to areas that clearly demonstrate value, so actively showcasing how coaching supports both teachers and students is essential.

Sasha’s Story: I’ve seen that early successes, even minor ones, build credibility and momentum. Celebrating these wins publicly reassures teachers of coaching’s positive impact and fuels long-term progress. For example, at the start of last school year, I was able to have several quick wins with teachers (provide feedback on Universal Design for Learning implementation, reviewing assessments to make them more inclusive, and differentiating through learning stations). These quick wins were celebrated in department meetings and served as trumpet calls for coaching. Not only that, sharing the feedback of teachers with administration in our meetings bolstered their confidence in the decision to implement coaching.

4: Leverage the Power of Relationships

Every school has its cultural and political landscape. Understanding this context has taught me that building relationships with administrators and teachers, while respecting existing structures, is crucial for integrating coaching effectively. Along those lines, every teacher has unique strengths, needs, and classroom dynamics. Coaches must personalize each engagement with a coaching partner. Making time to get to know the school community and its culture is essential to gaining the support of community stakeholders.

Sasha’s Story: Going from classroom to classroom has allowed me to begin to develop individual relationships with teachers. At the start of the school year I made time to visit and talk with teachers individually. These conversations varied in length and gave me insights into what teachers were doing, what they hoped to do and how they felt about the students they had charge of. These opportunities varied in length and gave me additional opportunities to identify ways to support teachers. Staying curious and listening to learn resulted in quick wins and paved the way for at least one of my current full coaching cycles.

5: Effectively Manage Your Time

Juggling administrative duties, coaching sessions, and classroom visits has made time management critical. Finding the bandwidth to give each teacher personalized support, while also leading program development, requires careful prioritization. Being clear about your role and responsibilities is essential to being able to take daily action and prioritize your tasks.

Sasha’s Story: I am mindful to have only five to six coaching cycles going simultaneously at any time. Having recurring appointments in my calendar for coaching cycles, research, reflection, and certain meetings, etc. allows me to be able to manage my time, identify if other opportunities are a realistic possibility, and reduce overwhelm.

Cultivate Your Own System for Continued Growth

Even with the five steps listed above, tapping into your informal leadership can be a challenging mindset shift for coaches. To become an effective informal leader, you can’t forget that you are growing yourself. Setting up structures for yourself to embrace continuous growth by intentionally working towards growing these skills will serve you in any capacity. To develop these skills, consider working with a coach along with taking coaching-specific leadership professional learning.

The Value of Being Coached: As a coach, being coached yourself, gives you a valuable thought partner, who can listen, and reflect back your ideas and further probe your thinking. Being coached provides a model for exceptional coaching, thus allowing you to experience the strategies you are developing.

Sasha’s Story: From the outset of my coaching career in 2019 I have worked with a coach. My coach has worked with me to prepare for the transitions and develop the mindset needed to support my growth. Being coached has been a profound model for effective coaching practices.

Coaching-Specific Professional Learning: A leadership-focused coaching course can help you develop and grow the requisite mindset and skills, especially if you’re implementing a coaching program and the broader goal of developing a coaching culture.

Sasha’s Story: I completed a course titled Coaches As Leaders. This course was instrumental in helping me fully embrace the role of the coach as a leader, allowing me to define the type of leadership I wanted to demonstrate. It equipped me with strategies for team building, practical exposure to creating a coaching culture, and the skills needed to develop and implement a phased coaching plan for the year. The course specifically provided me with the knowledge and tools needed to examine my own beliefs about coaching and coaches being leaders, understand the systems and structures within my new environment that would either support or hamper a sustainable coaching program.

Change Takes Time

Being intentional about your professional growth is essential. Coaching is a craft and continuous growth must be attended to with care. Engaging in the coaching process empowers you to actively collect evidence about your work and reflect on accomplishments and opportunities with a thought partner. The time spent developing these skills is not wasted time but rather a necessary component of gaining clarity and a deeper understanding of your role as an informal leader.

Being an advocate for coaching is one of the biggest hidden challenges of a coaching role. Don’t rush this process. Build your confidence in your vision for the role, build your relationships, start learning what is needed to make your vision into a reality and move at the pace of the school to continue to advocate for the work of coaches.

Sasha Robins is an instructional coach at the American International School, Dhaka and and AAICIS A-Team member. Before she became a coach, she worked for over two decades as a teacher in Jamaica and Kuwait. The most powerful impact on her teaching practice came through instructional coaching.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-robins-/

Kim Cofino has been an educator in international schools since August 2000. Having lived and worked in Germany, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan, Kim has had a variety of roles in international schools, including (her favorite) instructional coach. Now based in Bangkok, Thailand, Kim is the Founder and CEO of Eduro Learning, Executive Director and Founder of the Association for the Advancement of Instructional Coaching in International Schools (AAICIS), author of Finding Your Path as a Woman in School Leadership (Routledge), host of the #coachbetter podcast. Find out more about Kim and Eduro at: https://www.edurolearning.com.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimcofino/

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Navigating New Roles as an Instructional Coach

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