A is for Appreciation

“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” —Margaret Cousins

ANCHOR conversations have six components. Each component can work together in one conversation on one day and stand alone on another, but all aspects are important if we want to enthusiastically coach people forward in their work. The first component – the “A” of ANCHOR stands for appreciation.

A is for Appreciation

We need to give daily messages of appreciation. People do not get enough of it in our profession. Schools and educators are a popular target for negativity, and let’s be honest, even within our own schools and systems, negativity can be an issue.

A critical component of our work is to focus on a mindset shift for observing classrooms and providing teachers feedback. Too often observations and feedback come across as evaluative and judgmental leaving teachers with a feeling that we are in their classrooms to “fix” them as opposed to partnering with them on a continuous journey of learning and growth for all of us. The overly judgmental “telling” conversations can temporarily lead to teacher compliance, but they rarely lead to a culture where everyone is committed to taking risks and trying new things and where people are hungry for feedback to help them learn and grow. As PIRATE leaders, we believe in changing the typical observation/feedback cycle into ANCHOR conversations and the A is for Appreciation.

In what ways are you intentionally sharing your appreciation for what you see happening in the classroom?

If you are fortunate enough to be in a role that allows you to visit classrooms often and engage with teachers in conversations about the teaching and learning happening in their classrooms, be intentional about developing an appreciation for what you see. 

And, that’s where ANCHOR conversations start. They start with giving messages of appreciation. And these messages of appreciation go beyond a “Great job!” or a “You’re awesome!” They have specific components to them that make them powerful coaching messages as well as just great messages for people to hear.

Here is a sample message of appreciation:

“I was so excited to be in your classroom today. Thank you so much for letting me learn with you and your students. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciated the thoughtful, juicy questions you posed to your students today. They really got your students to think deeply while also building their excitement and curiosity about the topic. Thank you for taking the extra time to think so deeply about engaging, higher-level questions to ask your students.”

Statements of appreciation go beyond a simple “thank you” or an “I loved when you did ‘x’.” It actually has some powerful coaching components embedded in it.

Challenge

Take just 30 minutes out of your day and visit 15 classrooms for two minutes each. Before you leave, tell the teacher something you appreciated about what you just saw. No messages about what you think should be better – just messages of appreciation (for more about the power of appreciation, see post: Start With Appreciation).  

In the words of Anthony Robbins, “Where your focus goes, your energy flows”.  As leaders we have been conditioned to look for what needs to be better, we are “fixers” by nature, but if that is where we focus all of our attention we are at risk of missing all that is going right. The best kept secret about dropping 15 messages of appreciation… not only do you brighten the day of your teachers, but you’ll feel pretty good yourself!

Please join us as we continue the challenge this week – Let’s drop ANCHORS all week! We would love for you to share with us how it goes using #LeadLAP or leaving comments below.

ANCHOR Conversations Live Event

Have Questions for us during the #LeadLAP ANCHOR series? Want to dive deeper into ANCHOR at our LIVE event on April 30 9:30 am CST? Drop your questions and sign up HERE.