Latest Book: Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H

Frustrated with the lack of progress in your school? Feeling Stuck? Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H reframes the traditional approach to school improvement, from:

1. A leader acting alone to try and “fix” the problem, to
2. A leader working with a community of other leaders and learners toward schoolwide excellence.

Learn about and apply five proven practices for success:

  • Create confidence through trust
  • Organize around a priority
  • Affirm promising practices
  • Communicate feedback
  • Help teachers become leaders and learners

As a teacher who worked at an elementary school where Matt Renwick was principal for a number of years, I was able to experience the process he highlights in his book in real-time. Matt knows how to look for effective strategies in the classroom, as well as how to help the teacher arrive at areas of growth in a supportive way. Matt’s “walk through” approach he utilized as principal of our school helped me feel like he understood me as a teacher, knew my strengths and areas of growth. He documented his time in our room in writing, indicating what he noticed, as well as using questioning to encourage reflection and change in the teacher. Matt takes the traditional approach to classroom observations, which is infrequent and impersonal, and makes it consistent, meaningful, and personal. With Matt’s approach, principals will enter a classroom, knowing what to observe, how to interpret that information, and most importantly, how to share in writing with the teacher things that will both affirm and elevate instruction. I still have all of the written walk through things Matt shared with me – – they make me feel both valued and encouraged, but most of all, truly KNOWN. No formal observation has ever done that.

Michelle

I had the great pleasure to read Matt Renwick’s newest book pre publication and I am so grateful that he shared his wisdom on this very important topic. There has long been a gap in too many schools between leadership and instruction (in some cases that gap is more akin to a chasm). Leaders who offer coaching support in a non judgmental way is an essential missing piece that is much needed. Matt has beautifully described how any school leader can create and support a schoolwide design where instructional excellence is the responsibility of everyone from one side of the school to another. I highly recommend this wonderful book!

– Mary C. Howard

Matt Renwick reminds us of a key element of our shared professional leadership work: we can’t do it alone. He keeps us focused on the value of coaching tools and the pillars he references to keep instruction at the center of the work of educational leaders. This book draws on an extensive research base as well as Matt Renwick’s own professional experience to provide an accessible entry point for school leaders as they consider what it means to lead like a coach.

Jason Drysdale

Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. provides a framework that engenders trust and fortifies commitment to instructional excellence. Matt Renwick helps readers envision and rethink roles and routines. Most of all, his strategies, stories, and practical approach take the burden of trying to be an ‘exert of everything’ off of principals’ shoulders. If  you want your school to be a place where teachers and students want to be, this book is for you!

Cris Tovani, English teacher, literacy consultant, Author of Why Do I Have to Read This?

An inspirational guide for school leaders, this text provokes discussion and reflection among leaders who see themselves as as co-leaders in school communities. School vision becomes a reality when school leaders coach school faculties in a collaborative and collegial way in order to create a comprehensive and cohesive learning environment for students. An excellent book that is accessible to all principals.

This is exactly the book educators need to build trust while navigating the tensions in today’s school systems. Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. will provide you with strategies that humanize leadership and bring joy to the work. This is an excellent book to read with your school teams to build the leadership pipeline essential to sustaining organizational excellence and a positive culture.

Research is clear: Principals can have a tremendous impact on student success by focusing on job #1: ensuring every student benefits from great teaching in every classroom. Drawing upon his vast experience as a successful leader, Matt Renwick provides compelling insights, practical tools, and real-life examples for how to effect real change in schools. Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. is a must-read playbook for any principal seeking to improve student outcomes—not by forcing change from outside in, but rather by unleashing it from the inside out through trust, compassion, optimism, and an unrelenting focus on excellence.

Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. provides a framework that engenders trust and fortifies commitment to instructional excellence. Matt Renwick helps readers envision and rethink roles and routines. Most of all, his strategies, stories, and practical approach take the burden of trying to be an ‘exert of everything’ off of principals’ shoulders. If  you want your school to be a place where teachers and students want to be, this book is for you!