Listening as a Form of Empowerment with Elena Aguilar

Author: Frederick Buskey
Published: Tue 05 Aug 2025
Episode Link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/e6e80cf3

Power Quote: I noticed… and I wonder…

Description:

Welcome to the third and final part of my interview with Elena Aguilar. Today we dive into how we can reconnect people with their sense of power – building teacher self-efficacy through reflective questions. Decades of research identifies teacher self-efficacy – the belief that what teachers do has an impact on student learning – as the bedrock for good teaching. Recent research suggest a large part of the leader’s impact on student growth (which is second only to the teacher’s impact) is a result of the leader’s ability to build teacher self-efficacy. So, today’s episode offers some essential information and techniques to unlocking teachers’ potential and fulfilling your leadership purpose.

Show Intro

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Guest Bio:

Elena Aguilar is a writer, leader, teacher, coach and podcaster. She is the author of eight highly acclaimed books including: The Art of Coaching, The Art of Coaching Teams, The PD Book: 7 Habits that Transform Professional Development, and the newly released Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching. She has also been a frequent contributor to Edutopia, ASCD’s Educational Leadership, and EdWeek Teacher.
Elena is the founder and CEO of Bright Morning Consulting, an organization committed tohelping individuals and organizations create the conditions for transformation. She has taught tens of thousands of folks how to have conversations that build a more just and equitable world. Elena can be heard demonstrating these conversations on The Bright Morning Podcast.

Elena was a guest on episodes 204 and 205, June 2024, and in Parts 1 and 2 of this series, episodes 260 and 261.

Questions/Topics/Prompts

Elena discusses it in Arise, but as part of the ACE section, and I would love to explore the idea further. What if all I did as an AP was recognize strengths?

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Closing questions:

What part of your own leadership are you still trying to get better at?
If listeners could take just one thing away from today’s podcast, what would it be?
Before we go, is there anything else that you’d like to share with our listeners?
Where can people learn more about you and your work…

Summary/wrap up

Today’s environment: stress as disempowerment: listening and asking questions that empower the teacher to come up with the answers.
Strength based coaching (my version) centers the administrator. Get back to asking questions, even as simple as 5-minute coaching.
Provocative questions: “I noticed (fact)… I wonder what belief/action…?”
Beliefs and ways of being: deep, vague, and real => relationships (with self and others)
Delegating so I can focus on what I’m best at (and what only I can do)
Slow things down!

Thank you to our sponsors!