Leadership Development
Growth Talk: Leader-Initiated Conversations
Lead the conversations that keep your school moving with coherence, confidence and care.
Effective leaders don’t wait for problems to surface.
They initiate conversations, checking in, affirming, nudging and stretching the practice of those they lead.
These leader-initiated conversations happen across a wide range of contexts: the brief corridor exchange, the informal check-in, the one-to-one that wasn’t scheduled but mattered.
When led with intention, they enhance trust and alignment.
About
Drawing on the concepts and frameworks in Growth Talk: A Coaching Way of Leading in Schools (Munro & Campbell, 2025), this highly practical one-day course develops the skills and confidence to initiate and manage these conversations well. You will explore how to bring shape to less-formal leader-initiated interactions, develop the key skills that fuel learning conversations and learn how to show up in ways that raise awareness and encourage responsibility in team members.
This course pairs naturally with Growth Talk: Managing "Got a Minute?" Conversations and can be taken as a stand-alone day or as part of the two-day series.
Based on the book
Growth Talk: A Coaching Way of Leading in Schools
Participants will receive a copy of Growth Talk at the first workshop they attend.
What you will gain
Practical framework, for initiating and leading conversations that maintain progress and strengthen practice
Enhanced skills and confidence to affirm, nudge and stretch colleagues through intentional everyday conversations
Immediately applicable strategies for adopting a coaching way of leading across a range of informal contexts
The capacity to raise awareness and encourage responsibility in team members, one conversation at a time
Structure
Coaching and Leading
Why a coaching way of leading?Conversation Contexts
The Learning Conversations Map, the contexts for leading learning conversationsA Coaching Approach
Coaching versus a coaching approach and being a conversation leaderWhat's your purpose?
Discerning the purposes of leader-initiated conversationsFinger-on-the-pulse
Checking-in and maintaining progressTypes of Feedback
Understanding feedback as awareness-raising informationAmplifying Resources
Strengths-based conversationsSupportive Challenge
Initiating “nudge and stretch” conversations
In their words
These are from GCI’s participant survey, across their courses rather than this one.
Our facilitators
As a coaching organisation, we endeavour to model a ‘coaching way of being’ in our interactions with our clients by being:
- Respectful
- Humble
- Curious
- Strengths-focused
- Reflective
We encourage a culture of high expectations through our commitment to the ongoing development of our people based on mutual respect and collaboration. Our consultants are expert coach practitioners who draw on a wealth of educational experience to provide the highest level of service as coaches and trainers.
Fees and what is included
This price is for an individual registering on an open-enrolment course.
Savings are available for organisations who wish to run this course for an in-house group.
Please email info@growthcoaching.com.au to request a quote or discuss this further.
Register your interest
If you would like to explore offering this course to your own group, or would like to be notified when new dates are announced, please complete the form below. A member of the GCI team will be in touch.
