The Coaching Letter
The Coaching Letter is written by Partners’ staff member Isobel Stevenson, who has extensive experience as both a leader and a coach. The Coaching Letter’s perspective is that leaders could be a bit more successful if they thought and acted more like coaches, and coaches could be a bit more successful if they thought and acted more like leaders.

Coaching Letter #169
Hello, I hope this finds you well. Thank you for subscribing to The Coaching Letter. You rock. This is a great time of year to be in New England, my family is happier and healthier than we have been since the start of the pandemic and maybe even before, and I have fascinating work with terrific people, so my life is good. Thank you to everyone who responded to my last Coaching Letter—some of those emails were quite unexpected and
Read More
Coaching Letter #168
Good morning, I hope this finds you well. I know many of you just started the new school year, and many are just about to start. I know exactly that particular combination of anxiety, nervous energy, optimism and joy that accompanies the beginning of school. May all your best hopes transpire. I am writing this in the dining car of an Amtrak just south of Jacksonville, and the guy two booths down is singing along, loudly and stereotypically off-key, to
Read More
Coaching Letter #167
Hello, I hope you are well and that you are reading this after you get back from vacation. This Coaching Letter is ONLY about the tools that I use to keep myself organized and (more or less) productive. This is in response to multiple requests over the last few months—it’s not like I think I have a lock on productivity, but I have spent some time trying to figure out how to make apps & extensions work for me, because
Read More
Coaching Letter #166
Good morning. Today is Day One of Milford’s HQI Live!, which for me is a Very Big Deal. I wrote about it the first year it took place, and this year it’s significantly more ambitious, with 100 teachers from across the district coming together to watch teachers teach real kids in real time, sandwiched between activities designed to engage adult learners on important questions about instructional practice (What is high quality instruction? What matters in giving and receiving feedback? What’s
Read More
Coaching Letter #165
Hi, how are you, I hope you had a good Fourth of July weekend. I remember when it used to be a big deal for us to go someplace to watch fireworks, but now I’m just grateful for some time off. I had a great week last week with the Bridgeport Teacher Leaders; it was a great way to round out a very full and challenging year, and I am grateful for the thought and energy they invested, the support
Read More
Coaching Letter #164
June 24, 2022 Good afternoon, I hope this finds you well. This Coaching Letter is a challenge to everyone currently involved with us in connection with action research/improvement science/continuous improvement (which is a lot of you!) OR anyone interested in getting a better idea of what I’m talking about when I write about action research/improvement science/continuous improvement (which must be everyone else?). It also, and perhaps just importantly, uses a familiar situation to teach the stages of continuous improvement. The
Read More