Several years ago, I was leading a coaching workshop for assistant principals. In the middle of an activity on coaching cycles, someone brought up a critical point. “This is coaching with a capital ‘C,’ but I never have this kind of time,” they said. “I have five minutes at most!”
That comment resonated with me. I was inspired to think more about what effective coaching with a small ‘c’ might look like. If we only had five minutes, how could we use that time effectively to promote reflection and growth in our teachers?
With that, I developed my own five-minute coaching technique specifically for leaders who only have small amounts of time and/or little to no expertise in the subjects of the teachers they work with. It is most commonly used to help teachers reflect on a lesson, but can also be used as a tuning protocol to reflect on a training or meeting, or even more broadly as a school culture check-in. It is effective because it helps teachers reflect on their practice and facilitates discussions on teaching and learning. Five-minute coaching has five steps:
- Greeting or affirmation
- Ask: What went well?
- Ask: Did anything surprise you?
- Ask: Is there anything you would do differently?
- Say: Thank you for sharing.
As leaders using this technique, we simply provide the prompts and the space for people to reflect on their own practice. Our primary focus is on listening—no paraphrasing, elaboration, or additional questions. The emphasis is on allowing people to talk about their own practice.
If we only had five minutes, how could we use that time effectively to promote reflection and growth in our teachers?
The Five-Minute Coaching Steps
1. Greeting or Affirmation
The five-minute coaching practice is designed to feel informal and relaxed, so the way we begin a session is critical. We must be fully present and create a safe and quiet space for reflection. Full presence consists of both our time and our undivided attention. As we prepare to begin five-minute coaching, we need to focus on the person, lean in, and smile.
This should feel informal and even spontaneous. It’s great to do as a walk and talk or while popping into a teacher’s classroom. Keeping the body relaxed, and standing side-by-side instead of face-to-face, can lower power differences and make the conversation feel safer. The greeting does not need to be complex. It can sound like: “Hey, I know you were excited to teach that lesson on balancing equations, I’m curious…” or “I know you met with JD’s parents this morning, I’m curious…”
2. What Went Well?
The next step should flow seamlessly from the affirmation. Asking, “What went well?” creates a safe feeling. When you ask this question, the person will replay the event in their head, specifically looking for moments where good things happened. Asking “what went well?” also helps teachers reframe events, especially if there was a negative component. For example, if I was coaching a teacher and the session didn’t go well, beginning with the positive helps us go back and think about the parts that worked, not just the parts that didn’t. Nod and smile as the person shares, but do not interject.
3. Did Anything Surprise You?
People tend to process events from a critical lens (What didn’t work?) or from a positive lens (What worked?) We rarely process events through the lens of surprise. This is an incredibly powerful question. When you ask it, watch as people look away in thought as they re-process the event through this new lens. In reflecting on surprises, teachers replay the lesson, looking for moments that stood out. In identifying surprises, teachers naturally go deeper by processing why something was surprising. For example, a math teacher was surprised a specific student participated in a lesson, as that student was usually passive. The teacher realized she had done some front-loading of content with the student and was able to connect that practice to the student’s increased participation.
Our primary focus is on listening—no paraphrasing, elaboration, or additional questions.
4. Is There Anything You Would Do Differently?
This prompt is the growth question. It invites people to learn from their experience. Teachers will once again replay the event, this time thinking about what changes they could make next time. This is a deep level of analysis, as people connect specific actions to specific outcomes and think through optional strategies or practices. In addition, asking, “Is there anything you would do differently?” offers people the chance to reflect critically without the emotion of negativity. It isn’t about what the person did wrong this time. It’s about what they might do differently next time.
5. Thank You
Say this with sincerity. How awesome is it that a person has immersed themselves in reflecting on their own practice, that they have reprocessed an event three different times, and that they were willing to share it with you? A five-minute coaching session is a win for both the coach and the coachee. This brings the session to a close. You may be tempted to ask more questions and go deeper, but this is not the place. You want teachers to know that when you ask these three questions, it is purely their time to reflect. You can always revisit important discoveries at a later time.
Why It’s So Powerful
The five-minute coaching practice works for multiple reasons. It creates reflection time for people who are frequently too busy to create it on their own. Over time, it develops more reflective practitioners, so the benefits of your coaching accrue even after you’ve moved on. Listening builds trust and communicates that we value and respect the speaker. In a highly stressful and polarized world, these things carry more value.
Over time, it develops more reflective practitioners, so the benefits of your coaching accrue even after you’ve moved on.
Some important tips for five-minute coaching conversations:
- If teachers aren’t accustomed to responding to reflective questions, it can be helpful to tip them off in advance. You can say, “I’m working on becoming a better listener. I’ll be practicing by asking three questions and listening. I won’t be giving feedback. I will just be listening.” One principal took this even further by asking her staff to help hold her accountable. Her teachers began asking her to coach them.
- “Nothing” is an acceptable answer. Many teachers have been traumatized by the teacher evaluation process somewhere in their past, so they may view the second two questions as threatening. Allowing them to opt out without negative consequences begins to build trust.
- “What did you think?” Teachers often want to know how we perceived a situation and will solicit feedback. Refrain from giving feedback during five-minute coaching. This is about their reflection, not ours. Similarly, many teachers are accustomed to receiving “grows and glows” and will assume we will be sharing them. Holding our tongues says, “This really is about you, not me.”
- If we hear something that needs to be followed up on (“I was surprised when the students began cutting each other’s hair instead of the paper.”), we can come back to the conversation later. This creates separation from the five-minute coaching. A simple way to revisit a conversation is to say, “I remember yesterday when you were reflecting, you said something about hair cutting. Can we talk more about that?”
Five-minute coaching can feel awkward and forced initially, but consistent practice will help the questions become a natural part of our conversations. In fact, you may find yourself using it in all different kinds of situations. It can be used as a tuning protocol after an event, training, or meeting. It can be used by co-facilitators on each other, or even individually as self-reflection. It can also be used as a simple culture check-in by changing the greeting to something like, “Wow, we made it to the end of the year! I’m curious, what do you think went well?”
Five Minutes for Great Impact
A simple way to begin five-minute coaching is to identify two people you want to coach and two times in the next seven days that you could coach them. Try this for two weeks and something amazing will happen.
Editor’s note: For more on the five-minute coaching technique, listen to episode 284 of Frederick Buskey’s The Assistant Principal Podcast.
Frederick Buskey is a speaker, author, podcaster, and coach with 17 years of experience teaching and leading in K-12 internationally and in the U.S. He's led total redesigns of principal licensure programs at two universities. Frederick uses his unique combination of personal experiences, the experiences of others, and understanding of the research to create simple and practical frameworks to turn complex challenges, like change and teacher support, into simple, actionable practices. In addition to his book, A School Leader’s Guide to Reclaiming Purpose, he writes a daily leadership email and hosts The Assistant Principal Podcast.
