Little Wins Workshop 2026 | Developing Leaders, One Conversation at a Time

Leadership development for school principals starts with the structure of a single conversation. In this Little Wins Workshop session, Mark Schuldt walks through the weekly coaching visit he uses with principals, plus the framework he teaches principals to use when they coach teachers. Mark is the Chief of Schools for Elementary at Council Bluffs Community School District in Iowa, where his work centers on principal leadership development. He shares the format of a 90-minute on-site coaching visit (check-in and celebration, top of mind, follow-up, focused observation, next steps), then breaks down the "Coaching on the Red Line" model and the six coaching stances inside it. You'll see how to find the right level of feedback for the person in front of you. On the indirect side, cognitive coaching gives veteran staff room to reflect, collaborative coaching invites you in as a thought partner, and consultant coaching lets you share an example when someone is stuck. On the direct side, calibration coaching aligns on expectations, candid coaching names the hard thing kindly, and command coaching tells someone exactly what has to happen. Every stance returns to reflection so the principal or teacher owns the next step. If you coach principals, support assistant principals, or guide teachers as an instructional coach, you'll come away with a repeatable conversation template and a clearer sense of how to grow the people you lead. 0:00 Welcome and session intro 1:34 Meet Mark Schuldt 5:36 The structure of a weekly coaching visit 6:15 Part 1: Check-in, top of mind, and follow-up 13:03 Part 2: Clarifying the focus of the observation 14:05 Part 3: Identifying the next bite-sized action step 19:39 The "Coaching on the Red Line" framework 21:02 Indirect coaching: cognitive, collaborative, consultant 25:29 Direct coaching: calibration, candid, command 29:42 Q&A and book recommendations Learn more about Alpaca at https://www.getalpaca.com/. #LeadershipDevelopment #SchoolLeadership #PrincipalCoaching #LittleWinsWorkshop