8 Personalization: Theme 2 of 5 In principals listing differences between executive coaching and other professional development experiences, feedback, application, engagement, accountability, focus, one-on-one, and personalized were named. All principals had responses aligned with personalization, and the theme’s child codes included the following: campus or person specific, goals, misalignment, relevant problem solving, and one-on-one. In spite of all the principals providing comments that were coded to the personalization theme, four principal responses were also coded to personalization, lack thereof, due to misalignment. Some of the principals expressed not initially seeing the connection to their current situation and not hearing about the work connected to coaching within the district. There were also moments of misalignment for a principal due to other district roles the principal held. Overall, principals valued the personalization aspect. Relationship: Theme 3 of 5 All of the principals had responses coded to the theme of relationship. Some of the principals mentioned relationship attributes such as feedback and engagement when defending differences between executive coaching and other principal professional development. The relationship theme was split into the following child codes: communication, knowledge or insight, collaborative, outside coach, non-evaluative, and trust. Communication was coded the most of any of the relationship child codes and included coaches being listeners, using questioning to promote thinking and reflection, providing feedback, communicating passionately about the work, and providing encouragement or affirmation. Some of the principals addressed the relationship being key to coaching. In spite of there being no interview questions related to executive coaching being provided by coaches who do not work for the school districts, half of the participants mentioned the benefit of having an outside coach. Principals appreciated having an outside coach to gain a different perspective and because the executive coach is not responsible for evaluating the principal. Accountability: Theme 4 of 5 Eleven of 12 principals provided responses that the researcher coded to accountability. This theme had six identified child codes including district focus, goals or evidence, growth, accountability of others, reflection, and productive struggle. Accountability for focusing on district priorities and helping others be accountable had Figure 1. Code Map of Themes and First Level Child Codes Crystal Johnson Cross, EdD
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