Month: June 2025

CULTURE AUDIT: PART 2

Looking for Culture Clues: Onboarding

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

There are many areas in a workplace to look for cultural clues: meetings/gatherings, physical space design, team projects, hiring practices, client facing practices, and more. In my experience, one key area that indicates culture in any institution is the way people are onboarded. I have distinct memories of the first days at the schools I have worked in. Why is this? These onboarding times have an impact and create lasting impressions on a person’s experience. 

A poor onboarding experience can leave employees feeling uncomfortable, confused, and dejected.

A Guide to Onboarding for New Hires (For First-Time Managers)

According to Harvard Business Review, onboarding is defined as “the crucial process through which new employees acquire the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to integrate into an organization.”  Onboarding can have great impact on an employee’s overall experience and retention at a company. 

Bodo Heiliger

I’ve known Pri for over 25 years, and recently she coached our new Head of Early Childhood with remarkable results. Throughout the process, Pri provided not just coaching but also created space for vulnerability and thoughtful planning. I constantly heard, “Pri grounds me and now I’m getting myself out of the weeds of the school to truly plan my next several years.”

As a school leader, having Pri support members of my leadership team to see the future and allow time for true reflection is invaluable. Her ability to help educational leaders move from reactive daily operations to strategic long-term vision is transformational.

If you’re a school leader ready to elevate your team’s strategic thinking, you need to work with Pri. Her unique combination of educational expertise and coaching creates lasting change that will benefit your entire organization.

-Bodo Heiliger, Head of School, International School of Portland

Tabatha

From my very first session with Pri, I felt heard. I shared my career aspirations and the challenges affecting both myself and my team. Pri helped me uncover a fundamental issue—I had no boundaries with my team, my boss, or anyone, really. This realization was my turning point. Since then, I have set firm boundaries, learned to take small, strategic steps toward meaningful change, and ultimately transitioned to a new department that appreciates my expertise and leadership style.

Each session with Pri was unique, always addressing exactly what I needed at the time. She listened, helped me organize my thoughts, and guided me through solutions, not by simply telling me what to do, but by coaching me toward clarity and confidence. What made her coaching special wasn’t just the ability to vent but the empowerment to fix what felt broken. She helped restore the self-confidence I had lost.

Before leaving my previous role, I had found a renewed sense of balance, not only with my team and management but within myself.

Marianna

I am thoroughly grateful for the professional coaching support and guidance I received from Pri. As a new mentor to educators, I sought the assistance of a professional coach to help me navigate the first year in my new role. Pri’s warm and personable affect immediately made me feel comfortable and confident in our sessions. Her innate ability to establish rapport and trust creates a safe space for open dialogue and growth. 

Pri excels in clear and concise communication, providing relevant feedback and guidance that is both practical and insightful. She helped me set realistic proximal and distal goals, with accountability built into her support. Pri helped me approach challenges via a strengths-based perspective, empowering me to overcome obstacles and achieve optimal outcomes. 

What I most valued were the powerful questions Pri posed in our session. These prompts encouraged deep self-reflection, a deeper understanding of my abilities, and sparked independent thinking and action. 

Culture Audit

How do we investigate the culture of our workplace?

Photo by Proxyclick Visitor Management System on Unsplash

How can you determine the culture of a community as a new member or as a senior member? How do you know how people are perceiving the culture of the community you are currently leading? These are questions that have been on my mind lately, especially as we enter the summer months, which are more poised for reflection.

There are often layers to community culture. There is the outward layer of culture that institutions often name in their mission statements on their websites. Then, there is the more hidden culture that is harder to understand and define. We mostly find this out after we have entered a community and have spent some time there. How do we find this out?

I have worked in many different institutions in my career. This has enabled me to observe and investigate culture in each place.