🔥 NEW! Overcome your biggest challenges with our proven strategies. Start learning today! 🔥 Learn more.

Bright Morning Blog

Best-selling author and coaching expert, Elena Aguilar, shares her wisdom about coaching, leading teams, and designing and facilitating transformational professional development.

Take the [bleep]ing compliment
Latest Article

Take the [bleep]ing compliment

A reframe that might just change how you hear feedback—and how you see yourself.

Read Article
How trust develops

How trust develops

April 8, 2024

In my newest book, Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching (July 2024), there's a short section about trust—what it is and how we build it—and this got me thinking about how, at the end of the school year, we often reflect on how our relationships developed. We might think back to what it felt like to start coaching a certain teacher or managing a certain staff member, and how we initially misjudged them, and now we really love them, and how initially they were standoffish, and now they’re open and vulnerable. This is a reflection on the development of trust. 

Read Article
Who do you find hardest to listen to?

Who do you find hardest to listen to?

April 1, 2024

In my newest book, Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching (July 2024), there is a portion about listening, how we listen, and what it takes for us to listen deeply. 

Read Article
Is there “us” and “them” drama on your team?

Is there “us” and “them” drama on your team?

March 18, 2024

As a coach, I was perceived as being “them”--as being on the “side” of admin. I didn’t know how to deal with this. I felt hurt and angry. I felt rejected. I became defensive and decided to ally myself with the admin. But I also didn’t align in any way with the site administrators. I felt very lonely and unable to deal with all the tension.

Read Article
Addressing the Teacher Exodus

Addressing the Teacher Exodus

March 11, 2024

March has always been the month when educators contemplate what next? Stay in this school or position? Or request a change? Or get out? But in recent years, there’s been an exodus of teachers from schools.

Read Article
Being a Coach Transformed My Parenting

Being a Coach Transformed My Parenting

March 4, 2024

A few months ago, I had one of the most meaningful conversations I’ve ever had with my son. He’d just finished his first semester in college and we were on the beach in Kauai. He was sharing a lot—more than usual—about his first semester. He’s very interested in ethics and philosophy (although he’s a biomedical engineering and neuroscience major) so I thought I’d ask him about his values. He’d also mentioned having done an activity in his leadership program about what made him who he is (“Mom made me who I am,” he’d said, 🙂). 

Read Article
Do You Trust Your Team?

Do You Trust Your Team?

February 26, 2024

The majority of team leaders and facilitators that I’ve met want to build their team’s capacity. They want to see their team do good work; they want to see teammates thrive. But when I ask them this question: Do you trust your team? They freeze. 

Read Article
My Favorite Coaching Phrase

My Favorite Coaching Phrase

February 19, 2024

In The Art of Coaching workshop, we talk about the five “Coaching Survival Phrases.” The last of those is one of my favorite questions to ask a client: Is there a question that would be helpful for me to ask you right now?

Read Article
My Top 5

My Top 5

February 19, 2024

Here are my top five things that I’m SO excited about related to my next book.

Read Article

The Bright Morning Podcast

Coaching demonstrations to help you tackle the most pressing coaching challenges.

Browse All Podcasts

Transformation starts here

Start cultivating your skills to lead teams that transform schools and organizations into joyful, resilient, and equitable environments.

Teach Me
Teach My Team