Teaching Ecosystem Sustainability & Stability Assessment

Understand the Health of Your Teaching Practice

Teaching success is about more than lesson quality.

A sustainable teaching practice depends on many interconnected factors, including how you manage your time, support your students, market your services, maintain your energy, and adapt to changing circumstances. Strength in one area can often compensate for weakness in another, but long-term stability comes from understanding how the entire ecosystem works together.

The Teaching Ecosystem Sustainability & Stability Assessment (TESSA) provides a structured way to reflect on the key dimensions that influence the sustainability of your teaching practice. It is designed to help you identify strengths, recognize vulnerabilities, and focus your attention on the areas most likely to improve your effectiveness, satisfaction, and long-term success as an instructor.

Many instructors discover they are stronger than they realize in some areas while uncovering opportunities for meaningful growth in others.

About the Self-Rating

TESSA is a self-reflection assessment built around the major dimensions that contribute to a sustainable teaching ecosystem. You will rate yourself across each dimension and receive a visual snapshot of how balanced your teaching practice currently feels.

Your results can help you:

• Identify areas of strength
• Recognize potential stress points
• Clarify priorities for growth
• Create a more resilient teaching practice
• Make intentional decisions about where to invest your time and energy

There are no right or wrong answers.

You are simply rating your current experience based on where things stand today. To be clear, the goal is awareness.

Use the following scale:

1–3: Significant challenges or instability
4–6: Functional but inconsistent
7–8: Generally strong and sustainable
9–10: Highly developed and consistently effective

Choose the rating that best reflects your current reality—not where you hope to be.

Honest responses will produce the most valuable insights.

Important Guardrails

Sustainability Is Multifaceted

A strong score in one area does not automatically create a sustainable teaching practice.

For example, excellent teaching skills cannot fully compensate for weak systems, unclear boundaries, inconsistent marketing, or chronic overcommitment.

Lower Scores Are Indicators, Not Judgment

Every teaching practice has strengths and stress points.

Lower ratings simply highlight areas where additional attention, support, or resources may improve stability and long-term success.

Balance Matters More Than Perfection

The goal is not to score a perfect 10 in every dimension.

The most sustainable teaching practices are often those that remain balanced, adaptable, and aligned with the instructor’s goals, capacity, and stage of growth.

Awareness Creates Better Decisions

TESSA is designed to help you make intentional choices about where to invest your time, energy, and resources.

Greater awareness often leads to better priorities, stronger boundaries, and more sustainable growth.

Sustainability Protects Everyone

When instructors build stable teaching ecosystems:

• Students receive a more consistent learning experience.
• Instructors experience less stress and burnout.
• Communities benefit from stronger, longer-lasting leadership.
• The teaching practice becomes more resilient amid the natural ebbs and flows common in the hobby market.

As you complete the assessment, try to respond based on your actual experience rather than the version you wish were true or feel pressure to present publicly. The most meaningful insights come from honest self-awareness. A lower score is not a failure. It is simply information.

Areas that feel strained, inconsistent, or emotionally draining often point toward places that may need clearer boundaries, stronger systems, better pacing, additional support, or greater alignment with your current goals and capacity.

The more open and realistic you are with your responses, the more valuable your analysis, results, and recommended next steps will be.

There is no right or wrong rating. This is not about how successful you should be as an instructor—it is about how your ecosystem actually functions today.

For each dimension below, rate the current health and sustainability of your teaching practice on a scale of 1 to 10.

1 means this area feels fragile, inconsistent, or underdeveloped.

10 means this area feels strong, stable, and well-supported.

After selecting a rating, use the space provided to briefly explain why you chose it.

You might consider:

• What is working particularly well in this area?
• What feels difficult, inconsistent, or draining?
• Where do you find yourself spending unnecessary time or energy?
• Have recent changes strengthened or weakened this part of your practice?

If this area became more stable, what impact would it have on your overall teaching experience?

Be honest and practical. The goal is not to judge your teaching practice—it is to understand it more clearly.

Your reflection matters as much as your rating. Awareness is what turns pressure points into opportunities for sustainable growth.

First and Last Name *

First

Last

Email *

Emotional Awareness *

Rate 1 out of 10Rate 2 out of 10Rate 3 out of 10Rate 4 out of 10Rate 5 out of 10Rate 6 out of 10Rate 7 out of 10Rate 8 out of 10Rate 9 out of 10Rate 10 out of 10

Your ability to respond calmly and objectively to enrollment changes, uncertainty, slow seasons, or business fluctuations.

Emotional Awareness Rating Reasoning *

Business Stability Rating *

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Your confidence in the variety and balance of revenue sources supporting your teaching ecosystem.

Business Stability Rating Reasoning *

Revenue Diversity Rating *

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Your confidence in the variety and balance of revenue sources supporting your teaching ecosystem.

Revenue Diversity Rating Reasoning *

Student Continuity Rating *

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Your effectiveness in helping students continue beyond beginner lessons and remain connected to your teaching ecosystem over time.

Student Continuity Rating Reasoning *

Workload Management Rating *

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Your awareness of how sustainable your workload, preparation demands, and emotional energy feels long-term.

Workload Management Rating Reasoning *

Operational Simplicity Rating *

Rate 1 out of 10Rate 2 out of 10Rate 3 out of 10Rate 4 out of 10Rate 5 out of 10Rate 6 out of 10Rate 7 out of 10Rate 8 out of 10Rate 9 out of 10Rate 10 out of 10

Your comfort with how manageable, streamlined, and repeatable your systems, routines, and teaching operations currently feel.

Operational Simplicity Rating Reasoning *

Boundaries & Capacity Rating *

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Your ability to realistically pace commitments, protect your time, and manage your personal capacity in a sustainable way.

Boundaries & Capacity Rating Reasoning *

Long-Term Alignment Rating *

Rate 1 out of 10Rate 2 out of 10Rate 3 out of 10Rate 4 out of 10Rate 5 out of 10Rate 6 out of 10Rate 7 out of 10Rate 8 out of 10Rate 9 out of 10Rate 10 out of 10

Your sense of alignment between your teaching practice, your goals, your lifestyle, and your current season of life.

Long-Term Alignment Rating Reasoning *

Would You Like Support Interpreting Your Results? *

If you are currently working with a coach, mentor, consultant, or accountability partner and would like them to receive your TESSA results, please enter their name and email address. Once submitted, we will share your results with them so they can help you identify strengths, address pressure points, and create a more sustainable teaching practice. If you would like support interpreting your results, you schedule an Esprit TOUCH session with Michele. If you prefer to continue independently at this time, enter: Not applicable this time.

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