Responsive Leadership – Part 2: Coaching, Trust, and Team Resilience

Creating a Coaching Culture

A responsive leader isn’t just a decision-maker — they are a coach, guide, and thought partner. This part of the training focused on building a culture where coaching is not a title or a technique, but a daily behavior.

Creating a coaching culture means replacing directive habits with curiosity, co-creation, and commitment to growth. It means asking before telling, and listening to understand, not to reply.

# Simple prompt to build coaching habit
echo "Ask more than you answer." >> coaching_reminders.txt

Cultivating a Culture of Trust

Trust is the bedrock of responsiveness. Without it, teams shrink into silence or surface-level compliance. With it, people take risks, ask hard questions, and build real progress.

We discussed how trust is cultivated: through consistency, transparency, and care. And how, as leaders, our micro-behaviors shape team trust every day.

Performance vs. Trust Matrix

Trust must never be sacrificed for output. In the long run, performance cannot thrive without psychological safety.

The Components of Trust

We broke trust into four actionable dimensions:

We also used a trust self-assessment to identify gaps and growth areas. It was a reminder that trust isn’t given or taken — it’s earned through repeated behavior.

Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is not about comfort — it’s about permission. Permission to speak up, disagree, try, and learn without fear of being punished or judged.

We reflected on how to create these conditions:

• Admit mistakes openly
• Invite dissent without punishment
• Celebrate learning behaviors (not just results)
• Circle back when someone takes a risk

# Weekly prompt to reinforce safety
echo "What did someone share this week that took courage?" >> safety_reflections.txt

Coaching Techniques

Responsive leaders use coaching as a primary leadership behavior, not just in formal sessions.

GROW Model

A structured conversation guide:

• Goal: What do you want?
• Reality: What’s happening now?
• Options: What are the possibilities?
• Way Forward: What will you do next?

This model helps keep coaching focused, collaborative, and actionable.

The Coaching Spectrum (Push vs Pull)

We explored coaching styles as a spectrum:

Pull builds autonomy. Push provides clarity. Balance is key.

Question Bank

We practiced using a variety of coaching questions:

# Sample coaching journal entry
session = {
    "person": "Alex",
    "focus": "new role onboarding",
    "question": "What are you most curious — or nervous — about right now?"
}
print(session)

STAR Model for Performance Conversations

To give feedback on performance with clarity and empathy, we used STAR:

• Situation – When and where?
• Task – What was the expectation?
• Action – What did the person do?
• Result – What was the outcome?

This format helps feedback land factually and fairly, reducing defensiveness and centering learning.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Finally, we revisited Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions, not as theory — but as a diagnostic and coaching lens:

A responsive leader sees dysfunction not as failure, but as invitation to coach the system — with courage, consistency, and care.

# Weekly team pulse
echo "What trust-building moment happened this week?" >> team_health_log.txt