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Coaching the Whole Educator
Coaching the Whole Educator is a podcast for instructional coaches, teacher leaders, and school leaders who want to strengthen their educators’ effectiveness and resilience, especially the ones who need it most. Each week, you’ll hear quick tips, proven strategies, and coaching mindsets designed to keep you on top of your coaching game.
This show is rooted in a human-centered approach, where we get things done through people’s humanity, not around it. Whether you’re new to instructional coaching or a seasoned instructional coach or leader looking for fresh perspective, you’ll learn how to focus on the mindsets and motivations driving unproductive behaviors. By getting to the root of resistance, you’ll discover how to build stronger relationships, lead with clarity, and create lasting impact in your school.
Coaching the Whole Educator
#184: [Resistance Chronicles] Growth Mindset
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Resistance Chronicles, Part 4: Growth Mindset
In this episode, Becca Silver explores how resistance shows up when the belief “I can improve” feels unsupported. Growth requires effort, feedback, and struggle. When those experiences feel risky or tied to judgment, educators naturally protect themselves.
This form of resistance is often quiet and easy to misread. It can sound like:
“I’m good where I am.”
“That’s just not my style.”
“I already know how to do this.”
Avoiding feedback or new learning after one imperfect attempt.
This is not laziness. It is self-protection. When effort feels like weakness, mistakes feel like exposure, and feedback feels evaluative, people stay with what feels safe even if it is not producing results.
In this episode, Becca unpacks the Growth Mindset™ lens of resistance and helps leaders recognize when hesitation is really about how struggle is being interpreted. She also shares practical ways to reframe effort, normalize iteration, and create environments where learning feels developmental rather than performative.
In this episode:
• What resistance looks and sounds like when growth does not feel safe
• How evaluation-heavy cultures shape risk-taking and feedback
• Why struggle must be reframed as learning, not failure
• How leaders can normalize effort, experimentation, and iteration
• Coaching language that shifts the focus from performance to development
[FREE RESOURCE]
The Resistance Audit: Diagnose where the resistance is coming from!
Resources Mentioned:
Find both at 👉 thewholeeducator.com
Because resistance isn’t something to fight.
It’s something to understand.
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