The Liberator as Coach: Safety, Performance, and Accountability in Action

Oct 8

In Unleashing the Irreplaceable: How Multipliers Elevate Teams and How to Be a Talent Magnet: Radical Clarity and Relentless Commitment, we talked about setting the stage. Multipliers create environments where people opt into clarity and high standards.

Now it’s time to talk about the next two Multiplier behaviors: the Liberator and the Coach. In practice, the Liberator and the Coach can’t be separated. You can’t create safety by decree. You prove it in the way you coach people through risks, breakdowns, and accountability.

That’s why this article covers both. The Liberator sets the cultural promise: “It’s safe to challenge ideas and make mistakes in the service of measurably improving customer satisfaction, team member satisfaction, and profitability (the 3-pillars), because the mission of psychological safety is to supercharge the team’s outcomes.” The Coach makes it real: guiding people through failure, building mastery, and reinforcing accountability with empathy and rigor.

Here’s how leaders do both, and why safety only exists when promise meets proof.

The False Promise

A lot of companies love to say they have psychological safety. HR hosts a workshop, the word “trust” goes on the wall, and leaders nod along. Everyone feels safe until something goes wrong and leads to a breakdown. Then, suddenly, everything stops while we figure out who was at fault. Because obviously if we can find the culprit, we can control them better next time. Or, failing that, replace them with someone equally doomed to fail.

Here’s the reality: people don’t feel safe because of a policy or a pep talk. They feel safe based on what their leader does in the moment. When someone speaks up, takes a risk, or stumbles, that’s the crucible.

If the leader responds with blame, judgment, or by “shoulding” all over them, game over. The posters in the hallway don’t matter. Psychological safety isn’t a trust fall at the offsite. Nobody’s catching you there.

But when a leader listens first, aligns before action, and responds with curiosity instead of frustration, something shifts. The breakdown becomes a rep. Risks become worth it, because people know their leader will coach them through the fallout, get them back on their feet, move the ball forward, and strengthen the team. Every breakdown is a lesson banked. A future breakdown avoided. A future advancement.

Talk without action is theater. But leaders who coach to accelerate the outcome, not dwell on the person, turn the promise of safety into reality.

The Liberator as Coach

Liberators don’t create safety by decree. They create it by coaching people through risk, vulnerability, and failure to achieve outcomes no one could reach alone.

That starts with modeling vulnerability yourself. Admit mistakes. Ask for feedback. Show your team it’s not only safe to stumble, it’s expected in the pursuit of mastery and unstoppable outcomes.

When breakdowns happen, and they always do, Liberators resist the urge to shame or blame. They take the Viktor Frankl approach: in the space between stimulus and response, they choose to coach. They listen. They align. They lift people back up. Taking this approach strengthens the relationship, builds trust, and accelerates the outcome.

This is why Liberators and Coaches can’t be separated in practice. The Liberator sets the cultural promise: “It’s safe here, and accountability matters.” The Coach proves it daily by helping people fail forward, grow stronger, and deliver outcomes with confidence.

Performance Coaching in Action

So how do Liberators coach? With the tools of performance coaching, not advice-giving, not micromanaging, but practices that build capability and confidence at the same time:

Be a skilled feedback receiver. Vulnerability starts with you. If you can’t recieve feedback constructively, your team won’t either.
Deliver feedback skillfully. Care first. Challenge directly. Make sure you consider the human in front of you and speak with care for them, and ensure your message is clear. The litmus test is that you believe in your heart that the feedback will help them and needs to be given. If you just want to criticize, keep it to yourself. And, keep appreciation, coaching, and evaluation separate. Mixing them muddies the message.
Use non-directive coaching. Set team members up for success by ensuring alignment before they start work. Practice active listening by giving your full attention, asking clarifying questions, and reflecting back what you hear to confirm understanding. Then challenge their thinking until they present a plan you both think will work. Share real experience stories instead of dumping advice. Let people pull the lessons that matter most to them.
Use directive coaching when needed. Sometimes people just don’t have the experience necessary to come up with a plan that you both think will work using non-directive coaching. If that happens, shift to directive coaching to invest in their success. Teach with stories, examples, and reps. Walk people through the four levels of mastery: Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Competence, and Mastery. Stay patient during the incompetence phase, but firm about taking baby steps forward.
Avoid “shoulding.” Advice isn’t coaching. Don’t pile on what people “should” do. Share what you did, or how others did, and let them learn.
Demonstrate sturdy leadership. Stay empathetic with the struggle, but never drop the standard. Safety without accountability isn’t safe, it’s chaos.

Liberators use these practices to coach their people into safety, accountability, and measurable improvements to customer satisfaction, team member satisfaction, and profitability. That’s how the promise becomes proof.

The Payoff

When leaders coach this way, safety and accountability stop being opposites. They become inseparable.

Teams move into the Learning Zone, high psychological safety and high responsibility. That’s where people innovate, grow, and deliver transformational outcomes.

The Liberator as Coach doesn’t lower the bar. They raise it. And they create a culture where people know they can clear it, because their leader is there to coach them over, every single time.

Your Next Move

Don’t tell your team they’re safe. Show them.

This week, admit a mistake out loud, and ask your team what they learned from their own.

When someone stumbles, resist the urge to react. Be curious, not judgmental. Listen first. Ask questions. Share an experience. Help them find their next step forward.

Separate your feedback. Don’t blend coaching with praise or evaluation. Make it clear, simple, and purposeful.

Remember: psychological safety isn’t soft. It’s the foundation for performance.

Series Note

This article is part of our Multipliers series. In the anchor, Unleashing the Irreplaceable: How Multipliers Elevate Teams, we introduced the Multiplier foundation, autonomy, collaboration, and empowerment, and the five behaviors that bring it to life: the Talent Magnet, the Liberator, the Challenger, the Debate Maker, and the Investor. This follow-on delivers the Liberator and the Coach, not separate concepts, but a single practice where leaders coach safety, performance, and accountability into reality. Upcoming articles will continue to break down each Multiplier behavior into actionable systems leaders can use to elevate their teams.

J. Scott

J. Scott is the CEO, founder, speaker, author, instructor, and location independent entrepreneur who’s recognized as an expert in transformational leadership that gets sh*t done #GSD.

J. Scott, a talentless, real-life anti-hero who doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk. Growing up in the streets of Los Angeles with less-than-ideal parents, J. learned early on that actions speak louder than words.

After dropping out of high school at 17, J. joined the Navy and learned firsthand that grit and courage could overcome any lack of talent. He embraced every opportunity to learn and eventually became a Naval Rescue Swimmer, jumping out of helicopters to save lives.

Rewind, two decades ago, J. founded 120VC to help people, leaders, and teams get things done that really matter. He's uncovered some universal truths along the way: organizations are optimized for the results they're getting, and to get different results, humans need to perform their jobs differently.

But here's the kicker: humans crave success in all areas of their lives, and nobody knows how to be successful doing their job differently. That's where leaders come in - to help people feel safe to experiment and slay new ways of working.

J. Scott is the epitome of the anti-thought leader, proving that leadership isn’t about being the most talented or successful person on the team. It’s about helping your team members define and deliver success. If you surround yourself with talented people and inspire them to reach for THEIR potential, the leader doesn’t need to be talented. They just have to play for the team. J. Scott is a regular guy who's proven that actions speak louder than words.

Jason has spent over 20 years leading global transformational efforts for DirecTV, Trader Joe’s, Blizzard Entertainment, RIOT Games, Sony Pictures, ResMed, AAG, Universal Music Group, Remitly, and others.

He is the author of two Amazon-bestselling books “It’s Never Just Business: It’s About People” and “The Irreverent Guide to Project Management, An Agile Approach to Enterprise Project Management.”

Jason is a sought-after keynote speaker, with 5-star reviews for his unique, people-centric, and outcome-obsessed approach to change that has generated breakthrough results and created meaningful jobs.

His passion to mentor and training a new generation of leaders led him to start the Transformational Leadership Academy where he leads a 14-week certification program.

In 2020, Jason launched the 120 Brand Community, featuring Brick and Matter CO, BAMCO, a brand accelerator transforming how brands can go to market, and Next Jump Outfitters, an overland guide and e-commerce business transforming how people balance work and play as digital nomads.

http://www.jasonscottleadership.com