What's the leader's next move?

Pick a pattern you're seeing in a student one of your coaches supports. The point isn't to label the student, it's to know what you'd say to the coach by Friday.

Pattern

Overwhelmed

The system is too loud. They're flooded, not refusing.

What the coach is probably seeing

Frozen, scattered. Every assignment feels like a 10. Tears or shutdown when planning starts.

What the coach may be misreading

Coach is reading it as low motivation or poor effort. It's actually a flooded nervous system.

The leader's next move

Coach the coach to shrink the world. One subject, one assignment, one next step. Build a track record of finishing small things before raising the bar.

A question to ask the coach

"What's the smallest piece of this week you could help them actually finish?"

A phrase to avoid

"They just need to focus."

Sample leader language

"You don't need a strategy for everything yet. We're picking one thing this week. If that one thing gets better, the week gets better."

Discuss as a group

"Where in our caseload are we mistaking overwhelm for low effort?"

Try this with two patterns back-to-back. The point isn't to label the pattern perfectly, it's to feel the difference in what you'd say to the coach.