Leadership and Coaching Glossary
This leadership and coaching glossary defines the models, styles and ideas that come up in executive coaching, leadership programmes and HR conversations. Each entry gives a short, precise definition, who developed the idea and when, how leaders use it at work, a brief example and the most common misreadings, so you can use the term with confidence rather than guess at it.
Leadership has its own vocabulary, and much of it arrives second-hand: a slide in a workshop, a phrase in a performance review, a model a new boss swears by. I wrote these entries so you can check what a term really means, where it came from and where it stops being useful.
Choose an entry by the question you are trying to answer
The glossary covers four kinds of idea, and knowing which kind you need saves time.
- Leadership styles and philosophies, such as servant, situational, transformational, authentic, adaptive and inclusive leadership. Read these when you are working out how to find your leadership style or comparing approaches.
- Self-awareness models, such as the Johari window, the iceberg model and emotional agility. These help when you want to understand your own patterns and blind spots.
- Team and relationship models, such as the stages of team development and the drama triangle. These explain why a group behaves the way it does.
- Coaching tools and mindset ideas, such as the GROW model, growth mindset and reframing. These show how a coaching conversation is structured and why it works.
A definition is a starting point, and coaching is where it becomes practice
Knowing that a model exists rarely changes behaviour on its own. The change comes when you apply it to a real decision, a real relationship or a real team, notice what gets in the way and try again.
That is the work of coaching. If a term here describes something you are living with, one-to-one executive coaching is where we would turn it into practice, and the leadership coaching journal has longer, practical guides on the same themes.
Servant Leadership
What servant leadership means, where Robert Greenleaf's 1970 idea came from, how leaders practise it at work and the misreadings that make it look weak.
Situational Leadership
Situational leadership explained: Hersey and Blanchard's four styles, how to match direction and support to each task, and where the model falls short.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership defined: Burns and Bass's origins, the four traits known as the four I's, what it looks like at work and its limits.
Authentic Leadership
What authentic leadership means, its four components from the research, how to practise it at work, and why authenticity is not saying everything you feel.
Adaptive Leadership
Adaptive leadership explained: Heifetz's difference between technical and adaptive challenges, when to use the approach, an example and the common mistakes.
Inclusive Leadership
Inclusive leadership defined: the behaviours that help every team member contribute, the research behind it, a Gulf example and common misreadings.
Johari Window
The Johari window explained: Luft and Ingham's four panes, how leaders use feedback and disclosure to shrink blind spots, and the model's limits at work.
Drama Triangle
The Karpman drama triangle explained: the Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim roles, how they play out in workplace conflict and how leaders step out of them.
GROW Model
The GROW model of coaching explained step by step: Goal, Reality, Options and Will, with sample questions, a workplace example and the mistakes managers make.
Stages of Team Development
Tuckman's stages of team development, from forming and storming to performing and adjourning, with what a leader does at each stage and the model's limits.
Iceberg Model
The iceberg model of behaviour in coaching: why what you do rests on hidden thoughts, beliefs and values, where the idea comes from and how leaders use it.
Emotional Agility
Emotional agility for leaders: Susan David's idea of noticing hard thoughts and feelings without being run by them, four practices and a workplace example.
Growth Mindset
Growth mindset meaning for leaders: Carol Dweck's idea, how it shows up in feedback and setbacks, and the common misreadings that make it a slogan.
Systems Thinking
Systems thinking in leadership explained: where the idea came from, how leaders use it to stop recurring problems, an example and its limits.
Leadership Pipeline
Leadership pipeline meaning and stages: the six career passages from managing yourself to running an enterprise, and where leaders get stuck.
Change Fatigue
Change fatigue meaning and warning signs: why teams tire of constant change, how it differs from resistance, and what leaders can do about it.
Psychological Contract
Psychological contract at work: the unwritten promises between employee and employer, Denise Rousseau's work on it, and how leaders keep it intact.
Cognitive Distortions
Cognitive distortions explained: the common thinking traps leaders fall into, where the idea came from, and how to notice and test them at work.
Amygdala Hijack
Amygdala hijack meaning and how to recover: why stress triggers fast reactions at work, what to do in the moment, and what the term oversimplifies.
Locus of Control
Locus of control meaning for leaders: Julian Rotter's concept, internal vs external control at work, and why more internal is not always better.
Sage Perspective
The Sage perspective in Positive Intelligence explained: Shirzad Chamine's idea, the five Sage powers, how leaders use them and what it is not.
Reframing
Reframing in coaching: what it means, where the technique came from, examples of context and meaning reframes, and when a reframe becomes spin.
Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy meaning and how to build it: Albert Bandura's four sources of belief in your ability, with practical steps for leaders and an example.
Values-Based Leadership
Values-based leadership meaning and practice: Harry Kraemer's four principles, how to make values visible in real decisions, and where it goes wrong.
Coaching Presence
Coaching presence explained: the ICF Maintains Presence competency, what it feels like as a client, and how managers can borrow it in one-to-ones.
Frequently asked questions
Are these models scientifically proven?
They vary. Some, such as transformational leadership, have a large research base, while others, such as the Johari window, are practical teaching tools rather than tested theories. Each entry says where the evidence is strong and where the idea is mainly a useful lens.
Which model should a new manager learn first?
Start with situational leadership and the stages of team development, because they answer the two questions new managers face most: how much direction to give each person, and why the team feels unsettled. The GROW model is a useful third, for coaching conversations.
Want to put one of these ideas to work?
Book a free 30-minute discovery call to talk about your own leadership.