We have come to the end of this coaching series, and I would be sad, but we ended on such a fun, inspirational episode that I can’t help but smile.

This week, I’m going to talk about SREB’s own Jason Adair and his closing address at the 2025 Coaching for Change Conference. Jason Adair left attendees a message that felt less like a presentation and more like a charge. He titled his presentation simply: “Coaching That Matters: Changing Lives One Teacher at a Time.”

The heart of his message can be summed up in one word, one image and one metaphor he returned to again and again: Believe.

He got this image from a source that will be clear to anyone who loves soccer, sitcoms or sentimentality. (I’d have called it futbal, but it would have ruined my alliteration there.) Or, at the very least, this will be familiar to anyone with an Apple TV subscription.

That’s right…this post is coming to you straight from the mouth of Jason Adair, as taken straight from the mouth of Coach Ted Lasso.

Jason pointed out that in the very first episode of the show, Ted hung a sign in the locker room that said “believe,” and that message became the heart and center of the entire series. In a similar vein, though, Jason pointed out that coaching itself “is about believing.”

As a coach, Jason said there were many things he believed in:

• He believes “in the power of education.”
• He believes education is “the most hopeful act that society can commit.”
• He believes “in the teacher.”
• He believes that the teacher is “the agent of change in the classroom, the one who opens minds, nurtures hearts and shapes the future one step at a time.”
• He believes in the coach.
• He believes that coaches make ripple effects way past what they can see.
• He believes that what coaches do matters because “when you help a teacher grow, you help every student they ever teach.”

He believes. Do you?

I hope so, but if you don’t, that’s okay. Because Jason pulled out seven other lessons that he got from Ted Lasso, and if you follow each of these, then that belief will start to follow.

And if you are already a believer, then these will help you translate that belief into results.

Either way, the rest of this post is going to be something special.

 

Coaching Like Ted: It’s Not About Fixing

Jason opened with a reminder that real coaching isn’t about correcting people. It’s about partnering with them. It’s about believing in them and helping them learn to believe in themselves as they grow.

Or, as Jason put it, coaching is about “creating conditions where growth isn’t just possible, but it is inevitable.”

That might mean believing in someone who’s struggling, offering encouragement before advice or showing up consistently, even when results are slow to appear.

Much like Ted Lasso’s character, the coach who “didn’t know much about soccer” but knew how to build people, Jason framed great coaching as walking beside your teachers and supporting them instead of viewing yourself as the expert they need to follow.

 

The Coaching Pyramid: Eight Practices That Matter

How do you show your teachers you believe in them, though, and give them the support they need to grow? Jason created a pyramid of eight different steps you can take to be the Ted Lasso of instructional coaching. He built each of the components of the pyramid around a Lasso lesson. The pyramid is made of three levels: identity (the foundation of the pyramid), practice and celebration.

 

The Foundation: Coaching Identity

The bottom of the pyramid is the foundation of the whole thing. These three blocks represent who you are as a coach (or who you want to strive to be).

 

Block 1: Be a fountain.

Jason showed a clip of Ted talking to his boss, Rebecca, letting her know he’d be bringing her a cookie (or, as they say in the UK, a biscuit) every day.He called it “biscuits with the boss.” He did this because he saw that she needed it, even though she couldn’t yet admit it. She had a lot of negative forces in her life, and Ted saw that she needed something good, so he assigned himself the job of giving it to her.

Jason recognized this as an important part of the coach’s identity: be a fountain, not a drain, for your teachers.

“When we are fountains, we believe that positivity can energize others,” Jason said.

The teachers you support are stressed. They are overwhelmed with changing and growing responsibilities and negative forces. They don’t need you to add to that. They need you to be the one that brings them that figurative cookie…and maybe sometimes a literal cookie too!

 

Block 2: Lead with curiosity.

The next clip that Jason showed was of Ted playing darts with Rebecca’s ex-husband, one of those negative forces in her life. They had a bet on the game – a game that the ex-husband was very good at and assumed he would win.

Yet, as Ted played, proving himself to be even better than his rival, he talked and explained that people had always underestimated him, but he never knew why until he saw the Walt Whitman quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.” On thinking about why he had liked that quote, he realized it was because all of the people who had underestimated him had judged him but had not shown the curiosity that Ted himself represented.

“Be curious, not judgmental.”

Ted noticed that the ex-husband and bar patrons ever asked questions or showed curiosity about him. . For example, a curious person would have first asked Ted if he had played a lot of darts in his life before entering a dart game with him. If they had, they would learn that he actually had played a lot.

I won’t tell you what happens next because I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but the point is clear: Ted recognized that in order to succeed you couldn’t just rely on your own expertise. You need to recognize and grow from the knowledge of all those around you.

“When we lead with curiosity, we believe there is collective wisdom in the room,” Jason pointed out, adding that the coach’s job isn’t to be the expert in everything. It’s to be curious — to draw out others’ insights and make them feel seen.

 

Block 3: Show vulnerability.

The next clip we watched was one that happened after an article about Ted came out concerning something he had been trying to keep secret (again, I can’t be more specific here because of spoilers). He sat down with his team and apologized, letting them know he should have told him himself. He had a choice to keep his secret to himself or be vulnerable, and he chose to keep it a secret, and, in doing so, he told his team, he “didn’t give [himself] a chance to build further trust with” the team.

“When we show vulnerability, we believe authenticity is more powerful than perfection,” Jason said, pointing to the power of leaders admitting when they don’t know, or when they’ve made mistakes. It creates trust — the same kind of trust that made Ted Lasso such a beloved figure in the locker room.

“When we show vulnerability, we believe authenticity is more powerful than perfection.”

(For more on the importance of vulnerability, see our vulnerability post from this coaching series.)

 

The Coaching Moves: What Coaches Do

The next four blocks on the pyramid relate to the things you should do as a coach.

 

Block 4: Speak in “we” language.

In the corresponding clip for this tip, Ted talks to Jaime, the young hotshot on the team. Jaime is an amazing player, the star of the team, and he is very aware of that. Jaime thinks that he is playing for the Jaime team, and he doesn’t always like the way Ted doesn’t treat him like the most important player on the team. In this scene, Ted is explaining to Jaime what he sees in him, and he says that, while Jaime is the best athlete Ted has ever seen, he still needs to learn how to “turn that me into us.”

As a coach, you are not the star of the team…you are one of the players on the team that are going to play better when you work together. That is why Jason advised coaches to avoid “I” and “you” statements. Instead, speak in “we.” Because improvement, like coaching, is a team sport.

 

Block 5: Listen to learn.

In the next clip, Ted finds Rebecca outside of an auction she emceed before her ex-husband took over the auction. He starts to talk to her, and she breaks down. Instead of trying to tell her that her feelings can be fixed, he does something simple: he listens to her and then gives her a hug.

When you listen to learn and not to fix, you approach your teachers without assumptions about what is best for them or how you can help them. Instead, you stay in the moment with them, showing them that you are there for them.

Don’t be afraid of silence. Don’t let that voice in your head ramble on while your teacher is talking to you. Listen to learn from the person talking to you instead of listening to respond to them with what you already own.

Listening — without rushing to respond or fix — builds reflection. It makes space for growth.

 

Block 6: Coach like a gardener.

In the next clip, Ted is talking to Nate. Watchers of the show will know that Nate started out with no confidence or support from the team, where he was the kit man of the team. It was so bad that when Ted met him and asked his name, he was surprised because most people didn’t care. Throughout the series, Ted saw Nate’s potential and cultivated it as best he could, and Nate grew into a capable strategist and eventual coach. (I won’t say anything else about the arch of his character. Not because of spoilers this time, but just because I personally want to ignore it.)

“Growth can’t be forced. It can only be cultivated.”

Nate’s personality changes throughout the series aside, the point here is that Ted went out and watered the team he had by giving them the resources and support they need to reach their full potential, and because of that process, he helped them grow, which is how Nate became a very talented coach in his own right.

“Growth can’t be forced. It can only be cultivated,” Jason said. He contrasted gardener-coaches with chess masters. One leads by control, the other by care. The gardener trusts the process and nurtures the environment. That’s where lasting growth comes from.

To really support your coaches, you need to garden instead of control.

 

Block 7: Offer gentle nudges.

The clip for this block is one between Ted and Roy Kent, a good-hearted curmudgeon who used to be a superstar, got old, retired and was currently a sportscaster – a bad job choice for the grumpy, foul-mouthed former player.

“Nudges spark reflection, curiosity and a desire to improve.”

Ted, though, recognized that there was a good job choice in his future – he wanted Roy to be a coach on his team. However, Roy was not ready to accept this role. Ted didn’t try to force him or tell him why he was wrong to not quit his job and join Ted’s team. Instead, he gave him thoughtful nudges that Roy would think about after the conversation ended.

“Nudges spark reflection, curiosity and a desire to improve,” Jason told us. Sometimes growth comes not from direct instruction, but from a gentle question, a visual cue or a moment of quiet prompting.

 

The Joy at the Top: Celebrate Progress Loudly

The final move in Adair’s pyramid? Celebration.

 

Block 8: Celebrate The Wins.

Just like Ted celebrated with his team for all their wins, it is important to celebrate with your teachers for all of their wins.

“Progress fuels persistence,” Jason said, so when you see your teachers progressing, make a big deal out of it.

As in Ted Lasso, joy and humor shouldn’t be afterthoughts — they are part of the work. Part of how coaches help people keep going, even when things are tough.

 

Coaching the Lasso Way

Just like Ted Lasso didn’t have all the soccer skills but still changed a team, instructional coaches don’t need all the answers. What they need is belief. In teachers. In students. In themselves.

As Adair put it, “Coaching is about believing. I believe in the teacher… I believe in the coach… I believe that your coaching, all of our coaching… matters.”

Do you?

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