Workplace Jiujitsu #11: The Hidden Coaching Crisis in Tech Teams

The strongest engineers and managers I know share one trait: they naturally develop others. They give thoughtful feedback, spot problems early, and elevate their teammates.

But many of them are burning out. Not from lack of ability. Instead, it's from lack of support.

In most organizations, coaching happens in the shadows. It's not measured, protected, or rewarded. We treat essential leadership work like a personal favor.

The real issue: coaching isn't optional infrastructure.

Effective coaching accelerates team maturity, reduces onboarding time, prevents costly misalignment, and keeps good people from leaving. Yet we leave it to individual initiative.

Instead of letting your best people carry this alone, the jiujitsu move is making the coaching systematic:

• Dedicate actual time for it (10-20% of capacity)
• Create simple, reusable onboarding frameworks
• Establish peer coaching partnerships
• Measure support quality alongside delivery metrics

When coaching becomes part of how we work, not something we squeeze in, it scales naturally. When we leave it invisible, we lose it.

If your strongest contributors seem exhausted, they're not failing. They're succeeding without the right support structure.