#6 Sensing – A coaching superpower for leading teams

Hi, we’re Helen Zink and Dr Cathryn Lloyd. We work closely with leaders and teams, and we know that leaders face an array of challenges. We’re sharing a series of 10 coaching superpowers for leaders to experiment with. 

We’ve broken them down into two categories:

Nos 1 - 5 Mindset superpowers: How you think and show up.

Nos 6 - 10 Behavioural superpowers: What you do, your actions.

These superpowers often blend together.

We’ve shared the first 5 mindset superpowers - self awareness, curiosity, character, flexibility and candour. We now shift into the behavioural superpowers. And our first one for this series is - 

⭐ Superpower 6: sensing

Sensing means actively picking up on signals, patterns, and dynamics in the environment.  It is the ability to perceive and respond to shifts in context, organisational culture, or wider system.  Sensing helps leaders identify emerging challenges, recognise patterns and interdependencies, anticipate change, and enable proactive rather than reactive decision-making.

In some ways sensing is similar to superpower one - self-awareness. Self-awareness is the mindset of paying attention to yourself; whereas sensing is about actively paying attention to the environment around you and the interconnecting systems you operate in.

A few ways to build the ability to sense:

💡 Body Language: watch non-verbal cues.

💡 Listen for what is not said: what may be hidden in the silence, the unexpressed and shifts in energy.

💡 Group dynamics: notice engagement, withdrawal and interaction. 

💡 Recognise patterns: notice early signals and connections between events, decisions, and outcomes, even when they’re not immediately obvious.

📌 Practical tip - the silent observer

In your next team meeting, ask for a volunteer to take the role of observer. Instead of speaking, they watch for:

Who speaks the most/least.

Who seems engaged, hesitant, or withdrawn.

Any energy shifts.

Any conversation patterns.

Any misalignment of body language and words.

Debrief together and uncover insight on how you work together as a team.  You might agree to change a few things going forward.

Small exercises like this help you and your team become more aware of your environment. Stay tuned as we share more coaching superpowers. 

We’d love to hear how you are experimenting and applying these ideas.

Image: Cathryn Lloyd