How Instructional Coaches Build Trust With Teachers

When I think about the first days of school as a teacher, I remember how much time I spent setting the stage with my students. I wanted them to feel comfortable, safe, and welcome in my classroom. I made sure my expectations were clear, and I worked hard to show a little of my personality so my students could see me as a person, with a life outside the classroom.

Here’s the truth: teachers are no different. As coaches, we can’t expect to walk into a school and have teachers open up to us immediately. Like students, they need to feel safe, they need to know what we’re about, and they need to trust that we are there to support them, never to judge them.

Trust doesn’t happen overnight. It’s built through small, consistent actions that show teachers you are both professional and human.

What does it take for a teacher to trust a coach?

Building trust with teachers is very much like building trust with students. It starts with connection. You can’t expect someone to let you into their classroom and open up about their struggles if they don’t first believe you care about them as a person.

I’ll never forget a situation from when I was a district coach supporting a building coach. The climate in the building was rough, and the teachers were resistant. One teacher in particular seemed to fight everything. She questioned every strategy, pushed back in every meeting, and made it clear she wanted nothing to do with coaching.

I could have written her off as “difficult.” I decided to sit down with her one on one. In our conversation, I learned she was a new mom. Her baby was eleven months old and struggling with asthma. As a mom whose two boys both had asthma, I understood her worry in a way that went straight to my gut. I shared some of my own experiences, and for the first time, she let her guard down. She wasn’t resisting coaching because she hated me or didn’t believe in good instruction. She was overwhelmed, exhausted, and scared. Once I understood her, we could finally move forward together.

That moment taught me something I carry with me still: resistance is often about life, and only sometimes about school. Teachers are people first, and when you connect on a human level, doors open that were closed before.

Bonding over personal stories is only half of it, though. Trust also comes from showing up consistently and professionally. Teachers need to know two things about you: that you understand them as people, and that you can be counted on as a professional. If you are all personality and no follow-through, you lose credibility. If you are all business and no humanity, you never connect. Trust comes from the balance.

Why trust is the foundation of everything in coaching

Without trust, teachers will not let you into their classrooms. Feedback will feel like judgment. Professional learning will be viewed as one more thing on the pile.

With trust, teachers are willing to take risks and try new strategies. Feedback is welcomed and applied. Collaboration grows stronger, and the school culture begins to shift.

Trust is more than a feeling. It’s something you create through intentional action. Teachers watch how you show up, how you follow through, and how you handle their vulnerabilities. Every interaction either builds trust or chips away at it.

How do you build trust with teachers?

These are the practices that have worked for me and for the coaches I mentor. Some of them are about being seen in the building. Some are about what happens in private. One of them, keeping your word, came from my father and grandfather, who taught me that your word is the only thing you truly own.

Trust is the bridge

Building trust with teachers has nothing to do with grand gestures. It’s small, consistent actions that show you are human, you are professional, and you can be counted on. Trust is the bridge that makes coaching possible, and every week you either build it or let it wear.