There's been an odious trend "coaching" as an actual job title lately - promoting cooperation and positive environments as if the acts of just listening and inclusivity can make even incompetent technology teams better.

It can only make competent technologists and receptive junior technologists who wish to learn better. Caring what the dead wood thinks is a recipe for an inferior product.

Empathy is not a solution for turning dead wood into live wood. There's negative value in making incompetents feel like equal members of a team.