BACKGROUND: How healthcare professionals understand and use concepts of social and cognitive capabilities will influence their behaviour and their understanding of others' behaviour. Differing understandings of concepts might lead to healthcare professionals not acting in accordance with other healthcare professionals' expectations. Therefore, part of the problem concerning errors and adverse incidents concerning social and cognitive capabilities might be due to varying understandings of concepts among different healthcare professionals. This study aimed to examine the variations in how educators at the Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation talk about social and cognitive capabilities. METHODS: The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews and directed content analysis. The codes for the analysis process were derived from existing non-technical skills models and used to show variations in how the participants talk about the same concepts. RESULTS: Educators with a background as nurses and physicians, talked differently about leadership and decision-making, with the nurses paying greater attention to group dynamics and external factors when describing both leadership and decision-making, whereas physicians focus on their individual efforts. CONCLUSION: We found patterned differences in how the participants described leadership and decision-making that may be related to participants' professional training/background. As it can create misunderstandings and unsafe situations if nurses and physicians disagree on the meaning of leadership and decision-making (without necessarily recognising this difference), it could be beneficial to educate healthcare professionals to be aware of the specificity of their own concepts, and to communicate what exactly they mean by using a particular concept, e.g. "I want you to coordinate tasks" instead of "I want better leadership".