Leadership

Why do we assume coaches must choose between winning games and developing people? This reflection challenges that false tradeoff and shows how trust, purpose, and discipline create teams built to last.

Most leadership failures in sports don’t come from a lack of effort or discipline—they come from leaders who were promoted for performance without developing the skills or identity required to lead others. That pattern reveals a broader truth about leadership, particularly in athletics: most people are promoted for performance, not for leadership readiness, and the two are not the same thing.

Coaching is demanding in ways most people never face. Leadership is always tough, but coaching stands out because your wins and losses are public and judged right away. It puts a lot on your shoulders, exposes your weaknesses, and makes everything feel bigger. For those in charge, it can feel like living in a pressure cooker.

The sporting world watched with interest over the past six weeks as Lane Kiffin, former head football coach at Ole Miss, went through a very public game of “The (football) Bachelor”.

If you spend time with young leaders like assistant coaches, new managers, or rising captains, you’ll often hear the same answer when you ask, “What kind of leader are you?”

Spend any time on a practice field and in a motor pool, and you’ll notice similarities in language. We rally around the mission, refuse to let our teammates down, preach next man up, and dig deep when it’s the fourth quarter. We leave it all on the field and trust the process. The vocabulary overlaps so naturally that it almost goes unnoticed. But the real connection isn’t linguistic—it’s foundational. The language is the echo. The roots run much deeper.

I recently joined my friend Chris Kolenda in leading a client offsite at Antietam and Gettysburg. Standing on ground where decisions carried life-and-death consequences was a powerful reminder about the essential elements of leadership. It reminded me that success, whether in combat or competition, comes down to people, trust, and the culture a leader builds. Thinking about those experiences, one topic we discussed resonated with me, since I personally struggled with it so o

You might have heard the saying, “where you sit is where you stand.”  Our views are shaped by our own experiences. Whether you’re a parent, a child, a frontline worker, or an executive, everyone sees decisions differently. This dynamic is no different in athletics. Early in my career, I was often a lieutenant, not just by rank but in how I acted. I worked hard, followed orders, and sometimes quietly disagreed with my commander’s choices or approach. Like many young leaders, I