Folks,

Don’t worry, I’m not about to hit you with some Oprah Winfrey vibes - hear me out. 

Last week I spent a bit of time with a bigger hitter in the sports coaching world. You know the type: fancy title, well-known badge on the tracksuit. Only, this person wanted to know what I thought of an MBA in Leadership. 

If you are an admissions clerk for a big fancy university, you might want to look away now. 

“You could get an MBA in leadership from a fancy college and learn all the tools and strategies of a modern leader. Nothing wrong with that. Perhaps, that has meaning to you.

What about sharing where you are with leadership currently? How would that make you feel?”

The reply: “I find it hard to put pen to paper, especially in sports where everything is about winning or losing.” 

I get it - far easier to tell people you are a leader, and better still to have someone else validate it for you with an MBA. 

Sadly, courage doesn’t come in a neat package with a certificate. A fancy MBA might teach valuable skills, but the foundation of leadership comes from emotional intelligence and self-awareness. The greatest leadership lesson of all comes from doing.

Putting pen to paper, and being honest about where you are and where you would like to go is modelling continuous learning, resilience, and the courage to be vulnerable. 

If you are worried about what others will think - it’s not an MBA you want, it’s the courage to be disliked. 

What do you stand for?

Simon

Note from the trenches: The last few weeks of coaching have been hard - I’m taking the stance that I’m not spoon-feeding the kids I’m working with. I’m a coach, I provide problems and have the kids solve them. Of course, for many, coaching is about providing solutions. 

For now, my coaching session looks like chaos and I look like a d**k who knows nothing about coaching. If you think good coaching is orderly lines and organised games, this is not what you will see. The hard part is managing my emotions, talking to the kids, and learning not to worry about what others think - I might just be the worst coach you have ever seen and that’s OK because rather than defend or explain what I am doing, I get to learn what you think coaching is for.

We can always disagree, but we are much more likely never stopped to talk about it - here’s to better conversations. 

Simon