Read Time: 3.5 min

Trying something different:

Some of our favorite newsletters are James Clear’s 3-2-1 and Shane Parrish’s Brain Food. They offer short, quick-hitting ideas loosely tied around a theme.

For the last couple of months, we’ve shared short essays forming our “philosophy on individual performance” and how we’ve taken our work with ADs, teams, and departments and boiled it down into something resonating with PGA Tour Golfers. These essays have traveled around the coaching world, specifically college golf programs. It’s been fun to see the engagement and hear the feedback.

However, we’re going to abandon the essay format for a couple of weeks and try the bullet-point format to see what you all think.

For the next couple of weeks, expect bullet-point thoughts, excerpts from things we are reading, or soundbites from stuff we’ve seen, all centered around the importance of Community for coaches, leaders, athletes, and performers.

Also, make sure you read to read to the end for a fun announcement and a special offer for you.

✨ The Idea: The Importance of Community.

🌳 Wisdom: Let’s Get Philosophical. Bow and Wood

The difference between a good “ruler” and a bad “ruler” can be how they view their position.

From a book called The Ruler’s Guide:
“Taizong (considered by many to be China’s greatest emperor) became emperor when he was twenty-eight years old. His life began a new phase. He applied himself diligently to learning the job.”

One of the fundamental mistakes many coaches make is how they view their position.
Too many see themselves as players of a game.
Too few view themselves as leaders of a group of people or the driver of their program.

We believe that coaches (and Administrators) need to apply more of their learning to “diligently learning the job,” not the game.

Here’s a larger excerpt from the book:

Bow and Wood.

“I have been fond of archery since I was a boy. I thought I knew everything about bows. A few days ago, I received a dozen bows. When I showed them to a bowmaker, he told me they were not good bows. I asked why. He said ‘Because the heart of the wood is not straight, so the veins are slanted. Although the bows are strong, they cannot shoot straight.’

Then I realized even though I’ve been using bows for so many years I really don’t know their secret. I must know even less about governing a country.

This realization prompted him to not only hold daily meetings with cabinet members but reach out frequently to junior officials as well in order to learn more about what was going on in the country.”

📚 Learning is Tied to the Quality of Relationships

We have written many times in our newsletter about the impact of the coach-athlete relationship on overall team performance. It’s not just correlated; it is a predictor.

This study found that the amount of learning in an athletic team environment also strongly correlates to the quality of relationships.

Said differently, the stronger the relationships, the more people learn on a team.

The same is true of you.

Your most significant learning will come from your most quality relationships—the ones with the most depth, transparency, and freedom. If you want to level up, maybe you should ask yourself where to find intentional community.

🎯 Practical Takeaways

Here’s a 5-step process a leader can use to apply the ideas from this newsletter to their leadership:

1. Be Honest About Your Position

   • Ask yourself: Am I coaching a game or leading others?

2. Seek Out Honest Feedback

   • Seek learning from every level of your organization or team.

   • Schedule regular check-ins or ask trusted individuals, “What’s one thing I could improve in my leadership?”

3. Cultivate Stronger Relationships

   • Identify key relationships in your life and work with the most depth and potential to be impactful.

   • Invest time and energy into these connections, prioritizing trust, honesty, and mutual growth.

4. Create a Learning Ritual

   • Dedicate weekly time to actively “learn the job,” not just the tasks.

   • This might mean studying leadership books, learning from peers, or reflecting on real-world leadership challenges.

5. Build an Intentional Community

   • Surround yourself with people who challenge, encourage, and inspire you.

   • To foster growth and accountability, you can join a mastermind group, build a circle of mentors, or engage more deeply with your team or staff.

✨ Closing Thought

Leadership isn’t just about mastering the game—it’s about mastering yourself, your relationships, and your ability to learn. Like Taizong, the best leaders recognize the need to refine their craft and rely on others for growth continually. This week, take a moment to evaluate the quality of your relationships and ask yourself: Who’s helping you grow, and how can you foster even deeper connections to level up your leadership?

BETTER’s Solution to Coach Development

As a part of our work, we lead cohorts of leaders. It’s just one meeting a month with a topic, some homework, and sharing about how it’s going. But it’s powerful. Many of the coaches and leaders in our cohort express the following sentiment:

“I wish every coach got to experience this on some level.”

So, we thought, why can’t they?

As a part of what’s next for BETTER.

We are launching a community around the Culture Playbook.

Until now, the Culture Playbook has been something you buy and then get. We wanted it to be so good and affordable that every coach in the country could access it.

From now on, leaders will get the Culture Playbook as part of a guided community that Kevin and Seth will lead.

If you’ve enjoyed our newsletter, imagine a community where we will take you and others through a deeper level of how to install the systems for yourself, athletes, or other coaches. You can ask us questions directly. We can guide and share discussions, share ideas, and get feedback.

We will host monthly calls. Every coach will have direct access to us. We will lead guided discussions and encourage coaches and ADs to share best practices. We want it to become the absolute best resource for all things Culture Development, both at the program and department level. We will continue to add content, resources and offerings over time. And you’ll get discounts on future products that the public won’t get. And no, the price is not changing.

We’re targeting an early January public launch BUT for readers of our newsletter, we are offering early access and a 25% discount. If you want in, fill out the form at the link below and we’ll send you a link to get started.