Read Time: 6 min

What’s in this newsletter?

• 🏞️ The pressures top coaches face in today’s shifting college athletics landscape.

• 💰 The hidden connection between burnout, motivation, and the need for rest.

• ❓ Practical questions every leader should ask when facing tough decisions about their vision and future.

The Idea: Leadership and Adaptation.

We’ll be honest. We thought we were done with this topic. Then this happened.

If you’ve read us for a while, you know we’ve been covering the departure of a generation of coaches over the last few years. We’ve been paying close attention to their language in press conferences — peeling back the layers to understand what’s going on and why — to see what we can learn from it.

Roy Williams, Coach K, Saban, Jay Wright, and now Tony Bennett.

We’ve asked about this inside the athletic departments we work with. What do those leaders, the insiders, think about this?

There are generally a few schools of thought as these coaches have been stepping down — a few common reactions we hear or see.

“Well, these guys were near the end of their careers anyway. The changing landscape speeds up what was coming in the next few years anyway.”

Jay Wright was the exception to this. Now, we add Bennett to the list. Bennett was 55. He built the program to national relevance. Won its first national title. Six Regular Season ACC Championships. Maybe this sentiment doesn’t quite cover it.

“These guys built their success in a model that no longer exists. You have to be ready to adjust or get out.”

This may seem harsh if you don’t work in a college athletic department. But it’s one of the most common sentiments we hear. It’s such a high-pressure environment; this is how most ADs and Coaches view their own performance.

Figure it out or get out.

Spoiler Alert: This is being felt by far more coaches than just those at the top of the game. We talk to coaches all over sports every day. Many are feeling this. Some of it has to do with burnout. But maybe there’s more.

But what’s going on here? Bennett was transparent about his thought process. Let’s examine what he said and learn what it means for our leadership.

Note: We do not work with anyone at UVA. We have no insider knowledge. We do not pretend to speak for him. We just want to examine closely what he’s telling us about how he views his role in this new landscape.

Anecdote: A Question of Motivation

Two weeks ago, we posited that burnout isn’t a problem of motivation. It’s a problem of rest. It comes from extreme motivation over a prolonged period without adequate rest.

Just a week before he announced his retirement, here’s what Bennett told a reporter at ESPN.

We wanted to highlight a specific portion here.

“Can I operate how I want and can it be successful enough? And you get to choose if you wanna be a part of it or not. And when you feel it's time, like Jay did, like Coach K, maybe Saban, it's their choice. And you can sit here and complain and gripe. Or you have a decision to make. Either you try to do it in your way or you get to make that decision.”

What, specifically, is he talking about?

He’s talking about his method and strategy for building a program around his skill set as a coach, which he’s become very good at over the years. Developing talent over 3-4 years would create a set of veterans who got better at playing his system as time passed. He was making a bet that continuity would win over chasing the highest level of talent each year.

And it worked. He won a national championship and built a mainstay program in what is considered to be the most competitive basketball conference.

Bennett didn’t step down just because the landscape changed—he prioritized his values and vision over adapting to a model he no longer aligned with. For any leader, this raises a vital question: When is it time to adjust, and when is it time to walk away?

Putting It All Together:

This section is going to be a little bit different today. Here is how we counsel coaches who are considering this question. We think it applies both to coaches and to leaders everywhere.

Bennett’s journey shows us the tension leaders face when they move from mastery into unfamiliar territory. He recognized that continuing would require relearning his craft in ways that no longer aligned with his vision. This is where the Adult Learning Model becomes a powerful tool for understanding leadership transitions.

Bennett was on the left side. It’s called Unconscious Competence.

He’d gotten so good at running his program and doing it successfully it had probably actually freed up his time, attention, and energy. He’d done the hard work. He’d built it. He was good at it (competence), and it probably felt like it just happened naturally (unconscious).

Now, suddenly, under the new landscape, you get whiplashed to the right side. This is what he was expressing in that press conference. That is called Conscious Incompetence. You’re made aware (usually by circumstances) of what you don’t know.

It’s clear how you will need to improve to achieve your vision. And it’s going to be hard work. It’s going to take work. As you round the bottom right corner of the tool, you can see how much work it will take to learn a new set of skills.

And it’s a lot. Many can enter what we call the Pit of Despair. And here’s what you’ll need when you enter that place.

So here are our takeaways for you this week:

When you feel yourself slipping into this place, here are some things you should evaluate.

1. Your Vision:

   • You have to ask yourself some hard questions. Why am I doing this? What is this all about for me?

   • Long-term: Can I still accomplish my “why” in this new landscape? Has my purpose changed? Is that compelling enough to work through what I need to build excellence?

   • Short-term: How do I need to operate in the next 1-3 years that aligns with my vision and builds excellence? What actions do I need to take?

2. Extra Time with the Right People

   • Formal: Sport-specific, your team, your staff, your players

   • Informal: Extra time with the key relationships in your life that make you feel like yourself. An old friend, a spouse, etc…

3. Encouragement

   • We call this “Support of the Core”. There has been a lot of interesting research on healthy support. The best for you is when you hear and feel your value as a person. Not for what you do, but who you are. So, who can you go to that will do that for you? Who believes in you? Who will help you see yourself the way you should see yourself?

Conclusion:

Change is inevitable, but how we respond defines our leadership. Coaches are facing challenges unlike any other time in leadership of young people. Are you adapting to thrive or holding on to what no longer serves you? Use this as a moment to evaluate your vision, recalibrate, and lead with intention in a constantly evolving landscape.

A Gift.

We have continued to hear from coaches. We have listened to some fantastic stories. We’ve also heard from people who have no story, the just appreciate feeling seen.

We maintain the same offer as last week - email us your story of what newsletter has resonated with you the most and why, and we’ll give you our Coach Performance Plan. It’s a document built for coaches and leaders to maintain and track their rest.

But maybe the best way to serve coaches is to share this with another coach, athlete, or leader in your network.

We can see which newsletters get shared the most. We’ve hit all-time highs in shares each of the last two weeks!

If you share this newsletter with another coach in your network who might need to hear this message, let us know, and we’ll send you our Coach Performance Plan.

Team Talks

One of the significant topics coaches ask us about is messaging.

Chances are, if we see a Head Coach’s name pop up on our phone, and they’re in-season, they want to share where their team is in their season and ask how to craft a message to maximize performance.

We know you’re tired of scrolling through YouTube, Instagram, and X (Twitter), looking for a motivational video that you hope and pray will resonate with your team.

We were asked so much that we created a more permanent solution.

And that’s Team Talks.

What are Team Talks?

Team Talks are short, 10-minute-or-less videos to use with your team, focused on mindset, leadership, and performance. They’re evidence-based ideas with stories to capture your team’s heart. Each video comes with an exercise to make the lesson stick. They are used by state, conference, and national champions. We have Team Talks on:

• Adversity

• Accountability

• Teamwork

• Discipline

• Mindset

• Elite Performance

There are currently 18 (the length of a typical season). We will build the library over the next few months to have thirty-six.

Team Talks set you up with the right message at the right time for your team.

And for a limited time, we’re offering them a 25% discount. Get Team Talks today.

The Culture Playbook + Cohorts

Coaches have access to a lot of coaching content. What they lack are systems.

The Culture Playbook is 10 leadership ideas with the exercises you need to install the ideas and culture into your program. It’s the exact system we use to help coaches build their programs around mindset, leadership, and performance. We’ve used it at schools like Oklahoma, Mississippi State, and Florida State.

Since the Culture Playbook was released almost a year ago, nearly 1,000 coaches have purchased and are using it for their programs.

You can get it for your program today.

Culture Playbook Cohorts

We are offering Culture Playbook Cohorts if you’re interested in exploring the Culture Playbook on a deeper level.

We’ve had a few dozen commitments over the last week and aren’t starting with very many cohorts, so reserve your spot today!

Monthly Calls + Powerful Content + Practical Application + Community = Accelerate Your Growth

If interested, simply DM Seth or Kevin on Twitter.