⏳ Read Time: 4 min

We’ve had an increasing number of coaches inform us that they’ve been sharing some of our newsletters with their players and captains. So, we wanted to start writing with that in mind.

While everything we write is aimed at leaders and coaches in high school and College sports, we also want to capture the ideas that work for athletes.

⏩ What’s in this newsletter?

• 🧥 Anecdote: From “role player” to program-definer

• 🔍 Research Insight: Psychological ownership and team performance

• 📋 Five Takeaways: How to lead like a CEO (no matter your title)

📍Anecdote: Role Player Who Ran the Room

There’s no shortage of great coaches talking about ownership and how to build it.

A few years ago, we worked with a football program that had one of the most vocal locker rooms we’d seen — loud, chaotic, unfocused. The head coach was constantly talking about accountability and culture, but the message just wasn’t landing.

Until Marcus spoke up.

Marcus wasn’t a captain. He wasn’t a starter. He was a backup offensive lineman — the kind of player who rarely got media attention or postgame quotes. But Marcus had something more powerful than positional power: relational authority.

After a particularly bad loss, he gathered a few guys in the locker room. “I’m tired of us waiting on coaches to fix stuff we know ain’t right,” he said. “I don’t care if I play or not. But I’m not sitting around letting this fall apart. So from now on, if you’re about the B.S., don’t sit near me.”

And it’s easy to point at the speech and call that “leadership”. But it wasn’t the fact that he spoke up. It’s the hours and hours of relational work Marcus had done that when he spoke up, others listened and took it to heart.

He didn’t have a title, but he had influence.

We later asked the coach what shifted midseason. He said:

Here’s Mike Brey and Greg Olsen sharing how rare it's for coaches to pursue this for their players, as it requires giving up control.

It’s ownership. Whatever your role—athlete, coach, AD, employee, assistant. You don’t need the office, title, or playing time. You just need a mindset of ownership.

📊 Research Insight: Psychological Ownership

What Marcus did has a name in leadership theory — it’s called psychological ownership. It’s not about titles or contracts. It’s that feeling of, “This is mine. I’m responsible for it.”

A study published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior (2012) found that when people feel ownership over their environment — even informally — they:

• Solve more problems without being told

• Speak up, even when it’s risky

• Stay consistent, whether someone’s watching or not

• Invest more deeply in collective outcomes

This is part of why the new school of thought in coaching is to give ownership to their players previously. It’s because today’s coach is coach-educated, whether it’s decision-making in the game, a voice in the locker room, or a program-building decision.

The takeaway? Ownership turns teammates into leaders.

And when that kind of leadership comes from the middle of your roster — not just the top — that’s when culture shifts.

🛠️ Putting It All Together:

📋 How to Lead Like a Locker Room CEO

1. Own What’s Yours
   You don’t need to lead everyone — start with your space. Your locker, your position group, your pre-practice habits. If everyone owns what’s theirs, the team owns itself.

2. Lead with Relational Credit
   Marcus wasn’t heard because he was loud — he was heard because he had earned trust over time. Leadership moments matter, but the credit you build in the day-to-day is what makes those moments land.

3. Call People Up, Not Just Out
   When you speak, speak to who your teammates are, not just what they did. “That’s not you” goes a lot farther than “You messed up again.”

4. Catch the Culture Leaks Early
   Be the first to notice when effort dips, standards slip, or drama creeps in. You don’t need to fix it all — but call it what it is. Small cracks become big problems when leaders go quiet.

5. Do the Little Things Loud
   Show up early. Help a younger teammate. Pick up after practice. No one should notice those things — but when they do, they’re seeing you. That’s influence.

🧠 Closing Thought

Leadership doesn’t start with a title. It starts with ownership.

Marcus didn’t wait for permission. He didn’t wait to be voted captain. He just took responsibility for what he could influence — and because of that, the culture shifted.

The truth is, your team doesn’t need more speeches. It needs more people who act like it’s theirs.

So whether you’re a head coach, an assistant, a captain, or a freshman, lead where you are.
Own your space.
Earn trust.
Protect the standard.
And watch what happens.

Because when leadership lives in the middle of the roster, the culture doesn’t depend on the top of it.

🛠️ Want to win more? Know Yourself First.

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