Lessons from MJ, Lionel, LeBron, and Every Other GOAT

The Difference a Coach Makes

Back in the days when Phil Jackson’s Chicago Bulls (and Los Angeles Lakers) were dominating the NBA, the joke was that all the coach needed to do was “roll out the basketballs and stay out of the way.” The assumption was that great players really didn’t need coaches. That their greatness was enough. But do you know how many championships Michael Jordan won before Phil Jackson was his coach? 

Zero. 

What about Shaq and Kobe–who collectively won 11 NBA championships with Phil Jackson. How many did they win without him? Shaq won ONE. Kobe? Zero. 

NFL Quarterback Tom Brady with Bill Belichek? Six Super Bowl wins. Without Belichek? ONE. 

You can keep playing this game all day because while the greats can be pretty great by themselves, if they truly want to be truly successful, they need to be paired with a great coach, too. Good coaches not only know how to get the best out of their players, they also bring the perspective from outside the game (sometimes called “the balcony”) onto the floor. They have the capacity to help the player see the next play from the perspective of both the last play and in light of the whole game plan. 

Who Needs a Coach? I Did.

Great coaches make good players great and great players into champions. Which is why whenever I speak to groups of leaders, I tell them, 

If LeBron needs a coach, you need a coach. If Lionel Messi couldn’t win the World Cup without a good coach, you can’t accomplish your goals without one either.

When I was the lead pastor of a church and beginning my work as a coach and consultant, the owner of a consulting company told me in a meeting that for his company their “competition” was not other consulting companies, but “the leader who thinks they can do this all by themselves.” And frankly, that was me for a lot of years. For ten years as an associate pastor and then for my first ten years as a lead pastor, I didn’t have a coach. 

I had a small group of other pastors to keep me accountable for growing as a leader and being a pastor with integrity. I had invested a lot of time and money in therapy with a psychologist to keep growing emotionally (and especially helping me be a good husband and father), but when it came to leading the church, I still believed that I was supposed to figure all of this out basically on my own. 

I would go off by myself with a Bible, some books, and a journal to pray and seek God’s direction, I would write sermons series, and draw org charts, and sketch out strategic plans, and then, like Moses coming down from the mountain, I would bring MY plans to MY team for what I believed God wanted for US. 

Until one day, I realized that—without ever trying to do so—I had made all of the church strategies about me. By the time that insight dawned on me, I had lost some good teammates. I had been confused for months that while all the “metrics” were going up, the morale had been going down. I was stuck and I didn’t know what to do. 

It's Dangerous to Go It Alone

Around that same time, my wife, Beth, who was a marriage and family therapist at the time was serving in our presbytery on the clergy sexual misconduct task force. Her job was to meet with the women (and they were all women) who had become sexually involved with pastors (who were all men) who had used their spiritual authority to seduce these women into romantic affairs. 

One evening after hearing the story of another woman whose faith (and life) has been devastated by this particularly harmful abuse of power, she said to me,

You know, as a therapist the state of California expects that I will have supervision. If I don’t, I am held more liable for mistakes I make. I have 15 clients and meet with someone who listens to me and asks me hard questions. Tod, you have 1500 members and nobody ever asks you anything.

Soon after for the first time in my life, I hired an executive coach and started a journey of learning to lead all over again. That was almost 20 years ago and to this day, I have never been without a coach or a mentor that even today I meet with regularly. I recently published a set of leadership books on the “big mistakes good leaders make.” I dedicated the books to my own coaches who have helped me be a better leader.

Today, everytime I speak to a group of faith leaders, I tell them,

If I was a bishop (And I am not), and had spiritual authority in your life (which I know I do not), I would tell you that I believe that if you try to lead ANYTHING without a coach, therapist, or spiritual director, I consider that leadership malpractice. Trying to lead without someone walking with you is dangerous. 

Dangerous to others and a detriment to yourself. If you don’t believe me, take it from the GOATs, because even they didn’t do it alone. 

If you would like to explore being paired with a coach or learn more about the work Tod Bolsinger does, please visit AE Sloan Leadership.