I have new favorite show. Ted Lasso, on AppleTV, tells the story of an American football coach who goes to England to coach a soccer (also football, everywhere but the US) club. It’s surprisingly funny and heart-warming, and it’s shockingly smart. So smart that, as I watched episodes the first time through, I found myself thinking repeatedly about how I wanted to be more like Ted Lasso in my role as a high school principal. Every episode contains lessons that leaders can use in probably any work environment to help them support and therefore get the most out of their team members, and I’ve already begun to draw on these lessons in my professional practice. So, I did what I almost never do; I watched the series again. This time I took notes, and what will follow here and for the next few posts are my notes and thoughts about the leadership lessons of Ted Lasso and other characters from the show.
SPOILER ALERT: From this point forward, I will be writing about specific scenes and quotes from the show. Please make sure to watch the episode in question before reading on; it’s worth it. This post will include content from Episode 6: Two Aces and Episode 7: Make Rebecca Great Again.
CONTENT ALERT: Ted Lasso is written for adults. They use language I would never use in school or a work environment and there are sexual references in many episodes. None of it personally bothers me, but it might bother some viewers.
So, without further ado…
Episode 6: Two Aces
“It’s just practice!”
This scene is pure genius. Eighteen years ago, Allen Iverson sat in a press conference and used the word “practice” twenty-two times in a rant that has been parodied repeatedly since, but at no time as effectively as Jason Sudeikis does it here as Ted Lasso. When Allen Iverson sat in his press conference ranting about the focus on his behavior during practice he was at his worst; a star player who didn’t yet understand the importance of work ethic and the role of a leader in modeling behavior to other members of the team. By flipping the perspective, Ted Lasso delivers the same speech (almost word for word) as a coach trying to instill in his player(s) these same understandings. Preparation matters. Commitment matters. We are the sum of our actions, not our words and not our talents. Moreover, Ted knows (as Larry Brown did with Allen Iverson) that Jamie, and his teammates, can learn from this. Ted Lasso raises his voice just this once in Season One, and it is certainly effective (and hilarious).
As an organizational leader, I’m definitely not advocating that we raise our voices to team members. But the message here is appropriate to all organizations: preparation matters. As a community-league basketball and baseball coach I would tell my young players (like, 10-year-olds, I’m no John Wooden or Tommy Lasorda) that we play how we practice. As a school principal, the same principle applies: we are as effective as we prepare to be. This means that the hours of curriculum development, unit and lesson planning, grading and writing of feedback, life-long learning to stay current in the field…they all impact the effectiveness of our teaching. And not just our own, but that of our teammates too. This is why faculty and department meetings, test moderation sessions, and team-attended professional development sessions matter and should be purposeful. Those hours, the ones so many memes are written about each year by teachers, lay the foundation for our work to appear effortless (or at least natural) in the classroom. Teachers may feel alone or in a silo when class starts and it’s just them and a room full of students, but no teacher is ever truly alone. A school is the sum of all of its people, regardless of age. Each impacts the other, always, whether through the culture they’ve built working together or the cumulative effect of their work on the students they serve. The same can be said in any organization in any field. So yes, we’re talking about practice.
“Football is life!”
Enter Danny Rojas. Now, the character is a bit problematic: he’s a little two-dimensional in a way that I’m not entirely comfortable with and I hope we see some character development with Danny in Season 2. That said, he does play the perfect foil to Jamie Tartt. Where Jamie Tartt is all ego, Danny is all about the team. Where Jamie can only celebrate himself and his accomplishments, Danny celebrates the joy of playing the game. This is a doubling-down of the message from the last episode: attitude trumps aptitude. It’s important, and humbling, to remember that there will always be someone more talented or, if there isn’t yet, there will be soon. It’s not the fact that Danny is better than Jamie that makes him more valuable though; it’s that Danny elevates everyone around him as well.
We’ve probably all had teammates like Jamie. Their own insecurities get in the way of real collaboration because when all is said and done, they NEED people to recognize their individual contributions. We find out later in this episode just where Jamie’s insecurities come from, and it’s a good reminder that what Jamie (and who he represents) really needs is our compassion, not our scorn. Lashing out at the Jamies of the workplace only reinforces the negative experiences and feelings that are driving their insecurities in the first place. And this again is the genius of Ted. The easy path forward would be to simply move on from Jamie and send him back to Manchester. To be sure, there are moments (and Jamie is painfully close to that moment in this episode) when a leader must make the difficult decision to move on from a team member. But Ted knows that Jamie is only expressing his pain, that’s he’s only human, and that he’s worth the work.
“The eagle has landed.”
Without going into too much plot, the episode ends with Danny rejoining the team at exactly the perfect moment. We learn that this is no coincidence; Higgins and Ted planned his emergence for just this moment. There’s a lesson here in that leaders need to intentionally build morale and purposefully inspire team members. This means timing announcements appropriately as Ted does here, but it also means giving people a common cause to rally behind, clearly communicating team initiatives and tasks to that cause to provide meaning, celebrating successes when they occur, and in general putting a confident and best-foot forward when leading change. For me, this has also meant the creation of packaging, graphics, titles and acronyms, and other materials where needed to make our work something that people could be proud to show off to their friends when asked, “what did you do today?”
Episode 7: Make Rebecca Great Again.
“Unless you have a crystal-ball we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
AFC Richmond is off to play a rival in a stadium they haven’t won in for 60 seasons. Everyone is on edge, no one thinks the team has a reasonable shot at winning, and Ted has a job to do. Leaders need to set a tone for their organization, one that is even-keeled and calm. Especially now, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is up to organizational leaders to not just inspire team members but to remind them to refrain from telling themselves stories about things that haven’t yet happened and may never come to pass. This can be a hard lesson to learn, but anxiety about a potential yet uncertain future is one of the most unproductive activities we can engage in. It diminishes our abilities in the present as it splits our focus and drains our energies and diminishes our abilities in the future as it weakens our spirit and, in some cases, health. Then there’s the trap of the self-fulfilling prophecy wherein if we tell ourselves often enough that something is too difficult or we are too incapable we are bound to find ways, even subconsciously, to prove ourselves right. In light of this, if we are to tell ourselves any stories of the future at all they should at least be told in the positive. In sports, there’s a saying; “that’s why they play the game.” In life, it’s a leader’s job to remind everyone that what we can control are our actions and intentions in the present. Work hard enough on those, and the future will take care of itself.
“Ted? Ted? It’s ok.”
Later in the episode, we see Ted struggling through what may be the most stressful event of his life, and he ends up having a panic attack. It is Rebecca who comes to his aid. This is the same Rebecca who the audience knows has hired Ted with the intent that he fails and who has secretly sabotaged him repeatedly in his short time with Richmond. So, why does she come to his aid now? Firstly, we’re seeing some transformation throughout this episode for Rebecca (note the title of the episode) as she begins to round her character arc for the season. Secondly, it was just last episode that Ted came to Rebecca’s aid in a similar moment of crises, also in the street outside a team party. One event sets the stage for the other, and it is Ted’s actions in support of Rebecca that lay the groundwork for Rebecca to help Ted now. Finally, as a leadership lesson I see two important points here. One, leaders need to build trusting relationships with their co-workers because there will come a time when the leader needs someone to lean on too. By building a trust-based relationship that allows for vulnerability with Rebecca, Ted has made it ok for himself to need help and ok for Rebecca to provide it. The second lesson I see is that people can change. This is important for leaders to understand. Positive, supportive leadership that is modeled through actions can make a difference!
Please Come to the Principal’s Office 