A Page From the World Cup Coach's Playbook
ALIGN Practice: Grow
Imagine taking over a squad of the world's most elite athletes, superstars at their individual clubs, used to different tactics, different cultures, and distinct ways of working. You have a short window of time to bring them together, establish a shared strategy, and prepare them to perform under intense scrutiny and pressure.
You will not do this alone. Assistant coaches, tactical advisors, technical directors, analysts, trainers, medical staff, sports psychologists, and others surround you, helping you prepare, pressure-test your thinking, adjust strategy, and support performance under pressure.
While this level of infrastructure and support is the reality for a World Cup head coach, it is not the case for many C-suite leaders facing comparable complexity.
Leaders are responsible for bringing together people with different roles, responsibilities, pressures, habits, and ways of working. In addition to setting direction, the leader must also help people understand that direction, work through what it requires, and ensure the organization has the capacity to execute.
There is a common assumption that once someone reaches the top of an organization, whether as CEO, COO, CTO, or another senior leader, development becomes less necessary. I do not think that is accurate, nor is it fair.
No single person, however skilled, can see every angle, manage every variable, and stay sharp under that much pressure alone. That is why a World Cup coach is surrounded by a full staff. It also needs to be true of a leader guiding an organization through change.
Guiding an enterprise through structural or strategic change places real cognitive and emotional demands on leadership. Leaders have to make decisions without perfect information. They have to communicate clearly when conditions are still moving. They have to hold competing priorities, absorb pressure, respond to feedback, and keep the organization focused long enough for the work to take hold.
If a leader is doing the job well, there will be times when they are intensely uncomfortable. Exploring new territory, taking calculated risks, and learning new things about themselves, the organization, the market, or the conditions around them can all be absolutely necessary and deeply uncomfortable. If leaders are inclined to choose comfort over effectiveness, they risk becoming stale at best, and obsolete at worst.
A coach will name what is happening, so the leader knows the discomfort is part of the process rather than a sign something is wrong. A coach will help the leader navigate that discomfort so they reach the objective.
Athletes need coaches to improve their performance, refine their judgment, and prepare for higher levels of competition. As an athlete develops, the coaching becomes more precise, more nuanced, and more demanding.
The same should be true for leaders. As the complexity of the work increases, they need intentional, ongoing support to think, decide, communicate, and guide others more effectively. That support should be standard practice, built into how leadership development is planned and budgeted, not something a leader has to seek out on their own.
Coaching, development, peer advising, thoughtful feedback, and support structures help leaders acknowledge and navigate the discomfort that commonly comes with growth. They also strengthen the person responsible for helping others move through change.
In ALIGN℠, this is the work of Grow. Grow focuses on building the leadership and team capacity needed to carry the work forward. Leadership development and support are foundational to leading effective change.
Statement #7 in the ALIGNment Snapshot reads:
Our leaders are being coached, developed, and supported so they have the capacity to guide change effectively.
The ALIGNment Snapshot is a ten-minute reflection tool that helps leaders see where strategy, culture, and execution are working together, and where closer attention is needed.