When thinking about exemplary coaches, names like Coach K, John Wooden, or Pat Summitt often come to mind. Of course, Coach K lead Duke University to 5 national championships, John Wooden led UCLA on a 7-year championship streak, and Pat Summitt had 1,098 career wins with the University of Tennessee Lady Vols. But what truly defines their greatness? Is it solely their team’s success? While success in high-performance sport is undeniably crucial, fixating only on performance and mental toughness can hinder athletic progress (Hägglund et al., 2023).
The fear of failure or making mistakes can significantly impede athletic performance and creativity among athletes. When athletes fear making mistakes and demonstrate self-critical perfectionism, they are more prone to experience anxiety and less likely to seek help when needed to achieve their goals (Moore et al., 2021). As a result, this type of stigma surrounding vulnerability creates barriers, limiting athletes’ ability to fully embrace their teams’ potential.
Enter Coach Ted Lasso, a fictional character whose coaching principles offer invaluable lessons for real-world coaches. He creates an environment that encourages athletes to be vulnerable, yet accountable. Although there are many potential learnings for high-performance coaches, one of the most glaring takeaways from the fictional character’s coaching style is his emotional intelligence, a trait essential for effective leadership.
Emotional intelligence represents “the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (Schneider, 2013, p.3). Research suggests that coaches with high emotional intelligence tend to be effective leaders and can influence their athletes’ emotions. Not just in terms of performance but also in character development, making them valuable members of the team and society (Côté & Gilbert, 2009).
Given the great potential for emotional intelligence, coaches can adopt the 4-cornerstone model (Schneider, 2013):
- Emotional literacy. Knowing the causes of various emotions in one moment, requiring you to understand and recognize your emotions.
- Emotional fitness. Being able to express your emotions in a healthy way.
- Emotional depth. Recognizing which emotions you and your athletes feel deeply.
- Emotional alchemy. Being mindful of emotions and seeing them as the truth in situations and not trying to change them.
Coach Lasso’s famous mantra, “be a goldfish,” epitomizes this model, encouraging athletes to acknowledge their emotions in that moment but to not dwell on them, which is a crucial skill for maintaining focus and resilience during competition.
Another key aspect from the Coach Lasso character is how he actively creates an environment where feelings of psychological safety are possible. By promoting vulnerability among his athletes, Coach Lasso fosters deeper connections and trust within the team, which is a foundation for improved communication and performance.
For example, in Season 1, Coach Lasso discovers the team believes the treatment room is haunted. He takes this as an opportunity to unite the team and tasks his athletes to bring an item that they find to be valuable to a ghost removal ceremony. By explaining the value of their item, the athletes expose their vulnerabilities to their teammates creating a trusting bond amongst them. This exercise proves to be successful when the character, Jamie, a conceited star player, opens up and explains that he has built a wall up to avoid coming off as soft and that due to his past he always wants to be the toughest player on the pitch. This exercise showed the character’s vulnerability.
Vulnerability is “the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally” (Hägglund et al., 2023, p.4). Despite the perceived risks, vulnerability in sport can lead to courage, creativity, and positive change. Athletes who feel safe to be vulnerable are more likely to communicate openly, seek help when needed, and ultimately perform better as a cohesive unit (Hägglund et al., 2019).
A final learning from Coach Lasso is how he is able to promote unity within his team through trust. Mayer et al. (1995) were some of the first to discuss the 3 factors of trustworthiness: ability, benevolence, and integrity. When an individual consistently engages in behaviours that represent these factors, they are more likely to be trusted by others. This is relevant because trust has been found to improve cooperation and to have a direct relation to performance (Moldjord & Iversen, 2015).
Coach Lasso demonstrates the importance of trust in team dynamics by consistently exhibiting benevolence and integrity. His willingness to listen and admit his limitations, such as his lack of expertise in football, instilled trust and encouraged mutual respect among team members.
Even though AFC Richmond and Ted Lasso are fictional, the principles they embody hold true. The show brings to light the importance of vulnerability in sports, a concept often stigmatized as weakness but proven to enhance performance. In the end, Ted Lasso’s coaching philosophy offers valuable insights for real-world coaches striving to maximize their athletes’ potential. By embracing emotional intelligence, fostering vulnerability, and cultivating trust, coaches can unlock untapped performance and create lasting bonds within their teams.