PDF Summary:You Win in the Locker Room First, by Jon Gordon and Mike Smith

In both sports and business, the key to victory is not raw talent, but the two “big C’s”: character and coaching. In You Win in the Locker Room First, leadership expert Jon Gordon and former NFL coach Mike Smith discuss the unseen work of building trust, commitment, and shared purpose that lays the groundwork for future triumphs.

This guide categorizes Gordon and Smith’s principles for success under those two big C’s. We’ll discuss why team members must be fully dedicated to each other and the team, and we’ll explain how your coaching methods can help that group of dedicated people reach their full potential.

Our commentary will compare the authors’ principles to those of other management books like Start With Why and The Fifth Discipline. We’ll also examine why the authors’ ideas work for businesses as well as sports teams—and, in rare cases, why they don’t. Finally, we’ll offer some advice to help you apply precepts of character and coaching to your own leadership role.

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The best way to show your commitment is through acts of service. For example, such acts include staying late to help someone master a skill or process, advocating for your team members’ interests and well-being, or simply being present during difficult times. Consistently performing small acts like these will show your commitment much more effectively than occasional grand gestures, which may come off as forced or fake.

(Shortform note: Performing acts of service is one of the five languages of appreciation at work—adapted for the workplace from Gary Chapman’s better known The 5 Love Languages. Acts of service are a way of showing your team members that you understand their struggles and are committed to helping them. As an added benefit, such acts also demonstrate that you care about your team members, which will make them feel more positively toward you in turn, for reasons we’ll discuss in a later piece of commentary.)

Prove Your Commitment Through Personal Sacrifice

Gordon and Smith also write that the ultimate test of commitment is sacrifice, which means putting your team’s needs ahead of your own interests. Again, consistency is key: When your team sees you consistently make sacrifices for their benefit, they develop the deep loyalty and trust that enables extraordinary teamwork.

For example, sacrifices might include turning down opportunities that would benefit you personally but harm the team, taking public responsibility for failures (including when those failures weren’t entirely your fault), and investing in team members’ development even if it means they might eventually leave for better opportunities.

(Shortform note: Making personal sacrifices for the common good is a key tenet of Servant Leadership, as popularized by Robert Greenleaf. Servant leadership expands on team commitment by prioritizing your organization and the people it serves, but it boosts your team’s effectiveness in the same way that Gordon and Smith suggest. For instance, if your team fails to deliver a project by the deadline, a servant leader would accept responsibility, figure out why it happened, and make sure the team does better going forward so that the customers’ needs are met. On the other hand, a selfish leader might protect their own reputation by looking for and firing a scapegoat, leaving the team even less able to meet future deadlines.)

Character Is Contagious

Your emotional state and energy spread to everyone around you, affecting your team in profound ways. In other words, it’s contagious. As a leader, you must choose to be a source of contagious positive energy for your team.

Let’s examine two key strategies Gordon and Smith provide to energize your team: Give them an inspirational mission to rally behind, and proactively root out negativity.

Inspire Your Team With a Clear Vision

The authors say one of the most effective ways to spread positive energy is through a compelling vision or mission—something that goes beyond individual success and unites your team around a common cause. Your vision should be simple, clear, and bold enough to serve as a rallying cry: Some examples are supporting the community and honoring important traditions.

However, avoid generic goals like winning championships. The authors say such obvious goals aren’t effective because your team members are already thinking about them all the time. Continually reminding your team of what they already know does nothing to inspire or energize them.

(Shortform note: In Start with Why, Simon Sinek says that a strong and inspiring mission (a “why”) doesn’t just energize your team members, it also increases your company’s longevity. Sinek argues that your “why,” and the decisions you make based on it, will attract customers who believe in your mission—or, in the case of sports teams, fans who believe in you. Furthermore, those customers and fans will remain loyal so long as you keep to your “why,” even if you later change your methods.)

Don’t Let Negativity Take Root

Being contagious in a positive way also means actively protecting your culture from negativity. To that end, Gordon and Smith suggest that you establish clear expectations about attitude and energy. People who are unwilling or unable to meet those expectations must not be allowed to remain on your team, since they’ll spread their pessimism and drain enthusiasm from their teammates. No amount of individual talent can make up for how much a bad attitude will hinder the team’s performance.

For example, you might implement a “no blame” rule: Make it clear that team members blaming each other for a loss or mistake is unacceptable. Instead, emphasize that defeats and setbacks are opportunities for the entire team to learn and grow.

(Shortform note: While it’s important to keep team members motivated and positive overall, there’s a risk that you could take this too far and create a culture of toxic positivity: an environment where people must act happy at all times and aren’t allowed to acknowledge real problems that they or the organization are struggling with. Not only does toxic positivity make issues more difficult to fix, it’s also exhausting—forced optimism will drain your team’s energy as surely as overt pessimism will. A couple of ways to avoid this problem are to make sure people have official channels to express their concerns and to regularly have conversations where you encourage team members to be frank with you.)

Coaching: Help Your Team Do Better

Character provides the foundation for future success, which is why it should be your first concern. However, Gordon and Smith say that your team will ultimately win or lose depending on your ability to coach: to develop your team members’ skills through training, then make the right decisions on the field (or in the workplace, as the case might be).

In this section we’ll discuss the authors’ three remaining principles of success, which characterize effective coaching: consistency, communication, and care.

Be Consistent, and Demand Consistency

Your consistency as a leader impacts the trust your team has in you, and it’s impossible to coach a team that doesn’t trust you. This is why Gordon and Smith emphasize consistency: You must stick to your principles, ideals, and methods no matter what difficulties you or your team face.

It’s hardest to maintain consistency during difficult times, like when you or your team face failures and criticisms. At such times it can be tempting to abandon your current approach and try something dramatically different. However, the authors argue that this is precisely when consistency matters most: Your team needs to know what to expect from you, and trust that you’ll stick to your principles through adversity.

(Shortform note: As a counterpoint to Gordon and Smith, there are undoubtedly times when your current methods aren’t working, and you genuinely need to make a change. In Awaken the Giant Within, life coach Tony Robbins says you’ll know when those times are because you’ll start to feel frustrated. He argues that when you feel frustrated, it’s because you know you’re close to achieving a goal, but what you’re doing isn’t quite getting you there. Therefore, frustration is a sign that you should take a step back, reevaluate your approach, and come up with a new plan to reach that goal.)

The authors add that consistency isn’t just for leaders—every team member must show consistent effort and attitude, especially in the face of adversity. The best performers at any level are unwaveringly dedicated to their routines: They always follow established processes, maintain high standards of conduct and performance, and constantly seek ways to improve themselves.

Conversely, if some people are unreliable, it creates an environment of uncertainty that erodes trust and cohesion among the entire team. Therefore, team members who can’t or won’t put forth consistent effort must be let go.

(Shortform note: A simpler way to phrase this principle is that everyone on the team should always do their best. With that said, as self-help expert Don Miguel Ruiz writes in The Four Agreements, someone’s “best” can change from one day to the next, or even from one moment to the next. For instance, everyone will have days when they’re tired, sick, or distracted—at such times, it’s natural that even their best efforts will not produce their best results. Ruiz adds that someone who’s done their best will be satisfied with what they accomplish, even if it falls short of their usual standards. Conversely, a team member who seems remorseful or uncomfortable has most likely not put forth their best effort, and they know it.)

Coaching Is Communicating

Gordon and Smith say that a crucial part of coaching is communication: talking openly and often with your team members, both as individuals and as a group. Try to engage with people at every level of your organization as often as possible, in as many different places as possible (not just in your office). This means putting in appearances in break rooms, hallways, and other informal settings. If you make yourself visible and accessible in this way, you’ll break down hierarchical barriers—team members will start to see you as a person, not just as their boss.

(Shortform note: Gordon and Smith encourage you to make yourself as accessible and approachable as possible. In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle takes this idea a step further: He says you can reduce the sense of hierarchy among all team members by creating “collision-rich” environments where people will frequently see and interact with one another. For example, set up more communal spaces beyond just the break room, or arrange the workspace so team members work close to one another.)

The authors add that during your interactions, listening is often more important than talking. Effective leadership requires you to ask thoughtful questions, and genuinely listen to the responses. When you take the time to listen to everyone’s perspective—from leadership to support staff—you gain valuable insights that allow you to make better decisions as a leader. As an added benefit, it demonstrates that you respect and value everyone on your team regardless of their position.

(Shortform note: In The Fifth Discipline, organizational learning pioneer Peter Senge writes that honest conversations between team members and leadership should be a constant part of workplace culture, instead of just a way to find and fix specific problems. He argues that such conversations ensure that everyone from supervisors to executives has the best possible understanding of the company’s processes, where each employee fits into those processes, and how the company as a whole fits into the world. That understanding, in turn, will empower the organization’s leadership to make the best possible decisions.)

Genuinely Care About Your Team Members

Finally, Gordon and Smith say that you can only build a winning team if you genuinely care for the people you lead: You have to see your team members as real people, not just tools to help you achieve your goals. When you truly care about each team member’s well-being and success, you foster an environment where people feel valued and appreciated—and they’ll reciprocate by putting forth their best efforts.

You can demonstrate care through actions that show your team members they matter as individuals. For example, a leader who cares will remember important events in their team members’ lives like birthdays and anniversaries, check in when they’re facing difficulties, and celebrate both their professional and personal successes. Small gestures like these build upon each other to create powerful bonds that strengthen your entire team.

(Shortform note: According to Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People), people need to feel important almost as much as they need to eat and sleep. By showing your team members that they matter to you, you’re helping meet that need to feel important. In return, your team members will quickly grow to like and appreciate you, just as they would if you’d offered them something to eat when they were hungry.)

The authors add that the best leaders care enough to help each individual reach their full potential, which bolsters the team as a whole. To do so, you have to balance accountability and supportiveness. As a coach, this means you set high expectations for your team members and push them outside of their comfort zones, but also make sure they have the tools to meet those challenges.

For example, suppose you’re the coach of a basketball team, and you notice that your point guard hesitates to take crucial shots during close games. You might approach that player and set a high expectation like “I want you to take the big shots when the game is on the line.” To make sure the point guard is prepared to meet your expectations, you’d then put them through high-pressure practice scenarios and teach them some mental preparation techniques to ensure they won’t freeze up when the pressure’s on.

(Shortform note: These principles closely resemble the human-centric business values that Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini discuss in Humanocracy. The authors say a culture built around connection, empowerment, and accountability enables every team member to nurture their unique gifts and ideas—and that nurturing, in turn, allows each person to do better work for the organization. In contrast, many organizations function as bureaucracies that rely on rules and micromanagement to control their workers. While the bureaucratic approach is supposed to ensure compliance and quality, Hamel and Zanini argue that it leaves employees bored, frustrated, and disengaged, and they become less effective workers as a result.)