The third season of Ted Lasso airs on March 15th, 2023. In anticipation of the new season I am reflecting on what makes Ted Lasso a great leader. If you are like me, when you first started watching Ted Lasso, there was something magical about Ted’s quality as a manager. You knew that he was building something special, but you could not quite pinpoint what he was doing that was so impactful.
When I coalesced my own thoughts, I came up with three characteristics that make Ted Lasso a successful leader.
- Protecting your team and its individuals
- Empowering your team to solve problems
- Building a culture of thriving
If everything was going well at AFC Richmond, Ted would not have had anything to do. Fortunately, the script writers gave Ted no shortage of problems to solve. The team was being roasted in the media, bullying was rampant in the locker room, and the players were barely surviving in the league.
Protect your team
One of my past managers described his job as being the “shit umbrella” — shielding us from all of the crap coming from up the corporate hierarchy. Althought his metaphor was crude, it was apt. He happened to be one of the best managers I have worked with. Ted Lasso has criticism and detractors coming at his team from all sides — especially the media.
Football managers and the media typically have a strained relationship. Journalists are constantly trying to pry information out of the manager. In the show, Trent Crimm, The Independent, personifies this relationship. In season one, Trent Crimm asks Ted bluntly,
“There is Roy Kent, he played dismally last match, thoughts?”
Ted responds confidently,
“I think you could ask Roy himself, he would tell you it wasn’t his best day. But I will let you know right now that Roy Kent is the backbone of this team.”
When the media flings crap on his players, Ted Lasso puts his “shit umbrella” up. Rather than agreeing that “Roy played poorly”, he redirects to how Roy might be feeling and reaffirms his confidence in the player. In the scene immediately following this, Nate and Coach Beard approach Ted asking him to drop Roy. Ted refuses — this moment is crucial. If Ted had dropped Roy, what would have happened? Roy would have just seen his manager defend him in the media, and then the next minute he drops you from the squad. Roy would not be able to trust his manager anymore, the coach and player relationship would be damaged. By protecting Roy from public criticism and keeping his word, Roy can see Ted’s integrity in action. Trust is starting to build between Roy, the captain, and Ted, the manager.
Think about your own work for a moment. How often have you enjoyed working with a manager who blames your team when things do not go according to plan? I sure don’t.
Empowered problem solving
The second characteristic of a great manager is empowering the team to solve their own problems. In one instance Nate, the kit man, is being bullied by Jamie Tartt and his goons. Roy Kent confronts Ted asking him to put a stop to the bullying. Ted says
“[If] a teacher tells a bully not to pick on someone, [it is] just gonna make it worse.”
Once Roy leaves Ted’s office, Coach Beard asks him,
“Why are you winding him up?”
Ted responds,
“We are going to make an impact here, first domino needs to fall right inside that mans heart”.
Even though Roy is the captain of AFC Richmond, he does not feel empowered to handle locker-room bullying. Roy does not have the confidence in his own authority to resolve the situation, he would rather lean on Ted to find a solution. By refusing to help Roy, Ted is implicitly issuing a challenge — he believes Roy can solve the problem of bullying on his own. Even though Jamie ignores Roy’s initial confrontation, eventually the problem is resolved between them. Roy was able to fix this situation without Ted’s help, something he did not think he could do alone. It would be easy to give Roy all of the credit, but if Ted had not challenged Roy or handled it himself, the bullying would have persisted. This whole situation makes Roy feel more ownership over the success of the team. This is ultimately what Ted wants, he wants to sway his player’s hearts into being emotionally invested in the success of AFC Richmond.
Ted’s role as a manager is to provide the first push of encouragement to his players and staff. Throughout the show, this pattern repeats for each member of the squad, including the kit man Nate. The context may be slightly different each time, but Ted is always there to offer just the right amount of guidance.
A Thriving Culture
There are three general states that a culture or team can be in, surviving, striving, and thriving. Survival is when you are hanging on for dear life. You cannot think about the future because you are focused on surviving the next crisis or obstacle. This is the state that AFC Richmond was in when Ted arrived. This is exemplified by Ted’s predecessor sarcastically exclaiming “Yeah right!” when he is being fired. Rebecca, the owner of AFC Richmond, goes on to clarify why he is being let go.
“It is your performance, having led this team to another remarkably average season.”
His surprised reaction that a “remarkably average” season is grounds for termination embodies the survival mentality.
The second state, striving, is when you plan for a better future but with incorrect intentions. Imagine you are trying to increase productivity in your factory, you can either pressure employees to produce more goods or you could invest in improving the machines and processes. In this example, a striving mentality would choose to pressure employees to produce more. Your aim is noble, to increase output, but your plan does not consider the sustainability of that output. At AFC Richmond a striving coach might yell at his players to “Score more goals”. Obviously more goals is better, but it is unlikely that yelling is the best plan to achieve that outcome.
Thriving is the final destination for all organizations. When a culture is thriving they are executing optimally in the present, while planning correctly for the future. Unfortunately, it is not always a linear path towards the future. A team can be thriving while experiencing ups and downs. The key to thriving is that you recognize the specific needs of your team and change accordingly. If you follow football, you may have seen some of the worlds most successful coaches champion the thriving philosophy.
Pep Lijnders has overseen an era of historic success for Liverpool FC. He clearly articulates the importance of a thriving mindset.
Source: The Coaches Voice – Pep Lijnders
“As a coach when you give clarity, it is always in the context of what the team needs. If you get injuries in main positions, if you lose 2-3 games in the same manner, of course, you have to correct and adapt. The problem with this is that with time if you always change strategically to the opposition you play towards the opposition and not themselves. You focus on the things you don’t have, you focus on them.”
Pep Lijnders, Liverpool FC Assistant Manager, NBC Sports
Ted Lasso channels the same thriving mindset as elite coach like Pep Lijnders. Just like Pep, Ted knows when it is time for adjustment, and when to keep course. These decisions are a theme of Ted and Roy’s relationship.
After Roy scores an own goal and costs the team the game, he sits alone in the dark in an ice bath. The TV is on, and Roy is listening to SKY sports roast his performance. Ted comes into the room and sits next to Roy. Roy gruffly remarks,“Can you just tell me I f’ed up and go?”. Ted responds, “Not gunna do that bud… You had a bad day, big whoop… So just knock it off, go easy on yourself.”. If Ted had a striving mindset, he may have walked into the room at told Roy “do not score any more own goals, they cost us the game.”. Instead, Ted’s thriving mindset acknowledges that mistakes happen and that the reason that Roy scored an own goal was because he was fully committed to defending. As Pep Lijnder’s says, a good coach can distinguish when to change what your players do, and when not to. Ted tells Roy to “go easy on [him]self” because the worst outcome is for Roy to be apprehensive or fearful while defending.
The greatest challenge of Ted’s tenure is showing Jamie that AFC Richmond is the place for him. Jamie believes he is above the team, to the point where he does not even need to practice. If a thriver plans ahead correctly, a striver plans ahead incorrectly, then the survivalist does not plan at all. They believe that the status quo is good enough.
Just when everyone on the team is getting on board with Ted’s vision for AFC Richmond, he has a confrontation with Jamie. This is one of the rare moments in the show where Ted is irate, shouting at Jamie in front of all the players. Jamie is “hurt” and cannot practice. Ted almost lets this go, until Jamie arrogantly says, “Relax ted, its just practice.”. To Ted, who is building a thriving culture, this is egregiously disrespectful. Practice is the only space with full control that the team has. Practice is the time when a thriving team turns a well-laid plan into reality. Everyone else is starting to thrive, but Jamie remains a stubborn survivalist.
Recall all those group projects in school where someone did not carry their weight, how did that affect you? Think about the times at work when a member of your team did not show up for their shift or did not complete their tasks. Did that demotivate you? When a team member lets others down, the burden is disproportionately placed on the people who are still committed. It threatens to tear the fabric of the team and revert a thriving culture back to surviving. This is why Ted is so upset about Jamie skipping practice. Skipping practice is the antithesis of Ted Lasso.
What about Season 3?
Obviously, I love Ted Lasso, the show, and the character. Now that AFC Richmond is thriving and promoted back to the Premier League, I wonder what conflicts and storylines the writers have come up with to test our favorite Yankee coach. If I am being honest, I am somewhat apprehensive about the new season. I think the character shined so brightly because of the pressure cooker environment that Seasons 1 & 2 placed him in. If everything is going so well at AFC Richmond, will Ted Lasso still be such a compelling character?
No, I am not a Liverpool fan.
Thank you for reading,
Z
Sources
Surviving, Striving, and Thriving – ASCENT
Ted Lasso – Apple TV
Pep Lijnders – Masterclass
Pep Lijnders – The Coaches Voice
Thinking of Z 