Podcast episode (Brian Johnson) summarizing Sam Walker's book The Captain Class and presenting seven traits shared by 'tier one' sports team captains who led historically great teams. The host lists the seven characteristics and issues a motivational call-to-action to embody them daily (dogged focus, rule-testing aggression, doing thankless shadow work, low-key democratic communication, nonverbal motivation, strong convictions, ironclad emotional control).
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one and our last one. We used my micro moment of Austin with the captain of Toronto FC to chat about wisdom from Sam Walker's great book, the Captain Class. As you may recall, Sam studied the all time greatest sports teams. From the New York Yankees and Boston Celtics in their prime to the Hungarian and Brazilian national soccer teams in theirs. He wanted to understand what made them tick. His conclusion? They're captains. As he says, the most critical ingredient in a team that achieves and sustains historic greatness is the character of the player who leads it. I then challenged you to show up heroically as the captain of all the teams on which you're blessed to serve. Today I want to chat about the seven traits of elite captains. Let's get straight to war. Sam tells us it's true that these tier one captains in the context of their various sports looked like one offs. They looked certainly nothing like the flawless leaders of our imaginations. As I compiled their biographies, however, I noticed something else. How closely were they resembled one another? He continues by saying to a spooky degree their behaviors and beliefs in the way they approached their work lined up. The impulsive, reckless and putatively self defeating behavior they exhibited was in fact calculated to fortify the team. Their strange and seemingly disqualifying personal traits were not damaging but actually made their teammates more effective on the field. These men and women were not aberrations after all. They were members of a forgotten tribe. In all, there were seven things they shared in common. So what made the extraordinarily great teams great? I repeat, their captains. And what qualities did those Captains embody? These seven qualities? 1. Extreme doggedness and focus in competition. 2. Aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules. 3. A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows. 4. A low key practical and democratic communication style. 5. Motivates others with passionate nonverbal displays. 6. Strong convictions and the courage to stand apart. And number seven. Ironclad emotional control. And that's today's post war. Here's to showing up with extreme doggedness and focus. Aggressive play, a willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows. A low key direct communication style. Passionate nonverbal displays of support, strong convictions and the courage to stand apart and ironclad emotional control. When? Yep, all day, every day. Especially today. P.S. you remember our antidote to social loafing? That tendency for people to not show up fully when they're doing work in a group? The antidote was one person showing up and going all out. That person needs to be you, so let's go.
