What Makes a Great Leader in Professional Sports?

When people talk about leadership in sports, they often picture the fiery head coach, the captain who delivers in big moments, or the executive who signs a key free agent. But true leadership in a professional sports organization is much more nuanced - and much more powerful.

The best leaders in professional sports don’t lead through expertise alone. They don’t need to be the best coach, scout, analyst, or negotiator in the building. In fact, focusing too much on subject matter expertise often limits their effectiveness. Once someone steps into a leadership role, their job changes. It's no longer about doing the work themselves - it’s about building and empowering the team that will.

Leadership Isn’t About Doing Everything

No one person can be everywhere at once. They can’t coach a player in the cage, negotiate a contract with an agent, build a projection model, and mentor a young staffer - all at the same time.

Great leaders recognize this. They don’t try to do everything. Instead, they build systems that connect people and processes across the organization. Their influence is felt even when they’re not in the room. An evaluation made by a scout in Florida or a plan built by a strength coach in the Dominican Republic may not involve the leader directly, but it reflects the clarity, alignment, and values that leader has instilled.

One of the books that’s had the biggest impact on how I think about this is Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock. It’s a book about making better decisions by building the right processes - breaking down problems, seeking new evidence, and fostering collaboration. Those same principles apply to leadership. A great leader creates a structure that promotes rigorous thinking, distributes responsibility, and ensures the right information reaches the right people. Importantly, they enable decisions to be made by the individual with the clearest view of the situation. Sometimes that’s the leader—but often it’s someone further down the org chart. Great leaders design for that.

Empowering People to Think and Act

The strongest organizations are full of people who feel empowered to think critically, take initiative, and push for better. Great leaders create that culture. They give people the space to do their jobs, to try new things, and to bring forward ideas - even if those ideas fall outside their job title.

At one point, our team was working with a hitter who was struggling to make progress. Our hitting coaches were experienced and creative, and our analysts had already dug into the data. But nothing seemed to be clicking. Then one of our athletic trainers spoke up. He’d noticed a small change in the player’s mobility pattern following a minor injury. It wasn’t something that had been factored into the hitting plan, but once we adjusted based on that insight, the player began to turn the corner.

That idea didn’t come from an analyst or a coach - it came from someone who was empowered to share what they saw and contribute to the bigger picture.

Great leaders don’t just allow that kind of input - they encourage it. They create environments where people are free to “break a few windows,” as long as they don’t burn the house down. Innovation doesn’t happen without trust.

Communication and Motivation Are Core Skills

Beyond strategy and systems, great leadership requires soft skills - the kind that rarely show up in a resume or a box score. Effective leaders communicate across departments. They make people feel comfortable, valued, and heard. They motivate individuals - whether they’re coaches, players, scouts, or interns - to bring their best every day.

A professional sports organization is made up of hundreds of people, each with different skills, experiences, and pressures. The leader’s job is to unify that group - not by controlling every decision, but by inspiring a shared purpose and setting the tone for how people work together.

Leadership Is a Force Multiplier

Ultimately, leadership in professional sports is about scale. A great leader amplifies the value of everyone around them. They align talent, optimize systems, and create a culture where people thrive - not just individually, but collectively.

That’s how championships are won. Not by one person doing everything, but by one leader building something bigger than themselves.