As a former Division I athlete turned founder, I’ve noticed a leadership pattern that shows up again and again—especially among high-performing operators who come from disciplined, competitive backgrounds.
We tend to lead like head coaches. We’re in the trenches. We call the plays. We train our team, motivate them, push hard, and try to win with what we’ve got. But I recently heard a reframe from an investor named Guy Filippelli that challenged this mindset completely:
“Too many founders are trying to win as head coaches. You need to win as the GM.”
It hit me. The GM isn’t just trying to get the most out of the team he has—he’s building the best possible team from the start. He’s not focused on day-to-day execution—he’s architecting the system, recruiting talent, designing for scale.
It made me reflect: Am I leading like someone who’s still in the game… or someone building the organization to win without me?
What do you think?
As a leader, where do you draw the line between executing with your team vs. stepping back to build the system?
Have you ever had to transition from “head coach mode” into “GM mode”?
How do we teach students—or even ourselves—to make that shift?
Looking forward to learning from your perspectives. 👊
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