The Emmy-winning Ted Lasso series is coming back for season four. The affable American football coach is returning to the United Kingdom, where he’ll face a roster of new challenges. But Ted is equipped to deal with them. An icon of heart-centered, people-first leadership, the moustachioed coach has a variety of tools in his arsenal to help Richmond emerge victorious.
Leaders can benefit from studying Ted’s leadership style to learn practical ways to improve their teams and lead with heart. While dancing and wearing a visor with sunglasses might not be requirements for great leadership, Ted’s leadership and much of his philosophy has practical applications for businesses of all sizes.
1. Be Curious, Not Judgmental
Ted approaches challenging situations with curiosity over judgment. In a darts match with former AFC Richmond owner Rupert Mannion, Ted observes his behaviors and motivations. This curiosity gives Ted an edge, allowing him to win the darts game.
Tiffany Toombs, an executive leadership coach and the founder of Elite Performance Consulting, recommends that leaders “approach every conversation with a beginner’s mind” to apply this principle. “We’re obviously going to come in with our own triggers and our own preconceptions. But how can we just be aware of those and put those to the side?”
2. Believe in Your Team
When he arrives at Richmond, the team is demoralized and fractured. Still, Ted doesn’t waver in his belief, even when the team faces relegation at the end of season one.
Toombs suggests a practical exercise for building belief among your team. Leaders can sit down with their team and explore “worst case scenarios, the what-ifs…” and develop prevention and damage mitigation plans. This approach gives everyone a plan and clarity about their role, making it “easier to believe in the team because [they] already have a plan.”
3. Coach to the Best Version of People
Jamie Tartt, the team’s arrogant star player, is initially problematic and disruptive, but instead of writing Jamie off as a lost cause, Ted coaches to the person Jamie could become. By the third season, Jamie has transformed into a team player who puts others’ needs before his own because of Ted’s belief in him.
To help develop talent on a leader’s team, Toombs recommends giving them “Tasks that will stretch them so that they are… becoming that best version [of themselves].” She also suggests asking team members to visualize their best versions, then have them “take one of those traits or beliefs or actions a week and really focus on implementing that.”
4. Be a Force for Cultural Change
When Ted arrives at AFC Richmond, the club culture is toxic. New AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton, who stole the team from her ex-husband in their contentious divorce following his cheating scandal, hopes the team will fail, so she can get back at her ex. Players like Jamie bully others. Ted gradually transforms this culture with positivity and genuine care.
Toombs suggests getting the team to brainstorm “action words that reflect the culture that [they] all want to create. That way, people have buy-in.” She emphasizes specificity: “Put the specific actions that showcase what that word looks like.” For example, if a team picked ‘teamwork’ as a value, Toombs says they would want to list out the actions that reflect teamwork to the team. And then the team can implement “a regular reflection on the actions they’ve taken that align with that culture.”
5. Be a Goldfish
After Sam, a young player, loses the ball to Jamie in team practice, Ted tells him to “be a goldfish,” because goldfish only have a ten-second memory. Richmond adopts this mindset to acknowledge, but not be beholden to mistakes as a team.
Toombs offers a physical exercise for this principle: “There is a Qi Gong exercise called Shake It Off… [where you make] every part of your body shake until you feel like that energy is gone.” Toombs explains that this technique helps because if we don’t find an outlet for the emotional energy that comes from making a mistake, “it will get trapped in the nervous system and… become this ruminating thought that we get stuck on.”
6. Help People Be Their Best On and Off the Field
Ted’s coaching is holistic—there is no separation between player and person—and he’s there for them in multiple facets of their lives. Ted’s definition of success includes personal growth alongside professional achievement.
Toombs says that often, employees “don’t always recognize how good they are at something. And so they might tend to downplay [a strength], but when [their] leader is validating and speaking into those strengths in all different areas of their life, then that’s going to build up their confidence and… make them want to show up for the leader… in as many ways as they can.”
7. Take Accountability for Your Mistakes
When Ted has a panic attack during a crucial match and abandons the team, he openly acknowledges how he let them down in a future episode. Rebecca’s apology to Ted is also one of the most honest and raw moments of the entire show. Honest accountability turns mistakes into growth opportunities, not sources of shame.
When apologizing, Toombs says leaders should avoid the “common gaslighting type apology”—for example, “I’m sorry that you were offended”—and instead own their mistakes: “I’m sorry, here was my role in this situation… Here’s the action I’m taking to improve in the future.”
People-centric leadership doesn’t simply help people perform better at work. It allows a team to develop skills they can carry forward in every area of their life. The “Ted Lasso effect,” or approaching situations with optimism, kindness and empathy, may help teammates become better people, not simply worker bees.
Photo by Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock.com.
