Serving up leadership lessons from the tennis court
By Rob Kellogg
As the echoes of the Paris Olympics fade and the clay settles on the Roland Garros courts, we’re reminded that leadership lessons often emerge from unexpected places. In the world of tennis, where individual skill meets team strategy, we find a perfect analogy for the entrepreneurial spirit.
Our recent Trustee Circle event on Aug. 14, hosted by the swashbuckling crew at Pirate Ship, featured Jeff Moore, whose unique perspective on leadership stems from his successful career coaching championship athletes at the University of Texas. Moore sparked a thought-provoking dialogue about the nature of leadership for founders in our entrepreneurial ecosystem.
As we unpacked Moore’s concept of “competitive excellence” from his 2019 book “Strive Together,” I found myself reflecting on how it both aligns with and challenges popular leadership theories. Moore’s approach, honed on the tennis courts of collegiate athletics and applied to education and the business world, offers a fresh take on leadership that could be particularly valuable for our startup founders.
Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” mantra popularized a view that leadership was first and foremost about building a following by articulating a compelling vision. While this likely resonates with many in our startup community, Moore’s framework pushes us to think beyond merely inspiring followers. It suggests that true leadership is about empowering others to strive together, fostering an environment of mutual growth and challenge.
This perspective aligns closely with John Kotter’s classic 1990 article “What Leaders Really Do” (later expanded into his 1996 book Leading Change). Kotter makes an important distinction between management and leadership, arguing that while managers cope with complexity, leaders cope with change. Our discussion with Moore expanded on this foundation, detailing how leaders cultivate a spirit of continuous improvement across four key relationships: self, team, direct reports and boss. It’s like a leadership quadrathlon, minus the spandex.
In the relationship to self, Moore emphasized how leaders must be willing to move out of their comfort zone, solve problems unconventionally and embrace failure. This self-awareness and courage to grow goes beyond Sinek’s idea of inspiring others and speaks to Kotter’s emphasis on leaders setting direction and modeling change.
The relationship to team and boss in Moore’s framework echoes Kotter’s assertion that leaders align people. However, Moore adds to this concept by emphasizing the willingness to challenge and be challenged, demonstrate empathy and communicate directly. This fosters a culture of open dialogue and mutual growth, essential in our tight-knit business community.
Perhaps most striking was our discussion on the relationship to direct reports. Moore’s framework gets specific: Leaders build genuine personal relationships, challenge team members to stretch beyond perceived limits, listen actively and empower ownership of work. This approach creates what Moore calls a “competitive cauldron” — an environment that prepares teams for high-stakes scenarios and fosters innovation.
Hearing Moore explain these four key relationships reminds me of the “Leadership Compass” often associated with Robert Haas, who was CEO of Levi Strauss and Co. from 1984 to 1999. Haas was known for his strong leadership practices, and this model identifies four primary leadership orientations, each associated with a cardinal direction: north (action oriented and decisive), east (visionary and big picture thinker), south (supportive and people focused) and west (analytical and detail oriented). Such a centralized approach to leadership is no small achievement in today’s world, where the pace of technological and social change is accelerating.
As we delve into these ideas, I find myself reconsidering what true leadership looks like for mentors and founders in our ecosystem. And I’m asking myself: What style of leadership would Jeff say I’m modeling here at Silicon Couloir? Clearly, it’s not just about building a following or coping with change, but about creating an environment where the team collectively strives for excellence, much like a championship sports team. Would my staff and board say I’m accomplishing this?
I’m excited about how our founders and mentors might implement these ideas. If we can help our entrepreneurs move beyond building a following to creating environments of mutual growth and challenge, we could see a new wave of resilient, adaptive and truly excellent businesses emerging from our community.
Thanks to Jeff, we now have an open invitation to evolve our understanding of leadership to support businesses in the Tetons and beyond. I look forward to seeing how these ideas, born from high-performance collegiate athletics and refined in the business world, take root in our entrepreneurial ecosystem, transforming not just how founders lead, but how entire teams strive together toward excellence.