As we close out 2025 and look straight at 2026, this episode is a line in the sand.

Growth does not happen in familiar rooms. It happens when you intentionally place yourself in environments where you’re uncomfortable, challenged, and not the most experienced voice in the room.

In this episode, recorded on a cold Missouri walk, I unpack a core principle that will define elite leaders in 2026:

You don’t grow by preparing longer. You grow by exposure.

Drawing from coaching basketball, leadership work, and real-world business environments, this conversation challenges you to rethink how—and where—you pursue growth.

This is Part One of a two-part series focused on entering rooms you don’t feel ready for and learning how those rooms shape who you become.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why staying in the same rooms guarantees stagnant growth
• The difference between humility and insecurity when stepping into elite environments
• How to treat every unfamiliar room like a classroom—not a performance
• Why exposure beats preparation every time
• How the right rooms recalibrate your standards and expose blind spots
• The leadership discipline required to stop waiting for permission

If you’re serious about making 2026 a defining year—not just another calendar flip—this episode will force you to confront a simple but uncomfortable question:
What rooms are you willing to put yourself in this year?

Because the truth is this:
If all your 2026 rooms look like your 2025 rooms, nothing changes.

Key Takeaway:

The right rooms will stretch your thinking, recalibrate your standards, and force you to close gaps you didn’t even know existed.

This episode sets the foundation.
 Part Two will focus on what happens after you enter the room—how to create value, how to stop being invisible, and how to belong without losing yourself.

Three Actions to Take Today:

1. List the Rooms: Write down three rooms, environments, or conversations that make you slightly uncomfortable—and commit to pursuing access to one of them in Q1.
2. Audit Comfort: Identify one area of your life or leadership where you’ve been too comfortable. That’s your growth gap.
3. Change the Question: Stop asking “Am I ready?” and start asking “What would this room teach me?”

If this episode challenged you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.
And if you’re building toward something bigger in 2026—join the conversations we’re having, connect with us, and stay close.

The room will raise you—if you’re willing to walk in.

In this episode of the DeadThree Coaching Show, we start with a Duke vs. Florida basketball moment and turn it into a leadership blueprint for IT teams and organizations. Duke guard Isaiah Evans was 0-for-7 from three. Game on the line. Instead of going away from him, Coach Jon Scheyer drew up the final play for Evans — and he buried the game-winning three.

That decision wasn’t just about X’s and O’s. It was about belief, confidence, and the energy a leader chooses to bring to their team.

We break down why your team’s confidence and energy are a reflection of you — not your slide decks, not your strategy documents, but your daily presence. Using lessons from Duke basketball, High Performance Habits, Ego Is the Enemy, and Beyond the Hammer, he walks through three non-negotiables every IT leader (and any leader) must master to build elite, high-performing teams.

You’ll hear:

• Why belief in your people matters more than their last “miss”
• How Coach Scheyer’s decision to trust an 0-for-7 shooter is the model for how we lead at work
• Why your team feels your energy long before they hear your words
• How your emotional state becomes the culture your team lives in
• The three energy standards every leader must own:
  1. Leaders go first – you are the power plant, you generate energy
  2. Emotional calibration – your internal state becomes the team’s external behavior
  3. Consistency of presence – reliability and steadiness are your competitive advantage

This episode is for leaders, coaches, and managers who are tired of reactive, low-juice teams and want to create a culture where people feel trusted, valued, and ready to take the last shot.

Three Questions to Take Back to Your Team

1. Where am I withholding belief from someone on my team because of a recent “miss”?
2. What emotional ripple do I leave behind after meetings, stand-ups, or 1:1s?
3. If my team copied my energy this week, would we be playing to win or just trying not to lose?

Call to Action

This week, pick one teammate and intentionally “draw up a play” for them — give them a visible opportunity, tell them you believe in them, and support them through the outcome. Win or lose, you’re building a standard of belief and energy that your whole organization will feel.

Join the Conversation:

👉 Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more leadership and high-performance insights.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadthreecoaching
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevjen

👉 Join Our Community and connect with like-minded leaders focused on growth and execution.

• Website: https://deadthreecoaching.com
• Newsletter: https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter
• Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

In the last episode, we named the silent accountability crisis—those moments when projects stall, standards slip, and no one speaks up. In this follow-up conversation, we tackle the next hard question leaders are wrestling with:

Drawing from years in the IT and software space, this episode breaks down why so many leaders unintentionally suffocate initiative, why teams stop thinking for themselves, and how to shift from control to clarity, trust, and ownership. You’ll hear practical stories, from coaching athletes to leading technical teams, that show exactly what happens when leaders cling to control versus when they create space for people to own the work.

This is December’s work: reset, realign, and raise the standard without burning people out.

🔍 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why micromanagement is usually a fear problem, not a “bad boss” problem
  – Fear the job won’t get done.
  – Fear mistakes will reflect poorly on you.
  – How that fear quietly kills ownership and initiative.
• The difference between control and clarity
  – Why “overchecking” shows up when expectations are fuzzy.
  – How replacing control with clear outcomes, support, and recognition changes the game.
• How elite leaders create extreme accountability without hovering
  – Building systems and standards so strong that people want to deliver.
  – Using the 10–80–10 idea: align on outcomes, let the team execute, then refine together.
• Why your team feels like they’re “leaf blowing in a hurricane”
  – Confusion, chaos, shifting priorities, and constant noise.
  – Why people don’t fear accountability—but they do fear being judged in a storm you created.
• What people really want from work (beyond the paycheck)
  – Feeling valued, trusted, and empowered to figure out the “how.”
  – Why trust-in-action looks like: “Here’s the goal. I believe in you. Go own it.”

🧭 Three Clarity Checks for Your Team

Bring these into your leadership meeting this week:

1. Does everyone know the goal in measurable terms?
   – What does “winning” look like this week, not just this year?
2. Does every person understand how their work connects to the mission and the next key win?
   – Can they clearly explain why what they’re doing matters?
3. Does everyone know how they’ll be recognized when the team wins?
   – Are you celebrating the right things loudly and consistently?

✅ Three Actions to Take This Week

1. Trade one area of control for clarity.
   – Pick one initiative where you routinely step in and replace that behavior with a clear outcome, timeline, and definition of done—then step back.
2. Spot and stop “leaf blower in a hurricane” behavior.
   – Identify one chaotic pattern (conflicting priorities, constant change, noisy environments) and calm it so your team can actually execute.
3. Have one ownership conversation, not a compliance conversation.
   – Sit down with a high-potential team member and say:
   “Here’s what winning looks like. Here’s why it matters. I believe you can own this. How do you want to approach it?”

Join the Conversation:

👉 Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more leadership and high-performance insights.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadthreecoaching
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevjen

👉 Join Our Community and connect with like-minded leaders focused on growth and execution.

• Website: https://deadthreecoaching.com
• Newsletter: https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter
• Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

How many times have you sat in a meeting, watched a project completely miss the mark, and silently thought:

No urgency. No honest ownership. Just quiet avoidance.

In this episode, we kick off December — the reset and realign month — by naming what’s really happening in so many organizations:
 a silent accountability crisis.

You walk through what you’re seeing across IT, software, and beyond: overwhelmed leaders, drifting teams, eroding standards, low execution, and cultures that quietly accept “good enough” as the norm. You contrast that with how elite athletic programs operate: clear standards, direct accountability, and leaders who say, “This one is on me.”

This conversation is a call for leaders to reset their personal and team standards in the final month of 2025 and intentionally raise the bar going into 2026.

🔍 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• What the “silent accountability crisis” looks like in real teams
  – No one speaking up, no one owning the finish line, and projects that linger instead of ship.
• Why it’s not a “people problem,” but a leadership and culture problem
  – It’s rarely about laziness. It’s about cultures that stopped expecting ownership and leaders who stopped demanding it.
• How elite teams treat standards differently
  – Stories from the court and the office:
  – Why “we’re tired,” “we’re sick,” or “we just came off a holiday” can’t become permission to lower the bar.
• The difference between punishment and accountability
  – How to position accountability as care, belief, and development instead of fear and judgment.
  – Why encouragement and accountability must travel together.
• The real cost of letting things slide
  – Execution stalls.
  – High performers burn out doing everyone else’s work.
  – Culture shifts from excellence to survival without anyone saying a word.
• What elite accountability actually looks like
  – It flows up, across, and down — rooted in trust, growth, and shared standards.
  – It sounds like: “This matters, and I am responsible for it.”

🧭 Questions to Reflect On This Week

Use these with your leadership team or in your journal:

1. Who consistently delivers without needing to be reminded?
2. Who is hiding behind “busy work” instead of real outcomes?
3. Where have you personally let the standard slide because it seemed easier not to address it?
4. Where in your team have you confused “kindness” with avoiding hard conversations?
5. If your culture is what you tolerate, what have you taught your team is acceptable?

✅ Three Actions to Take Today

1. Name one standard you’ve allowed to slip — and reset it clearly with your team this week.
2. Have one honest accountability conversation with someone who is capable of more and tell them that you believe in their potential.
3. Define what “doing your job” really means for your team in Q1 2026 — in simple, concrete terms.

🔗 Join the Conversation

👉 Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more leadership and high-performance insights.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadthreecoaching
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevjen

👉 Join our Community and connect with like-minded leaders focused on growth and execution.

• Website: https://deadthreecoaching.com
• Newsletter: https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter
• Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

Episode Overview

In this follow-up to Part 1, George goes deeper into what his Jerry Maguire moment really means for his life, his work with IT leaders, and for any executive who knows they’re capable of much more.

He unpacks the current reality he sees inside software and IT organizations—overwhelmed leaders, burnt-out teams, low standards, weak execution—and contrasts it with what’s actually possible when leaders raise their standards and draw a hard line in the sand.

This episode is both a personal declaration and a direct challenge:

• April 1st is George’s all-in date.
• You need your own version of that date too.

In This Episode, You’ll Hear George Talk About:

• The Current Leadership Reality in IT
  • Overwhelmed leaders and overwhelmed teams
  • Lack of clarity, poor communication, and fading accountability
  • Burnout, low recognition, and people quietly disengaging
  • Systems and processes that exist… but rarely execute at a high level
• Why “Good Enough” Isn’t Acceptable Anymore
  • The danger of cultures built on blame and low standards
  • The difference between “trying to win” and being committed to dominating your space
  • Why many organizations keep doing the same things and hope for different results
• Choosing an April 1st Moment
  • How George chose April 1st as his line in the sand to go all-in
  • Why you must pick a date where your leadership changes trajectory
  • The hard truth: your people currently receive the standard you tolerate
• A Practical Starting Point: A Team Playbook
  • Why leaders say “I know what to do, I just don’t do it consistently”
  • How a clear, simple team playbook can reset standards around:
    • Encouragement
    • Mindset
    • Ownership
    • Winning
    • Purpose
    • Empathy
    • Decision-making
  • Using structured principles to move from chaos to rhythm and execution
• Who George Wants to Work With in 2026
  • Six individual leaders who want full-contact coaching:
    • Daily accountability
    • Clear standards
    • High-performance habits
    • Leadership language and strategy
  • One to two teams or organizations ready to be coached every day on:
    • Culture
    • Communication
    • Execution
    • Leadership systems

Core Message for Leaders

• You are allowed to make a big decision.
• You are allowed to pick a date where things change.
• You are allowed to say, “My people deserve more from me—and I’m going to deliver it.”

Leadership at the next level comes down to three pillars:

1. Clarity – Know your mission, your why, your standards, and your date.
2. Discipline – Show up the same way, every day, aligned to that mission.
3. Accountability – To yourself, to your team, and to the commitments you’ve made.

Three Actions to Take This Week

1. Name Your Date.
   Pick your version of “April 1st.” A real date where your leadership, expectations, and standards change. Write it down and tell someone you trust.
2. Define Your Line in the Sand.
   Answer: What will no longer be acceptable on my team? Low standards? Blame? Lack of clarity? Capture 3 non-negotiables you will raise and enforce.
3. Start Your Playbook.
   Open a document and create 9 headings (encouragement, mindset, ownership, winning, purpose, execution, results, empathy, decision-making). Under each, write one behavior you expect from yourself and your team starting this week.

Join the Conversation:

👉 Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more leadership and high-performance insights.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadthreecoaching
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevjen

👉 Join Our Community and connect with like-minded leaders focused on growth and execution.

• Playbook: https://deadthreecoaching.com/playbook
• Website: https://deadthreecoaching.com
• Newsletter: https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter
• Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

In this episode, George pulls back the curtain on a defining decision in his life and business: going all-in on April 1st. He frames it as his Jerry Maguire moment—the point where clarity meets courage and “good enough” stops being acceptable.

You’ll hear why he’s done watching elite people walk the halls like “The Walking Dead,” why he believes IT organizations are drastically under-coached, and how he’s choosing to step out of the on-deck circle and finally take his at-bat.

This isn’t just about George’s journey. It’s a direct challenge to every leader:

• Are you leading at the level you’re capable of?
• Are your teams just “getting by” or actually competing and dominating?
• Are you building high-performing teams and high-performing lives?

In This Episode, We Cover:

• The Jerry Maguire Moment
  • What it means to draw a hard line in the sand as a leader.
  • Why George chose April 1st as the day he goes all-in on DeadThree Coaching and leadership work.
• From ‘Good Enough’ to Elite
  • The difference between “being okay” and truly pursuing greatness.
  • Why simply winning isn’t the objective—domination is.
  • How elite teams and organizations think about competing, standards, and outcomes.
• The IT Leadership Gap
  • Why so many IT teams operate like “The Walking Dead.”
  • The missing pieces: coaching, belief, communication, acknowledgment, and real standards.
  • Why George is targeting IT leaders and teams specifically in 2026.
• Clarity Meets Courage
  • How deliberate thought and action create clarity.
  • Where fear shows up when you decide to bet on yourself—and how to move anyway.
  • The tension between comfort, a steady paycheck, and the call to do more with your life and leadership.
• Getting Out of the On-Deck Circle
  • The “batter’s box” metaphor: why most leaders never actually take their swing.
  • What it looks like to stop deferring your opportunity and own the plate, even if you might strike out.
  • Why it’s more important to swing with courage than to sit safely on the sidelines.
• What DeadThree Will Stand For in 2026
  • Owning the mission, leading with purpose, and winning with discipline.
  • Building programs for leaders who want:
    • Structure instead of chaos
    • Confidence instead of second-guessing
    • Teams that compete, communicate, and execute at a championship level

Key Themes & Takeaways

• Care before product: Leaders must care more about their people than their products if they want sustainable high performance.
• Elite is exhausting—and worth it: The pursuit of greatness will drain you; that doesn’t mean it’s wrong, it means you’re in the right arena.
• No more walking dead: Engaged, empowered, and coached people are the difference between a compliant workforce and a high-performing culture.
• Clarity + Courage: You don’t drift into a bigger life—you decide it, declare it, and then act, even when you’re scared.

Three Actions to Take Today:

1. Set Your Own “Jerry Maguire Date.”
   Pick a clear date where something changes—how you lead, what you tolerate, what you commit to. Write it down and tell someone.
2. Audit Your Leadership Standard.
   Ask yourself honestly: Am I just managing tasks, or am I actually coaching people and building high-performing lives around me? Capture one behavior you will raise the standard on this week.
3. Get Out of the On-Deck Circle.
   Identify one big action you’ve been deferring—an idea, a conversation, a decision—and take the first concrete step toward it in the next 24 hours.

Join the Conversation:

👉 Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more leadership and high-performance insights.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadthreecoaching

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevjen

👉 Join Our Community and connect with like-minded leaders focused on growth and execution.

• Playbook: https://deadthreecoaching.com/playbook
• Website: https://deadthreecoaching.com
• Newsletter: https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter
• Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

Most leaders say they want to grow their people and build high-performing teams… but then keep doing everything themselves.

In this episode, George breaks down key ideas from Dan Martell’s book Buy Back Your Time and reframes them through a leadership lens. This isn’t about becoming a “busier” entrepreneur — it’s about becoming a stronger leader who builds people, systems, and cultures that can execute without you hovering over every task.

If you’re tired of spinning in the mud, exhausted from carrying the team on your back, and frustrated that your calendar doesn’t match your ambition, this conversation will give you a practical framework to change that.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why leadership without structure eventually leads to burnout
  How good intentions and hustle still fail when there’s no system behind them.
• The “Buy Back Loop” and how it applies to leadership
  Audit → Transfer → Fill: a simple process to reclaim your time and reinvest it in higher-value leadership work.
• How to delegate without losing control
  Why the goal isn’t perfection, but progress — and why someone doing the job at “80% of you” is actually a huge win.
• The difference between task takers, system builders, and empire builders
  Employee → Entrepreneur → Empire Builder: what it really means to build people who build systems that produce results.
• Why systems and playbooks are leadership tools, not bureaucracy
  Turning chaos into predictable performance through standards, disciplines, and team playbooks instead of ad-hoc heroics.
• How to plan your “perfect week” around energy, not just time
  Structuring your calendar so you coach, connect, and pour into people when you’re at your best — not when your tank is empty.
• Transactional management vs. transformational leadership
  Moving from “take a ticket, do the task” to “own the mission, define the how, and grow through feedback.”

Key Takeaways for Leaders & Executives

• If you don’t systemize success, you personalize every struggle.
  Without clear playbooks and standards, every issue lands back on your desk.
• Delegation is not about dumping tasks — it’s about building trust and ownership.
  The real question is: Who can I empower to run with this and grow from it?
• Your calendar exposes your true priorities.
  If you say people are your greatest asset but spend no meaningful time developing them, the gap will show up in performance and morale.
• Sustainable leadership is built on clarity and trust.
  People need to know what success looks like, how their role connects to it, and that they are trusted to execute.
• Freedom for a leader isn’t doing less work — it’s doing the right work.
  Your highest-value contribution is building people who can build systems that consistently produce results.
• You can’t pour into your team if your tank is empty.
  Planning your week around your energy allows you to show up present, engaged, and ready to coach instead of simply surviving meetings.

If this episode hits home, share it with another leader, manager, or business owner who’s carrying too much and needs a better way to build their team.

Join the Conversation:

👉 Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more leadership and high-performance insights.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadthreecoaching

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevjen

👉 Join Our Community and connect with like-minded leaders focused on growth and execution.

• Website: https://deadthreecoaching.com

• Newsletter: https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter

• Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

What happens when you try to lead, build, sell, strategize, and “just handle it” all by yourself? In this episode, I break down how Dan Martell’s book Buy Back Your Time quietly doubles as one of the most important leadership books you can read—especially if you’re a leader who’s stuck in the loop of doing instead of leading.

I unpack why leadership without structure always ends in burnout, why so many leaders keep saying, “I’ll just do it myself,” and how that mindset caps not only their impact, but their team’s potential. Using real stories—from a successful landscaping owner in St. Louis to a bowling alley/restaurant owner who actually empowers his right-hand leader to “shop for the groceries”—we explore what real delegation, ownership, and trust look like in the real world.

This conversation is not about sitting on a beach with passive income. It’s about the freedom to do the work that brings the most value, drives the biggest impact, and lights you up—and building systems and people around you so your entire organization can win. We’ll walk through Martell’s Buy Back Loop (Audit → Transfer → Fill) and translate it into practical leadership moves you can use, even if you’re not an entrepreneur.

If you’re serious about owning the mission, leading with purpose, and winning with discipline, this episode will challenge how you’re spending your time, where your energy is going, and how you’re either multiplying or limiting the performance of your team.

Key Takeaways

• Leadership without structure = burnout on a delay.
  You can’t keep saying you want to lead better, grow people, and improve performance while structuring your week so you do everything yourself. That’s not leadership; that’s unsustainable execution.
• This book is a leadership manual in disguise.
  Buy Back Your Time may be written for entrepreneurs, but at its core, it’s about empowering people, building systems, and creating ownership so your organization can scale beyond your personal capacity.
• Freedom for leaders isn’t about doing less work—it’s about doing the right work.
  Real freedom is being able to spend your time where you bring the highest value, highest revenue, and highest energy—and building a team that can own the rest.
• Delegation is a trust decision, not just a task decision.
  When the restaurant owner lets his key leader choose the equipment, he’s not just buying fryers—he’s buying engagement, ownership, and long-term commitment.
• Your calendar is the truth serum of your leadership.
  If your two-week audit shows zero time spent developing people, connecting, coaching, or reinforcing standards, your stated goal of “building elite teams” is a story, not a strategy.
• Great leaders manage energy and emotion, not just productivity.
  As Martell writes, the real game isn’t just output. It’s where energy flows—yours and your team’s. If your energy is scattered and drained, your leadership will show it.
• The Buy Back Loop (Audit → Transfer → Fill) is a leadership system, not just a business hack.
  Audit your time honestly, transfer the right work to the right people, and then fill your calendar with high-value, high-impact activities that move your people and your mission forward.

Three Actions to Take Today

1. Run a 7–14 Day Time Audit
   • Set an alarm every 15–30 minutes for the next week.
   • Each time it goes off, quickly log what you did in that block.
   • At the end, color-code:
     • Green: High-value, energizing, people-building, strategic work
     • Yellow: Necessary but neutral work
     • Red: Low-value, draining, or misaligned work
   • Be brutally honest about whether your calendar matches your leadership goals.
2. Identify One Delegate-Ready Area and Transfer It
   • Look at your “red” tasks and ask: What am I doing that someone else could own at 8/10 quality or better with a little coaching?
   • Pick one area (scheduling, reports, follow-up, logistics, etc.).
   • Clearly define the outcome, guardrails, and budget—then hand it off.
   • Treat it as a leadership rep in trust, not just a workload shift.
3. Design One “Ownership Moment” for a Key Team Member
   • Choose one high-potential person on your team.
   • Give them a decision that actually matters (not just a task): vendor choice, process improvement, event design, client touchpoint, etc.
   • Communicate clearly: “This is yours. I trust your judgment. I’m here if you need a sounding board.”
   • Debrief afterward: What did they learn? What did you learn about your leadership?

Join the Conversation

👉 Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more leadership and high-performance insights.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadthreecoaching

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevjen

👉 Join Our Community and connect with like-minded leaders focused on growth and execution.

• Website: https://deadthreecoaching.com

• Newsletter: https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter

• Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

If this episode hits home, share it with one leader who’s still trying to do everything themselves. That’s how we grow the mission.

Great leaders don’t bark orders — they build alignment.

In this episode of the DeadThree Coaching Show, George breaks down how elite organizations like the Ritz-Carlton build cultures of empowerment, trust, and execution — not by demanding obedience, but by creating clarity so strong that permission isn’t needed.

Drawing lessons from Brian Gottlieb’s book Beyond the Hammer and real-world leadership models from sports and business, this episode explores how alignment, daily rhythms, and purpose-driven communication create unstoppable teams.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Why barking orders destroys ownership — and how to replace control with clarity.
• How the Ritz-Carlton empowers every employee with $2,000 of trust to solve guest problems — no permission required.
• The difference between alignment and obedience, and how great teams know what “right” looks like without asking.
• Why most organizations fail not from bad strategy but from poor execution.
• The real power of a daily leadership huddle — the three questions that align your people every single morning.
• What Nick Saban’s practice planning sessions can teach you about discipline, clarity, and zero wasted time.
• How to shift your culture from chasing urgency to chasing meaning.
• Why your people join because of culture — but stay because of how they’re led.

Three Actions to Take This Week:

1. Replace Permission with Clarity — Make sure everyone knows the standards, the mission, and what “right” looks like.
2. Run a Daily Huddle — Ask: What are we working on today? What challenges do we have? What do we need to think about next?
3. Coach, Don’t Control — Inspire and align your team toward purpose; don’t manipulate through pressure.

Key Takeaways:

“That’s what great leadership does — it replaces permission with clarity.”

“Alignment turns good intentions into great execution.”

“Stop pushing people. Start pulling them forward.”

Episode Summary:

This episode challenges the old-school view of leadership as command and control.
True alignment doesn’t come from top-down pressure — it comes from trust, purpose, and clarity.

George unpacks how the best leaders remove confusion by teaching, coaching, and empowering their people to act. Whether you’re leading a corporate team, a startup, or a basketball program, alignment isn’t a quarterly event — it’s a daily discipline.

When everyone knows the mission, understands their role, and feels empowered to execute — that’s when culture becomes unstoppable.

Ready to build a culture of clarity and purpose?
Join our growing community of leaders and professionals who are transforming how they lead and build elite teams. Gain access to exclusive resources, actionable insights, and real conversations that drive growth.

Connect with Us

• Join the community: ongoing conversations, tools, and accountability.
  • https://community.deadthreecoaching.com
• Grab the DeadThree Quarterly Planner to structure your standards, reps, and weekly recovery.
  • https://deadthreecoaching.com/planner
• Visit our Website.
  • https://deadthreecoaching.com

What makes teams elite isn’t talent — it’s alignment.

In this episode of the DeadThree Coaching Show, George breaks down one of the most misunderstood truths in leadership:
Teams rarely fail because they’re lazy. They fail because they’re misaligned.

Drawing lessons from Brian Gottlieb’s Beyond the Hammer, George explores how belief, purpose, and alignment form the foundation for execution — and how leaders can shift from controlling outcomes to influencing people.

You’ll hear why alignment and purpose are the glue that hold execution together, why meaning beats motion every time, and why great leaders spend more time coaching humans than managing tasks.

Inside This Episode

• The story of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska album — and the power of belief behind closed doors.
• Why alignment and purpose are the glue that hold execution together.
• The real reason people burn out: not hard work, but meaningless work.
• Why most teams fail from misalignment, not laziness.
• The distinction between influence and control — and why great leaders master both.
• The “levers of leadership” (motivation, inspiration, innovation) vs. the “levers of management” (planning, organizing, staffing).
• Why alignment isn’t micromanagement — it’s clarity in motion.

Three Actions to Take This Week

1. Run the Alignment Audit:
   Ask your team: What are we chasing? Why does it matter? How does your role connect to it?
2. Coach, Don’t Command:
   Replace one status meeting with a 1:1 conversation about growth, purpose, and belief.
3. Sharpen Both Levers:
   Balance your week between influence (motivate, inspire, innovate) and control (plan, organize, staff).

Key Takeaways

“Teams don’t fail because they’re lazy. They fail because they’re misaligned.”

“Alignment isn’t control — it’s clarity in motion.”

“Leaders coach people. Managers manage tasks. Elite teams need both.”

Why It Matters

If your people don’t know why they’re working, the what won’t matter.
Alignment fuels clarity. Clarity drives execution. And execution builds belief.

When you lead with purpose, influence replaces pressure — and culture replaces chaos.

Ready to build an aligned, purpose-driven culture?
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