The DeadThree Coaching Show: Leadership and Team Development

In this episode of the DeadThree Coaching Show, we dig into the foundation of every elite team: trust that makes truth-telling safe. If someone on your team spots a problem, do they feel safe to say it out loud—or do they go quiet and hope it goes away? Using insights from Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage, Seth Godin’s Tribes, and real-world leadership examples (including UConn’s Dan Hurley), we unpack why silence is costly and how leaders create environments where people can speak freely, fail safely, and still feel valued.

👉 What you’ll learn

• Healthy vs. Smart Organizations: Why strategy/finance/tech don’t matter if morale is low and politics/confusion are high—and how organizational health starts with trust.
• The Two Kinds of Trust: Reliability (“I’ll deliver Friday at noon”) and psychological safety (“I can ask the hard question without fear”). You need both.
• The Cost of Silence: How unspoken problems bury mistakes, kill innovation, and drain engagement—while the conversation moves to side channels (DMs, hallways, spouses).
• Culture = What You Tolerate: Late arrivals, gossip, disrespect, weak meetings—each one signals what’s really allowed.
• Normalize Productive Conflict: Why intense, purposeful meetings (à la Hurley) surface truth, speed clarity, and accelerate execution.
• Change Feels Dangerous: How human nature resists disruption—and the rituals/language leaders use to make change safe and expected.

⏱ Timestamps

• 00:00 – The test of your culture: will people tell the truth?
• 02:00 – Lencioni’s model: trust → conflict → commitment → accountability → results
• 05:45 – The two kinds of trust and why safety matters
• 08:30 – The real cost of silence (and where the truth goes when it’s not said in the room)
• 12:10 – “Culture is what you tolerate”: practical examples
• 15:10 – Making meetings intense and safe (Hurley example)
• 18:30 – Why change feels dangerous (from Tribes) and what to do about it
• 22:00 – Leadership consistency, accountability, and protecting trust
• 24:30 – Three moves to build truth-safe teams this week

💬 Pull quotes

• “If your people aren’t telling you the truth in the room, they’re already telling someone else.”
• “Your culture isn’t what’s on the poster—it’s what you tolerate.”
• “Make it safe to speak freely, fail safely, and believe deeply that what I say matters.”

🔧 Try this this week (Action Items)

1. Run a Truth Audit: Ask the team, “What’s one thing we’re not saying out loud that we need to?” Capture it. Discuss it. Decide next steps.
2. Identify Your Tolerances: List 2–3 behaviors you’ve been letting slide (lateness, gossip, unclear ownership). Keep or kill—then communicate the standard.
3. Celebrate Honest Mistakes: When someone raises a hard truth or owns an error, acknowledge it publicly and positively. Turn it into a learning moment.

📚 Referenced ideas

• The Advantage (Patrick Lencioni): Organizational health > organizational “smarts.”
• Tribes (Seth Godin): Culture naturally resists change—leaders must make change safe.
• UConn MBB / Dan Hurley: Intense meetings, high standards, high trust.

👥 Who this is for
Leaders, managers, coaches, founders, and team leads who want fewer politics, more clarity, higher morale, and faster execution.

🔗 Resources & Next Steps

• Join the DeadThree Community https://community.deadthreecoaching.com
• Work with us on standards, discipline, and execution https://deadthreecoaching.com

Because when honesty is safe, trust rises—and when trust rises, results follow.

In this episode of the DeadThree Coaching Show, we break down one of the most overlooked tools in leadership: the words you choose.

Liz Wiseman reminds us in Multipliers: “Leaders must change the conversation. New words create new worlds.” The language you use every day either multiplies your people — building clarity, trust, and ownership — or it diminishes them, leaving confusion, low morale, and stalled progress.

From locker rooms to boardrooms, your words set the tone. Whether it’s the difference between “work for me” and “work with me,” or swapping “we can’t” for “here’s how we will,” leaders who are intentional with their language create cultures where belief and performance thrive.

👉 Inside this episode:

• Why your words are never neutral — they either shrink your team or expand it.
• How simple language shifts create ownership, trust, and momentum.
• Why organizational health depends less on strategy decks and more on daily conversations.
• The power of names and acknowledgement to lift engagement in any room.
• How consistent, disciplined language ties directly to execution in the SDC Playbook.

We’ll close with three action items you can use this week to audit your words, reframe your language, and build trust through intentional communication.

Because here’s the truth: your words don’t just describe your world — they create it.

In this episode of the DeadThree Coaching Show, we break down one of the most overlooked truths in leadership: energy isn’t about personality — it’s about responsibility.

Your people don’t just hear your words, they catch your energy. If you walk into the room burned out, disengaged, or negative, your team will mirror it. If you show up consistent, intentional, and energized — you fuel trust, clarity, and execution.

Drawing inspiration from Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Habits and the DeadThree Playbook, we explore why energy management is just as important as time management for leaders — and how discipline fuels consistent energy that drives results.

👉 Inside this episode:

• Why energy is contagious — and how it shapes culture more than any speech.
• The difference between random energy vs. intentional energy and why one builds trust while the other destroys it.
• How self-awareness and recharge habits protect your ability to lead with energy every day.
• The Sunday Night Test: what your team feels at 5 p.m. Sunday predicts your culture more than any value statement.

We’ll close with three action items you can take this week to bring more energy to your team, protect your own recharge, and lead at a higher level.

Because make no mistake: your team is catching something from you. The only question is — what do you want them to catch?

Here’s the hard truth: most companies say they have values, but few actually live them. And when values are fake, forced, or just written on a wall without being lived out — people notice. The result? Broken trust, toxic culture, and teams who disengage or walk away.

In this episode, we tackle the values problem — why empty values destroy culture, how they erode trust, and what it looks like when leaders actually embody the values they preach.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why “values on paper” mean nothing without consistent action.
• The hidden cost of fake culture — and how it drives your best people away.
• How authentic values fuel trust, alignment, and engagement.
• The role of leaders in living out values daily (not just talking about them).
• Practical steps to make your values real inside your team or organization.

Three Actions to Take Today:

1. Audit Your Values – Look at your company values and ask: where are we living these, and where are we falling short?
2. Start Small, Live Big – Pick one value and model it consistently for your team this week. Real culture is built in action, not announcements.
3. Call Out the Wins – Recognize and celebrate when people demonstrate the values in real ways. What you celebrate, people will replicate.

Values aren’t just words. They’re a daily choice — and if leaders don’t live them, no one else will.

Without crystal-clear shared goals, your team’s effort is scattered. And without clear roles, even the right goal becomes a mess to execute.

In this episode of the DeadThree Coaching Show, George breaks down why the most effective leaders protect two things at all costs:

1. The team’s north star goal everyone is chasing.
2. The clarity each person has in their role to achieve it.

You’ll learn why “chaos dressed up as ambition” kills momentum, how sports teams illustrate the power of role clarity, and the leadership mindset required to keep your team aligned, accountable, and engaged.

Three Actions to Take Today:

1. Write down your team’s #1 goal for this quarter and make it visible to everyone.
2. Clarify in one sentence what each person owns in achieving that goal.
3. Schedule a 15-minute alignment meeting to ensure everyone’s on the same page.

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 this episode, George shares a powerful lesson from Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage:

Through stories from his coaching days and lessons from legends like Kobe Bryant, George explains how clarity demands prioritization—both on the court and in the boardroom. When leaders dilute priorities, teams scatter their energy and achieve little of significance. But when you sharpen focus, confidence and results skyrocket.

You’ll also hear about Dead3 Coaching’s ongoing 100–1–10 challenge:
✅ Serve 100 companies
✅ Empower 1,000 leaders
✅ Inspire 10,000 listeners

Listen in for practical actions you can take right now to narrow your team’s focus and amplify your impact.

Three actions to take today:

• Identify one priority that will have the greatest impact on your organization this quarter.
• Communicate that priority everywhere—meetings, emails, sticky notes, walls.
• Say no to anything that pulls focus away from that priority.

Questions to consider:

• What would happen if your team focused on just one essential priority?
• Where are you spread too thin?
• What bold decision have you been avoiding because you’re trying to do it all?

👉 Join the Dead3 Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

Stop Being the Answer Machine: Build Teams That Think

Quote:
"An answer solves today’s problem, but a principle solves tomorrow’s. Teach your team how to think, not just what to do." – Dan Martell 

In this milestone episode of The Dead3 Coaching Show, we take you inside a leadership shift that can transform your team and free up your time.

The Core Message:
An answer fixes today’s problem. A principle builds tomorrow’s leaders.
Stop being the “answer machine” for every issue your team faces. Instead, install principles and systems that empower your people to solve problems, make decisions, and own the results.

We unpack Dan Martell’s 1‑3‑1 Principle:
1 Problem, 3 Solutions, 1 Recommendation.
 
When you teach this approach, you build a culture of ownership, not dependency.

We also share:

• Why encouragement is the first step in building empowered teams.
• How to breathe belief into your people so they act with confidence.
• A story from legendary basketball coach Rick Majerus about creating buy‑in.

Key Takeaway:
Your job isn’t to hold your team’s thinking. Your job is to develop their thinking. Build principles into your playbook and anchor every decision in encouragement and belief.

Three Actions to Take Today:

1. Start using the 1‑3‑1 principle. Ask your team to bring a problem, three solutions, and one recommendation.
2. Audit your leadership style. Are you solving too many problems instead of teaching principles?
3. Anchor solutions with encouragement. When someone brings you a solution, speak belief into them and celebrate their win.

Three Questions to Reflect On:

1. Are you unintentionally training your team to bring only problems?
2. What principles or playbooks could you create to teach them how to think?
3. How can you speak more belief into your team after they recommend a solution?

👉 Join the Conversation:
Follow George and DeadThree Coaching for more leadership insights:

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

👉 Join Our Community:
https://community.deadthreecoaching.com/

Most people think their goals are far away. That success, impact, or the life they really want is years down the road—after more experience, more resources, more perfection. But what if that’s just a perception problem?

In this episode of the Dead Three Coaching Show, George Evjen challenges the idea that you're "not ready yet" and shares stories—from Ja Morant to Gary Vee to his own coaching journey—that prove how one decision, one action, or one conversation can change everything.

If you've been playing small or waiting for the "perfect time," this is your sign. You're not behind. You're not broken. You're closer than you think.

Key Topics Covered:

• Why the biggest obstacle between you and your dreams isn’t distance—it’s perception
• Ed Mylett's message on personal worth and the "thermostat effect"
• The hidden power of one small decision or act of courage
• Stories of Ja Morant, Gary Vee, and George’s own path to becoming a college basketball coach
• The Dead Three Coaching approach: Paint reality, build a compelling vision, and take daily action

Three Questions to Ask Yourself:

• What dream have I been keeping at arm’s length because it feels too far away?
• What’s one decision I could make today that would close that gap?
• Have I been misjudging the distance—when really, it’s just my mindset?

Three Actions to Take Today:

• Write down one dream you’ve been holding back on—get specific and bold about it.
• Identify just one action you could take today to move that dream forward. A text, a phone call, an email, or a conversation.
• Do it today. Not when it’s perfect. Not next week. Do it now—swing the hammer.

 Quote of the Episode:
“You're much closer to your dreams or your vision for your life than you think you are.” — Ed Mylett

🔗 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 this episode, George Evjen shares what happens after the team buys in—when the hype is high, belief is strong, but the results still haven’t shown up.

Whether you’re coaching athletes, leading software teams, or trying to change yourself, the challenge isn’t buy-in. It’s habit change. It’s discipline. It’s doing the work when motivation fades.

George unpacks:

• The illusion of buy-in vs. real execution
• The Can / Can’t / Won’t framework for leadership decision-making
• Why you must coach even the most committed team
• The power of letting people touch the dream
• What Ed Mylett taught him about reaching your goals
• Why tolerating small slips becomes your culture
• And the blunt truth: You don’t need motivation—you need discipline.

This is the episode for leaders who want to build real culture, real habits, and real results.

🔁 Referenced in this Episode:

• Dan Martell’s approach to building aligned teams
• Ed Mylett’s “touch the dream” philosophy
• The importance of consistent standards in youth sports and business
• DeadThree’s mission to coach teams toward greatness

🙋‍♂️ Work With George / DeadThree Coaching:

We’re working with 1:1 clients, teams, and organizations across industries to build elite culture, discipline, and execution.

🔗 https://deadthreecoaching.com

👥 Join Our Community:

Grow with like-minded leaders:
 https://community.deadthreecoaching.com

✉️ Sign Up for the Newsletter:

Weekly insights to help you lead and execute better:
 https://deadthreecoaching.com/newsletter

🔗 Follow & Connect:

• Instagram: @deadthreecoaching
• LinkedIn: George Evjen

“We fail the minute we let someone else define success for us.” — Brené Brown

In this episode of the Dead Three Coaching Show, George breaks down one of the most powerful (and often overlooked) truths in leadership and life: Success isn’t universal. It’s personal.

From early morning routines with his family to lessons from coaching small-college basketball against powerhouse D1 programs, George shares raw insights on why we feel stuck—even when we’re doing all the “right” things.

What if you’re not failing?
What if you’re just chasing a scoreboard that was never yours to begin with?

This episode is for anyone who feels like they’ve been performing for the crowd but not showing up for themselves. It’s for the leader who’s ready to own their vision. And it’s for the human who’s ready to take the pen back and write a version of success that actually feels like freedom.

🔑 What You’ll Learn:
Why chasing other people’s definitions of success leaves you unfulfilled
The hidden emotional cost of borrowed scoreboards
A personal story from George’s coaching days that redefines what “winning” really means
How to stop seeking validation and start leading with alignment
Practical steps to reclaim your own definition of success

✍️ Three Questions to Reflect On:
If no one else could see your life, what would success look like to you?
What version of success are you chasing that doesn’t feel like yours?
Where are you still seeking validation instead of alignment?

✅ Three Actions to Take Today:
Define It — Write your definition of success in one honest sentence.
Audit It — Review your calendar and ask: Whose dream am I serving?
Protect It — Say no to one thing that looks good but feels misaligned.

Links + Resources
📝 Grab the Dead Three Performance Planner: https://deadthreecoaching.com/planner
🔥 Join the Community: https://community.deadthreecoaching.com
🌐 Explore Coaching & Courses: https://deadthreecoaching.com

Let’s Connect
Instagram: @deadthreecoaching
LinkedIn: George Evjen
Podcast: Dead Three Coaching Show (available on all platforms)