Quarterbacks need to make their team better. If it's a bad team, they can even make a bad team better.
Interpretation
Quarterbacks have the responsibility to uplift and improve their teams, regardless of the team's initial capability.
In this quote, Fran Tarkenton highlights the critical role of a quarterback not just as a player, but as a leader who has the ability to elevate the performance of the whole team. Even if the team is struggling or lacks talent, a skilled and dedicated quarterback can drive improvements and inspire their teammates to perform better, indicating that leadership and influence can be more powerful than inherent ability.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a sports coaching seminar to emphasize the importance of leadership.
You want people who choose to follow because they genuinely believe in ideas, not because they're afraid to be punished if they don't. For startups, there's so much pivoting that's required that if you have a bunch of sheep, you're in bad shape.
Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team.
An effective leader develops the ability to correctly identify the pertinent detail or details - incidentals in a market, industry or sport that might create an incremental advantage.
And if you want partnerships that focus on hard problems and real solutions, then pick a Black woman. Because that's what we do every single day and in every single way.
The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.
You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership.
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