On April 22, 2023 a new era officially began in Folsom, Colorado. At the spring football game for the University of Colorado, a sellout crowd of a little over 47,000 fans attended the intrasquad scrimmage of one of the nation’s worst teams in 2022. The year prior, around 2,000 fans attended the spring game in. In the fall, the Buffaloes of Colorado would finish 1-11, tied for the worst record in all of college football.
How does a team go from 1-11 with 2,000 fans at a spring scrimmage to a sellout crowd of over 47,000 fans (Top 10 spring game attendance in the country) in just a few short months? The only reason is presence. Particularly the presence of one man.
Deion Sanders
Sports fans have known “Primetime” for a long time. The former football and baseball star. Two sport athlete at the highest level of competition. The only athlete to ever hit a homerun and score a touchdown in the same week. Deion Sanders is widely regarded as one of the best cornerbacks in the history of football. Six times he was named as an All-Pro cornerback. He was the defensive player of the year in 1994 and helped lead the Dallas Cowboys to a Super Bowl title in 1995 (his second Super Bowl championship of his career.) This was all while he balanced playing another professional sport and splitting time as a wide receiver as well.
There was no player like Primetime. Hall of Fame inductee in the National Football League. Boisterous personality. A presence and spirit that rarely left fans in the middle undecided about who he was and what he was about. For some his personality was captivating. For others he was too “showy.” He was accused of being selfish, all about himself and only concerned with his interests. Others regarded him as a life changing agent. Encouraging, inspiring, and transformational. From athletes, celebrities, hip-hop artists, many point back to Deion Sanders as an influential figure in their lives who inspired them to dream more, be more, and do more.
After his playing career, Deion went straight into coaching. First coaching his sons teams in youth football and following all the way up into the college ranks. He became the head coach at Jackson State University and uplifted the program with the desire to enhance the experience of all Historically Black Colleges & Universities in the southeast. The school, and the entire Southwest Athletic Conference felt his presence.
Jackson State, an HBCU and Division 1-AA school in Jackson, Mississippi was thrusted into the national spotlight with Deion at the helm. In their first two games over 200,000 fans streamed the game online. As the buzz grew, eventually their games were broadcasted on linear television through ESPN. In the fall of 2021, they set attendance records at Jackson State averaging over 42,000 fans a game. In the spring of 2022, Coach Prime put together the first HBCU NFL scout combine with 22 organizations present to see emerging talent in an under scouted conference and level.
Everywhere he goes his presence is felt.
So from a leadership perspective, what is going on with the presence of Deion Sanders?
At STC, in our On Purpose Leadership Framework we talk about the two things a leader must have for authentic success.
A strong sense of self.
A strong sense of purpose.
With Deion Sanders we see an incredible example of these two forces at play. He gives a vision of what is possible when a leader fully leans in to developing their sense of self in the context of their sense of purpose.
I know of no thriving leader who lacks a strong sense of self. It’s not about being self-centered, or self-promotional. It is knowing who you are. It’s a prerequisite for transformational leadership to know who you are, what you believe, and how your unique personality and gifting will position you to lead as a change agent.
I know of no thriving leader who lacks a strong sense of purpose. Purpose is at the core of leadership. What am I here for? What do I feel led to inspire? What vision for the future am I chasing? All essential questions for the leader who has a strong sense of purpose.
The unfortunate reality is many have these things written down in notebooks at home. They’ve done some deep reflection and found some clarity at some point along the way. But as they move from theory to practice, from the training gym to the arena, they lose sight of who they are and what they’re here to do. These qualities become “hard to find” when looking at the life of many leaders.
That is what makes Deion Sanders so interesting from a leadership standpoint. His mantra: “I Ain’t Hard to Find.” In the middle of the fray he isn’t wavering. He’s speaking dreams and visions at Colorado that the collective country is laughing at. He’s entering the environment with such a strong sense of presence that it is off putting to some and downright offensive to others.
Wherever you stand on Deion Sanders, from a leadership perspective it is mesmerizing to witness an individual walk through life with such a strong sense of self and strong sense of purpose.
It takes courage to live with a strong sense of self and a strong sense of purpose.
Courage is a skill. It’s not something you are born with. It’s not something some naturally have and others don’t. It’s carefully crafted and it’s essential for leadership. But like many things, courage can drift. We can go from being convicted to being confused. We can go from confidence to doubt. We can go from faith to disbelief. Courage drifts.
From a distance, we don’t get the sense that Deion Sanders experiences courage drift often. He’s living on purpose in a way that has allowed that area of the human experience to flourish. Here’s some indicators your courage may be drifting and how Deion seems to be exemplifying an entirely different mindset.
For the Drifter:
When courage drifts we become highly interested in the opinions and the approval of others. We become fixated on outside approval, confirmation, and affirmation.
For Deion:
“I don’t get moved by the claps of people. They don’t get me up, they don’t get me down. I’ve always been me.”
If you find yourself needing approval from someone on your team, or above you. If you find yourself in hypothetical arguments playing out in your own mind while you drive home from work, or while you put the kids to bed. These are signs you’re drifting. You’re allowing yourself to bend to the ever changing opinions and approval of others. You need them to sign off on what you’re doing. How you’re leading. How you’re living. It’s one thing to welcome objective feedback for growth. It’s an entirely different thing to NEED others' approval. Wanting feedback is a tactical strategy. Wanting approval is a core confidence thing.
The approval of “the crowd” causes more courage drift than anything. Deion has found a way to detach from the approval of people. If you feel consumed with the opinions of others it may be time to anchor down and develop the courage to march to your own drum in light of your purpose. Log off social media if you have to. Have some uncomfortable conversations if you need to. Release people from having that kind of authority over your life.
You will not be a purposeful leader if you are highly concerned with the claps or criticism from other people.
For the Drifter:
When courage drifts we become fearful of failure. We don’t take risks. We become paralyzed by the idea of failing.
For Deion:
“I never think about failure. My winning is not based on games.”
In the On Purpose Leadership Framework, the first place we begin with a leader is to define authentic success. The reason why is, if you don’t define success for yourself you will be told what success is supposed to be to you. In time, we begin to drift to someone else’s definition of success and this incongruence has a way of enlarging the effect of failure in our mind. What you deem a failure has a powerful way of orienting your life. We see that Deion has defined his purpose to develop kids, especially kids from difficult backgrounds. He has defined his scorecard. He has determined his win.
If you have determined your own definition of success and yet are still struggling with a fear of failure, it’s likely that your courage is drifting. It may not mean you need to go back to the drawing board, it may mean you need to anchor down and lean back into your own values without expecting others to understand.
The real failure is to live with drifting courage for an extended period of your precious life.
For the Drifter:
When courage drifts our minds become fixated on the past. Past mistakes, past missteps and past wounds.
For Deion:
“I never look back. Everything God gave us looks forward. Our eyes, our feet, our whole body is designed to look forward. I’m a progressive person.”
If you’ve been kicked in the teeth by personal and professional life experiences, you know what it is like to avoid pain in the present. If you tore your ACL on a sharp cut in basketball, the next time (or few times) you go to make that same cut even after you’ve recovered you will have a hard time planting off that leg with conviction. The same happens to us in other areas of life. A failure here or there. A past disappointment. Someone betrayed you. You didn’t get the job. You got the job but then got fired a few years later. There is real pain that can interfere with our ability to feel confident again.
That’s when courage is needed the most. You can’t be brave if you’re not scared. Courage is valuable because it is activated when things are painful. You need the courage to forget the past and move on. Deion gives us a glimpse of what it takes to live with courage. Look forward. Progress is forward.
Accept the past - but look forward.
For the Drifter:
When courage drifts we still dream, but deep down we believe dreams are too far off, can’t be felt. We fail to take real action so dreams rot away in our minds instead of reality.
For Deion:
“I don’t dream when I sleep. I dream when I’m wide awake. My dreams, I can touch them. I can visualize it and it’s happening.”
What good is a dream if we’re never going to pursue it? Are dreams just for kids?
“I want to be an astronaut when I grow up.” Type thing.
For so many people this is their experience. Love the idea of a dream, but not really expecting to get serious about it.
This is why courage drift is such a problem. To pursue any kind of dream it takes courage. It takes belief that things can change. That things don’t have to stay the way they are. There’s nothing more spiritual than a dream. The invitation to change the status quo.
There’s nothing like a great conversation where someone uncovers what they are truly dreaming about. Most are living quiet lives with daydreams to do transformational things. We get excited and inspired about possibilities and then we hit a little bit of turbulence and courage starts to drift. Eventually if not careful it drifts all the way off and with the courage gone so too the dream follows.
Deion possesses a life perspective that is inspiring. Dreams aren’t just reserved for sleep. He’s living the dream while pursuing the dream. And in doing so, he is making real change while the world watches him and criticizes him. And it could fail in Colorado. No guarantee of anything. But that is the dream, doing transformational work instead of just daydreaming about transformational work.
If your dreams are collecting dust it might by time to anchor down and revisit how these can become a reality. It may be what is stopping them from reality isn’t your perceived limitations or lack of opportunities “I never get picked for these types of things.” What may be stopping you is your lack of courage.
For some reading these quotes from different press conferences and interviews from Deion Sanders makes them roll their eyes. For the cynic or sarcastic person these excerpts are laughable. Social media fodder. Quick fixes. How can anyone truly live like that? “They just love to hear their own voice.”
The truth is, they are pieces of evidence of how a person with a strong sense of self and a strong sense of purpose thinks and lives.
Every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your thoughts. Possessing courage as a skill requires a strong commitment to a certain type of language and thoughts. An outward expression of an inward belief.
The inward belief for Deion Sanders comes out in the presence he possesses. From Jackson, Mississippi to Folsom, Colorado this presence has been felt.
His presence is not just the cowboy hat and appearance, it’s an underlying courage. A courage to authentically be who he is and to authentically pursue his purpose to serve college kids, and the transformation of programs.
A coward lives perpetually confused. They choose a state of fear, they choose uncertainty, and they choose to compromise who they really are to fit in.
A leader is certain. They choose to live by conviction. They choose to be definitive in who they are and how they show up. They choose to authentically be themselves in every environment.
Presence is the ultimate form of influence. A leader who has presence has trust in themselves, their capabilities, and their vision for the future. When a leader lacks a strong presence it becomes hard to find out who they are, what they believe in, where they want to go.
Is the real you hard to find?
A lack of presence means we are hiding portions of ourselves. For a variety of reasons: We don’t want to fail. We don’t want to be rejected. We don’t want to put ourselves out there and fall short. A lack of presence means a lack of courage.
Presence builds courage. And courage builds presence.
It ain’t hard to find.
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