On January 10, 2024 a 72 year old, Pete Carroll strode to the podium at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, Washington. Wearing the same common coaching clothes he often wore around the team facility, Coach Carroll sported the typical dri-fit “coaching hoodie” he likely had in the closet for years. A very different wardrobe selection from the first time he strode to the same podium at the same Virginia Mason Athletic Center facility when he was officially announced as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks on January 12, 2010.
In 2010, Pete Carroll, wearing an expensive suit and tie stepped to the podium, placed a Seahawks helmet to the side and began to cast his vision for what football would look like for the Seattle Seahawks of the future as he assumed the role of Executive Vice President and Head Coach.
Introductory press conferences have a very different feel than an exit press conference. In a league that absorbs, chews up, and spits out head coaches at a faster rate than all other industries, the average tenure for an NFL head coach is just three years. An introductory press conference is full of hope, optimism, and promises. Promises that the team will play like never before, will be tougher than ever before, and will represent “this fine community” like never before. Introductory press conferences all sound the same. It’s the experience of watching someone say what they are going to do. It’s so easy to say what you’re going to do in leadership.
When an NFL team fires a coach, they usually aren’t given a podium to announce anything at all. It’s more of a “get your stuff and get out.” Quietly they pack their office and sneak out the backdoor embarrassingly stumbling into the next phase of their life while the team searches for their next leader who will regain optimism and hope at their introductory press conference.
We can’t really learn a lot from introductions, but when it comes to decades of coaching, leadership and the pursuit of mastery, we can learn more from a farewell. A farewell address doesn’t concentrate on the possibilities of what is going to happen, it’s a reflection of what did happen.
14 years after stepping to the podium in 2010, Pete Carroll is given a unique opportunity to speak in the middle of an NFL coaching transition. This rarely happens, as a sitting NFL head coach transitions away, they get to publicly address the media on behalf of themself & their organization who will soon become their former employer. Getting settled at the podium, his eyes scan the room, packed full of reporters, and members of the local, regional, and national sports media scene.
“Okay..appreciate everybody showing up.. Since our last game, I had a couple chances to talk..we have mutually agreed to set a new course, and for the team to take on new leadership…What’s going to happen now is the team is going to search for new leadership.”
34 minutes later, Pete Caroll grabs his notes and to a resounding applause he exits the press room at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center and begins the transition of life after being the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Who knows if he will coach or lead again, but in this liminal space we get a reflective glimpse at how one of the world’s best coaches approached the development of his craft. In a lot of ways we get a synopsis of his theory of leadership and coaching that was developed over the course of 51 years in the coaching profession.
What was his approach? And was it effective?
The on field results speak for themselves. 14 years as a head coach in the NFL with an impressive .580 winning percentage. Super Bowl champion in 2013 and a heartbreaking loss in the Super Bowl in 2014. At the collegiate level he showcased a remarkable .814 winning percentage while leading the University of Southern California back to national prominence. Twice the Trojans were national champions under his leadership, in his time at USC they also won seven Pac-10 Championships.
Statistically he was a winner in a profession that makes winning very hard. In the study of transformational leadership, we believe the metrics only tell the full story and comprise about half of what coaching and leading is really all about. Was his approach effective? Not just in winning games, but in developing people.
In response to questions in his farewell address he had this to say about what his coaching and leading theory was:
“If you cared for people deeply, and you loved them for who they were, and tried to find the extraordinary uniqueness that made them them, and celebrated that, and not try to make them something that their not, and not try to expect them to be something other than that, see if we can capture that extraordinary uniqueness that they had. And celebrate that with them and see what happens. What has always been behind the culture is to help people find their best. One person at a time. It works. It’s real.”
His approach was simply “Helping people find their best. Their uniqueness.”
This is the essence of flourishing coaching and leading. We tend to think that coaching and leadership must be hard-nosed, conflict pursuant, and demanding. After all, that was the model of the great leaders in history - military generals, dominating political figures, revenue driving bosses, and of course elite football coaches.
Pete Carroll’s approach to leadership seemed to fly in the face of the traditional demanding, demeaning approach. Admittingly he seemed to indicate it was a working theory. A theory to see what would happen if the role of coach and leader attempted to foster a different approach in their environments.
At STC we believe there are three levels to this. The individual level, the relational level, and the environmental level. If a leader can foster flourishing at these three levels, it is our theory that the well-being of the leader (Individual), the well-being of the people (Relationships), and the well-being of the environment (Results) will be trending in a direction suitable for high performance and collective well-being.
Flourishing individuals in flourishing relationships in a flourishing environment can’t lose.
Flourishing Individuals
What is a flourishing individual? How is it defined and what can a leader do to flourish individually? We have been relentlessly studying this through the lens of these three questions. Ultimately to flourish is to exist in your highest state. To flourish is to thrive, to grow, to make progress (sometimes rapidly). Flourishing individuals grow. They respond to the feedback life gives them. They aren’t afraid to change their mind, admit where they were wrong, and fully step into a modified approach to work, life and the pursuit of mastery.
In many ways Pete Carroll is the essence of what it looks like to flourish as a coach and leader. His approach to leadership stands on the traits and states he’s most known for. Energetic, positive, and pursuit of mastery.
These elements are often influenced by two things. The people we surround ourselves with and the experiences we acquire (experiences both good and bad - failures, getting fired, etc.) When it comes to the people, in 51 years of pursuing mastery, Pete Carroll has worked for ten different head coaches. Household leaders in the game, including Lou Holtz, Earle Bruce, Monte Kiffin, among others. His former assistants include a long list of 15 individuals who became NFL or college head coaches. It’s hard to believe that this approach to flourishing coaching was developed alone, we can study in private with a pen and paper, but it’s often the relationships and most importantly the experiences that allow us to fine tune our perspectives and approaches. Carroll’s approach to leading was influenced by his ability to learn and grow - to flourish alongside all kinds of coaches in the game.
When it comes to experiences, Carroll has many, both positive and negative. It’s not like he pressed play on his coaching career and it was a steady path up and to the right. In fact, like many greats it had all kinds of twists and turns, and most importantly, mistakes. Ask any football fan about Pete Caroll and everyone will bring up the conclusion of his tenure at USC before taking over with the Seattle Seahawks. As his program was being heavily investigated by the NCAA for rampant impermissible benefits to student athletes (Name Image Likeness before Name Image Likeness was legal) it seemed Caroll was “fleeing the scene” and leaving USC in shambles as he enlarged his career and headed back to the NFL. In his introductory press conference for the Seattle Seahawks in 2010 he said this about his time at USC.
“The growth we experienced, the things we accomplished, has really given me an opportunity to grow as a coach, that makes me a much different guy today than I was a few years back.”
Flourishing individuals grow. They learn from their experiences and alter their approach in light of the feedback life experiences give them. If given the chance, they would do things over in a different way. But they don’t let those regrets stop them from moving forward.
Prior to arriving at USC, many forget that Pete Carroll was coming off of a year “sabbatical” of sorts. Having just been fired for the second time at the NFL level, Carroll was at a crossroads in 1999. Right before the final game of the season, Carroll, then the head coach of the New England Patriots sat down with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the two discussed the team’s future. The future would not include Carroll.
In the parking lot after being fired for the second time in his NFL career Carroll had this to say to the media.
“I’m sure there will be challenges and I’m looking forward to taking on those challenges as new beginnings and hopefully make a lot out of that.”
“New beginnings” or “fired and unemployed” Perspective often precedes flourishing or languishing. In retrospect, the new beginnings would be critical in the future of his career. He was “off for a year.”
“I had no plan for that year, but it wound up being one of the most important years of my football coaching career.”
Instead of remaining enthralled in the stress of the day to day, Carroll was able to step back and get clear on some things. An exercise that is essential for a flourishing individual. We’re never going to grow, thrive, or make progress when we are indecisive about what matters to us, how we want to go about our work, what we want to do, with whom we want to do it with. Day to day life doesn’t lend any favors for us to reflect on the larger picture.
24 years after his year long sabbatical, back at the podium for his farewell address, Pete Caroll was asked what advice he would give the next coach of the Seattle Seahawks. His response reveals a level of clarity that is essential for a flourishing individual.
“To me the essence of being as good as you can be is to figure out who you are. Figure out the relentless effort to get clear on what is important to you, what uncompromising principles you're going to stand by. What makes you who you are. If you don't go through that process, you don't do self discovery, you don't have an opportunity to be your best because you don't know who you are yet.
You have to understand what kind of player you are, what kind of coach you are, what kind of dad you are. To maximize your authenticity and be connected to that true essence of who you are. Without that you are going to be “sometimes and sometimes.” It’s hard to be great without that consistency.”
In his farewell, you see the result of decades of flourishing as an individual.
Flourishing Relationships
“That's the way I see the world - we’re trying to help each other be as good as we can possibly be. Whatever that takes, relentlessly..”
When Pete Carroll was hired as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks he was asked if he wanted to fulfill another role as the General Manager. The head coach and the General Manager are the two most important roles in an NFL organization. Typically the General Manager assembles the players for the roster, and the head coach develops the players on the roster. The relationship between these two roles can get very contentious and flammable. Some in the NFL have sidestepped this by giving the head coach the general manager role to in essence give all of the reins to the same person so the burden of assembling the roster and developing the roster falls in one place.
Pete Carroll was not interested in being the General Manager, instead he wanted to have a say in who the Seahawks hired as General Manager. He willingly wanted to relinquish some power so that he could have a thought-partner and an executive teammate to work with to solve the many problems in moving the organization forward. He handpicked a young executive named John Scnieder. Together, over 14 years they would work side-by-side in developing the Seattle Seahawks into one of the top teams in the NFL.
When it comes to the next dimension of transformational leadership it has to extend beyond just an individual flourishing. It’s important for an individual to flourish, and when they are not, it likely has a negative impact on team performance, but in order for a collective group to thrive there must be flourishing relationships.
The relationship between Pete Carroll and John Schnieder is a masterclass in teamwork, humility, and the partnership required to be great.
Pete Carroll tells the story of what it was like after John Schnieder was hired.
“We stepped off to the side and I said - “we’re getting married, dude.” I’m going to help you be the greatest General Manager in the history of the league..You took 14 years to get to it, and I’m so proud and so excited for this opportunity for you. Going forward I’ll be your biggest fan now, dude. I’ll be there for you. I’ll be there.”
Flourishing relationships require an extreme commitment to each other. Highly effective, but extraordinarily rare in the world. In most environments, the goal of NFL ownership is to take a high performing coach and pair them with another high performing executive as GM and hope they mesh and make it work.
What made Pete Carroll and John Schnieder so different was their relentless commitment to each other. Commitment to being brutally honest with each other, fiercely loyal. Loyal enough to tell each other the hard truths our egos don’t want to hear. That type of loyalty is often only reserved for marriage which makes it fitting that Carroll likened their future relationship to the extreme commitment of marriage.
When pressed further on why Carroll and Schnieder were able to make this relationship work for so long, Carroll had this to say.
“Because it's the most important thing in the whole program. The relationship between the coach and the GM. Make decisions and put together an approach and philosophy. We were willing to put ourselves as individuals BEHIND what the “marriage” was all about. Maximize what each guy has. I’m trying to help him be great, he's trying to help me be great. We had to cover for each other.”
How can you tell you are involved in a flourishing relationship, be it a real marriage, friendship, business partnership, team function? You cover for each other.
A flourishing relationship requires a commitment so strong to each other that the other person’s shortcomings, insecurities, mistakes, irritations are covered instead of attacked. It’s not to say, things aren’t talked about, or ignored. It’s just that the approach ALWAYS seeks to maintain the relationship. The relationship is always more important than the imperfection being eliminated or made perfect.
Imagine functioning in a team environment where everyone is helping each other be great, and everyone is covering for each other in the group. That is the mark of flourishing relationships and leads to flourishing environments.
Flourishing Environments
As we close our deep dive into the farewell address of Pete Carroll we’re brought to the third component of a transformational leadership. It’s clear Pete Carroll is a flourishing individual, and on top of that he cultivated numerous flourishing relationships in his time leading the Seattle Seahawks. For most aspiring leaders that would be enough to get by. Make sure you yourself are flourishing and growing, make sure the relationships are thriving and positive as opposed to corrosive and negative. But, for the really elite leaders in the world, they don’t just stall out on those two dimensions. They go much deeper. They aspire to create a flourishing environment.
In a lot of ways, Pete Carroll’s coaching philosophy was one giant experiment. What would it look like to help people find their best? What would it look like to create an environment where people flourished? He explains it further here.
“What I am most proud of is that a culture that we developed at SC and we took it to Seattle built around the idea that if you cared for people deeply, and you loved them for who they were, and tried to find the extraordinary uniqueness that made them them, and celebrated that, and not try to make them something that their not, and not try to expect them to be something other than that, see if we can capture that extraordinary uniqueness that they had. And celebrate that with them and see what happens. What has always been behind the culture is to help people find their best. One person at a time. It works. It’s real.”
We’re often led to believe that in high performing environments there is a collective conformity of the group and that the best leaders force everyone into their desired mold. And there’s certainly a necessity for individuals in a collective environment to “get on board.”
Where Pete Carroll’s approach differs from the norm is in the strategy used to get people on board. For years in the tough environment of the NFL authoritarian leaders forced their will on players. What Carroll expresses is the opposite. A concentration on each person’s uniqueness. Helping them find their best. Accepting them for who they are, celebrating their differences in the context of the collective team approach. Flourishing environments make room for everyone’s extraordinary uniqueness and how it supports - not hinders the collective pursuit.
What Carroll chose as a central strategy was not authority, but rather autonomy. Flourishing environments give autonomy. They allow their people to breathe a little. To be themselves and to empower them to lean into their own signature strengths.
A study of over two hundred men and women found that when athletes trained in an autonomy-supportive environment, there was a correlation with satisfaction of their basic psychological needs for well-being. Controlling environments were associated with thwarting an individual’s basic needs and with lower overall satisfaction. Lastly, they found that those in supportive environments (we’ll call them flourishing environments) tended to have higher levels of mental toughness and better performance.
A flourishing environment promotes individual flourishing. Individual flourishing promotes flourishing relationships. Flourishing relationships promote flourishing environments. Where you start on that cycle is unique to each of us in leadership. But make no mistake ALL three are critical in finding the best in all of us individually and collectively.
Flourishing individuals in flourishing relationships, in flourishing environments can’t lose.