The Growth Mindset
A Sport Psychology Blog for Coaches
5 ways that Ted Lasso creates psychological safety for his athletes.
Ted Lasso has taken the world of television streaming services by storm. The show, is a feel good story of an American Football coach who gets hired to coach AFC Richmond of the English premier league. Lasso has been hired in hopes that he will fail spectacularly and AFC Richmond will be ruined. The show chronicles Lasso turning all of his doubters into believers because of the strength of his character and his ability to the find the very best in the people he encounters. Ted Lasso may be the only thing with an almost universal approval rating in 2021. Like the various characters in Ted Lasso, viewers have been drawn to the show due to the positive energy, feel good story lines and a general sense of optimism which is sorely lacking in 2021. I started the show hoping it would be as good as promised. Ted Lasso has certainly delivered. While I expected to enjoy the show, I was really surprised to see that there were real practical takeaways in the show for coaches. Ted Lasso is secretly a great coach and a big part of that is because he has been able to instill a sense of psychological safety in his athletes and his team.
Over the past few weeks I have explored the concept of psychological safety and how coaches can recognize how safe their athletes feel and some strategies they can use to increase feelings of safety on their teams. Those blogs are available here:
How Psychological Safety impacts team culture. https://evolutionmpc.com/how-psychological-safety-impacts-team-culture/
4 ways coaches can increase feelings of psychological safety. https://evolutionmpc.com/4-ways-coaches-can-increase-feelings-of-psychological-safety-in-their-athletes/
Ted Lasso uses 5 really great strategies that all coaches can incorporate to make their athletes feel safer.
1. Give Second Chances
In Season one, Richmond’s best player Jamie Tartt is a diva of the highest order. Tartt is a talented goal scorer which is the rarest of commodities in Soccer. He is also an arrogant bully who puts his teammates down to help him compensate for his own lack of self-esteem. Tartt leaves Richmond for super club Manchester City and scores the goal that relegates Richmond to division 1. City ends up dumping Tartt at the start of next season due to his behavior and no other club shows any interest in signing him. Tartt returns to Richmond with his tail between his legs and asks Ted for a second chance. This was not necessarily a popular choice amongst all the team who had been bullied by Tartt in the past but Coach Lasso believed that there was a person worth fighting for and was proven correct by Tartt’s personal growth over the course of season 2. Allowing Tartt a second chance helped create a sense of psychological safety in the team (especially when Tartt’s improved behaviour proved Lasso right). Players’ sense of safety increases because they know that making mistakes is tolerated and they will get a second opportunity. When athletes are constantly looking to the bench after a mistake you can be sure that they don’t feel totally safe psychologically.
2. Admit that you don't know everything and ask the team their opinion.
Coach Lasso arrived in England without a clear understanding of the rules of the sport he had been hired to coach and needed constant reminders about the offside rule. Obviously, he needed to be open to the suggestions of those around him. He was constantly soliciting the suggestions of the people on the team who surround him. Whether that was Nate the equipment manager or the leaders on the team, Coach Lasso did not hesitate to show that he valued the opinions of those around him. At one point he solicited his players for their favourite set pieces. The set pieces worked in part because the players were fully invested. As my friends at Essential Coaching https://www.essential-coaching.net/ like to say, Lasso was available to his players, he didn’t just have an open door policy. When players know that their opinions are valued it shows them that their coach trusts their judgement and this increases their connection to the team and to their coach.
3. Be Vulnerable
In the quarter final of the FA Cup, Coach Lasso has a panic attack and flees the field abandoning his team. He covers up for the attack by claiming that it was a bout of food poisoning. A few days later Ted levels with his team and explains why he left the game. This moment of vulnerability was a great way to help his athletes. By sharing that he was battling anxiety Lasso showed them that it is ok to not be ok. This increases feelings of psychological safety for the team. They know that it is alright for them to share their thoughts and feelings because their leader isn’t afraid to share his. It also increases their bond and loyalty to Coach Lasso. When someone leaks the real reason for Lasso’s absence to local Journalist Trent Crimm (apparently from the Independent) his team rallies around him and wants to avenge this breach of trust.
4. Rally around a common theme
On his first day Ted hangs a sign that definitely looks out of place in a premier league locker room. The sign simply reads “Believe”. At first the players saw it as another hokey tactic used by a coach who didn’t know what the offside rule was. But over the course of the first two seasons the players have realized that it was in fact sincere and slowly they bought into it as a rallying cry for their team. By creating a common slogan and theme the team has something that links all of them together. Common slogans, terms and language that are unique and create bonds amongst players and coaches. These are simple ways that coaches show that their team is bigger than the place that they play their sport. It creates shared feelings of belonging when athletes realize they are part of something unique and special. Rallying around a slogan or common goal is a great way to do this. It certainly worked for Coach Lasso.
5. Be Curious Not Judgemental
The real key to Coach Lasso is that he embraces Walt Whitman’s famous quote and he is curious and is not judgemental. This is really the secret to Lasso’s ability to win people over, he searches for their strengths and leans into them. Whether it is Nate the equipment manager or his boss Rebecca he figures out what makes people tick. This trait serves Ted very well in creating a safe environment. It allows him to learn how Sam Obasanya and Jamie Tartt are shaped by their contrasting relationships with their fathers. This is a huge way to create a safe environment for anyone in your life, your team included. By showing curiosity Ted gains trust, and shows people that he is really interested in his players as people. The clip below explains Lasso’s philosophy.
Ted Lasso Rabbit Hole
While searching for video and photos for this post I stumbled across a few videos that were simply too good to not share. So watch and enjoy.
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