Team Culture is a River. Where Is Yours Flowing?

About The Podcast

As the head football coach at Wheaton College, a private Christian institution in suburban Chicago, Jesse Scott is charged with doing more than drawing up a game plan for the next opponent. He’s passing on leadership skills that will help his players long after they’ve left the gridiron, and teach them to rely on their identity in Christ above all else. Jesse talks with Redeemed founder Paul Amos this week about how he runs his program, and the lessons he uses to encourage and motivate young men who are stepping into leadership roles for the first time.

Show Notes

Timestamps

Discussion

1. Think of a team you’re on, whether it’s an actual sports team, at work, or another group of people working toward a common goal. How would you describe the culture of that team? If that culture, as Jesse describes it, is “a river whose current is propelling you toward something”, where do you think you’re headed? Does that destination excite you, or does it make you nervous and uncertain?

2. Have you ever been part of a team where individual members seemed to be pursuing many different goals? How well did that team work as a unit? Were there people who seemed to be putting their own egos or individual goals ahead of the team’s overall success?

3. Think back to your younger years and a lesson that was repeated to you over and over and over again—in the classroom, on a sports team, in a youth group, or elsewhere. Did it ever annoy you to hear that same lesson told to you repeatedly? Did that lesson end up sticking with you and paying positive results as you grew into an adult?

4. What was the first time you were ever assigned to a leadership role? What did that role entail, who appointed you to it, and why do you think they chose you? Were you excited and confident taking on those leadership responsibilities, or were you apprehensive and worried you might not be up to the task? What kind of expectations were placed on you?

5. Continuing from question 4, how did you view your responsibilities as a leader of that particular group? Were you being counted on to help the members of your group grow and become better people? If so, what sorts of things did you do to fulfill that responsibility? How did you get comfortable in your leadership role?

6. Discuss Jesse’s metaphor of “the open hand and the closed fist.” What are some personal values or convictions that you keep in that closed fist, things that are non-negotiable and you refuse to compromise on? Why are they so important to you?

7. Along those same lines, what are some opinions or beliefs you hold in your open hand? What life experiences taught you to be more flexible and accommodating regarding those opinions? Did you encounter a friend or mentor who showed you a new perspective and inspired you to see things a little differently?