🧭 How the Best Teams Lead Themselves

Captain L. David Marquet on Decision Making

The Power of “Connection and Extension”

Today’s post is inspired by my deep-dive yesterday on Bill Walsh and culture. Today, I specifically wanted to talk about his concept of “Connection and Extension.”

Most teams rely too much on motivation, speeches, or control. But what do the best teams do?

They create environments where leadership, standards, and culture live through every person. It doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through how you build connection and how you extend leadership unto others.

Why this matters:

Ownership changes everything. When your people start thinking, acting, and leading with the mission in mind, your team becomes resilient, adaptable, and relentless.

You can't be everywhere at once. You need people who carry the standard when you’re not around.

The leaders who build lasting cultures understand that connection creates trust and extension creates legacy.

What you should know:

Bill Walsh’s genius wasn’t just in his playbook—it was in how he connected with players and extended leadership across his entire organization.

Connection and Extension are two sides of elite leadership:

• Connection = Building trust, relationships, emotional safety, and alignment with your team.

• Extension = Developing leaders who carry your mission and culture outward, even when you’re not there.

1. Connection Before Control - Walsh didn’t bark orders, he built relationships. He connected deeply with players and coaches, understanding their personalities, motivations, and needs. Trust came first. Clarity followed. That’s what made standards sustainable, even under pressure.

2. Extension Through Ownership - Walsh trained players and coaches to think like leaders, not just performers. Quarterbacks, captains, and veterans weren’t just executing - they were modeling the standard for others. When Jerry Rice scored, it wasn't just his victory. It was the whole team’s victory. Preparation, blocking, timing, coaching, all of it mattered.

3. Failure Was Shared, Not Feared - Mistakes weren’t about individual blame.
   The focus was system-wide: "Where did we break down? How do we fix it together?" Shared ownership created resilience. Teams didn’t splinter under pressure, they tightened.

The concepts and quotes from this section come from Bill Walsh’s book, The Score Takes Care of Itself.

A Real World Example - Turn the Ship Around:

In the Navy, Commander David Marquet revolutionized leadership on the USS Santa Fe by applying the same principle.

Instead of issuing top-down commands, he taught his sailors the Commander’s Intent - the why, not just the what.

This empowered his team to think, adapt, and lead at every level, turning the worst-performing submarine in the fleet into the best.
Connection created trust. Extension built self-led teams.

• For free subscribers, we did a review of the concept here.

• For premium subscribers, we did a full deep-dive on his concepts of leadership, culture building, and the 7 myths of leadership here.

How to Develop “Connection and Extension”

➡️To Build Connection

• Be visible and engaged - Spend time with people and lead by example. Engage with people, walk the floor, and listen to people. Be where the real work happens.

• Reinforce values daily - Live the mission and values. Remind people what the mission and standard are, not just what the next task is.

• Ask deeper questions - People want to feel heard and seen. Make sure you are spending time asking people what they think, what motivates them, and what’s important to them.

➡️To Build Extension

1. Train others to teach - Make sure that people know they are expected to enable and train new teammates. Challenge top performers to mentor younger players or teammates.

2. Model decision-making - When you face a challenge, walk people through how you are thinking - not just the answer. Give them insight into the details and your thought process.

3. Create "ownership reps" - Let others lead when they can. Delegate and let them lead small meetings, drills, or projects. Practice leadership in low-risk moments to prepare for the high-risk moments.

➡️To Enable an Ownership Mindset

1. Reinforce ownership through giving responsibility - Give real responsibility to people and let them own the outcomes. This builds trust and also lets them learn and adapt to what they see.

2. Ask ownership questions:

   • “How would you solve this?”

   • “What is your plan if this occurs?”

   • “What do we need to improve and get better?”

Final Thoughts: Think About Confidence Building as a Habit

• If you’re a coach: Teach your teams how to lead themselves - don't just direct them. Empower them to own the standard.

• If you’re a leader: Build real relationships and train your team to think independently, aligned to the mission.

• If you’re a parent: Focus on raising decision-makers, not just rule-followers. Connect through trust, not control.

• If you’re an athlete: Lead from within the team. Set the tone for others through how you prepare, behave, and handle adversity.

Great leaders don’t just inspire when they speak.
They inspire when they’re silent - because their people have become extensions of the standard.

Connection is the foundation. Extension is the legacy. Own it.

Favorite Posts I Found This Week

Free Mental Fitness Links 👇

For athletes and performers:

• John Harbaugh on resilience

• Why the greatest players are willing to do the work

• Pat Summitt’s definite dozen for success

• The equation to make growth inevitable

• The one rule that shaped the Mamba Mentality

For coaches and leaders:

• Bill Walsh’s 6 guidelines for establishing culture

• Kirby Smart’s advice for coaching teams hard

• What to know when people say “Lead by Example”

• Kara Lawson giving her team a speech on the power of confidence and self-esteem

What I am reading and listening to:

📚 Book: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell

🎥 Video: The three secrets of resilient people | Lucy Hone | TEDxChristchurch

🎧Podcast: Why Most People Never Become Great - HOF Coach Bob Stoops | Learning Leaders Podcast

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