From the Locker Room to the Boardroom: The Playbook of Leadership

How to Turn Football Strategy into Everyday Leadership Success

Leadership is like football—it’s a game with moving parts, strategy, and a goal line you must define.

Too often, leadership feels abstract, nothing more than an idea. But when you look at it through the lens of football, the picture sharpens. Leadership has components: your team, your scoreboard, your ball, your vision, and your field. Master these, and you’ve got the foundation to lead at the next level.

The Team: Every Position Matters

Every leader has a team. Even if you feel like you’re “solo,” leadership always involves people. No leader exists without others.

On a football team’s offense, there are two types of teammates: the ball handlers and the blockers. Both roles matter equally.

“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other” ^[1]

Every role matters. Without blockers, the ball doesn’t move. Without ball handlers, the game doesn’t advance.

The Scoreboard: Defining the Win

What’s the point of playing without a scoreboard? Leaders must define what success looks like.

In other words, (not mine but Paul’s), “I press on toward the [my] goal…” ^[2] Goals give direction and purpose. If Paul had a scoreboard, it was his eternal calling—clear, focused, and motivating.

The Ball: Carrying Responsibility

In football, the ball is everything. The same is true for leadership—the ball is the responsibility you carry.

Think of Nehemiah. His “ball” was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. He carried that responsibility against opposition, distraction, and criticism. He didn’t drop the ball. Like Walt Disney carried imagination and Dr. King carried equality, Nehemiah carried a vision [the ball] for restoration until the task was done.

The Vision: The Playbook

Coaches create a playbook; leaders create vision. Disney expanded imagination into parks, Jobs expanded innovation into everyday life, and biblical leaders expanded their vision beyond what was visible—Moses leading Israel to the Promised Land, for instance. Vision is what keeps a team aligned, thriving, and moving in the same direction.

The Field: Boundaries & Opportunities

Every game has a field. Leaders, too, have boundaries—but also opportunities.

David (King David, the giant-slaying David) began as a shepherd—his field looked small. But when he defeated Goliath, his field expanded from pasture to palace. Like David, leaders must recognize when their field is wider than they think.

Leadership has components: team, scoreboard, ball, vision, and field. When you define and align these, you set your people up to win.

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[1] Romans 12:4-5 NLT, Bible.com, accessed September 26, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/ROM.12.4-5.NLT
“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.”
[2] Philippians 3:14 NIV, Bible.com, accessed September 26, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/111/PHP.3.14.NIV
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.