What can leaders learn from our favorite TV and movie coaches?

[SGD]

Greetings, fellow teamwork fans!

I'm about to publish an article on Work Life (aka, atlassian.com/blog) about some stand-out coaches from movies and TV, and the qualities that made them great leaders. Should be a fun piece to read. 

Thing is, the list of coaches I came up with is very US-biased and nearly all men. Surely, there are noteworthy coaches beloved by viewers of British/Aussie/German/Brazilian/etc movies and TV – I just don't know about them. That's where you come in! 

I'd love to hear from you: who are your favorite coaches from pop culture, and why? What lessons can we learn from them? 

Discuss! 😀

UPDATE: here's the article https://www.atlassian.com/blog/leadership/pop-culture-coaches-lessons-for-leaders

[Robert Wen]

This is where I chime in with my vote for Ted Lasso

You see in the first season how he molds his players, even though he doesn't know a thing about football (soccer in the US).  Examples include:

Finding and inspiring the captain of the team to be a leader using A Wrinkle in Time

Seeing the ability in the waterboy, and developing him to be an assistant coach.

[Mel Policicchio]

I haven't even seen Ted Lasso yet and he's the first one that came to mind! I hear it's excellent

[Mel Policicchio]

She's not a coach and she's very American, so I'm sure this isn't especially helpful BUT Buffy Summers (of vampire slaying fame) is a great example of a leader. Her series arc of reluctance to lead to helping her friends find their own "powers" and saving the world (a lot) is some great non-male leadership. I do think some of the best leaders are the ones who didn't want to lead in the first place.

Another aggressively millennial answer (funnily connected by Eliza Dushku) is Kirsten Dunst's character in Bring it On. She's not a coach, but a team captain, and also, ya know, learns some valuable lessons about good leadership. 

I'd like to say that the fact it's hard to name non-male coaches in pop culture is an indictment of how little sports-related media I consume, but I suspect it may actually be the patriarchy, at it again!

Good luck with the blog, be sure to share it in here so we can see the final product! 

[SGD]

Ha! I love the creative thinking here. Never would've thought about what lessons we can learn from Buffy :-D 

[Benjamin]

Just watch the move "Hustle" on Netflix. The character that Adam Sandler plays a character who sees so much potential in this basket player he finds that he invest almost everything he has into coaching him.

The 1st lesson here a coach who can believe in you more than you can believe in yourself.

The 2nd lesson is being there through up and downs through the journey.

[Kaj Sennelöv]

Who wouldn't want to be a Shelby family member from Peaky Blinders??
Different times, I know, but the dedication from Thommy is just so inspiring.
Or Polly's intelligence while the others try to run the business

Also, Harvey from Suits, what a confident guy!

Super fun idea for the article, good luck with it!

[Robert Wen]

Excellent article!