Leadership Lessons From Being A Minority NFL Owner

This thought originally appeared in our weekly newsletter 5 Things in 5 Minutes.

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People often ask me questions when they learn I’m a minority owner of an NFL team. 

To be clear, I’m a very minority owner,. I own exactly one share of the Green Bay Packers. (Don’t worry, Philly. I’m still an Eagles fan.)

But it’s different being fan versus an owner. Ownership means thinking, caring, and watching games differently. I’m not just cheering for a win on Sunday; I’m thinking about the long-term health of the organization in the future (for example, I vote annually about who serves on the Packers board), even if my influence is minuscule. 

This translates to leadership. The role of a leader is not to have people like your vision (“That sounds good to me”), but to have them own the vision collectively (“This deeply matters to me and I feel responsible to help move this vision forward”). It’s a good start to have fans, but it’s not the end goal. Craig Groeschel spoke at the Global Leadership Summit last week and said: "If people don't feel like they're a part they will never bring their whole heart."

Leaders: don’t try to turn people into fans of your vision; instead, invite them to own the vision with you. It’s not semantics; there’s a powerful difference when people truly own the vision together.