“Great coaches never miss a teachable moment.” – Northstar Church Senior Pastor Mike Linch
My favorite 45 minutes of the week is a Zoom bible study I participate in with approximately 60-to-75 high school, college, and professional baseball scouts and coaches, a picture of which is shown above. Led by Northstar Church’s senior pastor Mike Linch, I never leave this time together not being challenged and inspired to grow in my character and spiritual leadership.
Today, Mike made a powerful point saying, “Great coaches never miss a teachable moment.” This is why when Coach Keith Madison spoke on the subject of servant leadership, I took notes.
A Great Leader
If you are not familiar with Coach Madison, let me introduce you to him. While serving as head baseball coach at the University of Kentucky for 25 years, he amassed 737 wins and has been inducted into three Halls of Fame: Kentucky High School Baseball Hall of Fame, University of Kentucky Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. In 2013, Coach Madison was honored with the Lefty Gomez Award. He then retired from coaching in 2003 and joined the team at SCORE International.
By working with SCORE International, Coach Madison combines two of the passions in his life: his faith and baseball. He reaches hundreds of college and high school baseball coaches and friends through his bi-weekly devotions and has spoken to thousands of coaches and players in 16 states and the Dominican Republic.
A Great Insight
One of the anchor verses of today’s study was Matthew 20:28 which states, “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (ESV).” Addressing this verse, Coach Keith Madison said and I’m slightly paraphrasing, “Putting yourself (as the leader) on a pedestal, you lose connection with your players. When you get in the trenches and ask great questions, you connect with your players. The best teams have this.”
A Great Lesson On High-Performing Teams
There are five primary takeaways I take from Coach Madison’s statement along the verse mentioned:
- The only sustainable leadership model is a servant-leadership model.
- Leaders have a choice whether to be servant leaders or not. They can choose a self-serving pedestal or to get into the trenches and serve others.
- You can only connect with people when you are with them, not from the corner office or green room.
- Great leaders ask great questions. They are curious, especially about what is happening with their people.
- The one thing all high-performing teams have is that they are led by servant-leaders who are in the trenches with their teams.
If you are a baseball scout or coach who wants to be part of this study and get this type of wisdom on a weekly basis, reach out to Mike Linch at mike.linch@northstarchurch.org to get all the information for how to join.
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