December 2023

“Cooper recognises the value of having as many people as possible providing leadership inside the dressing room.”

Interesting take from a Premier League team on the usefulness of having many captains, rather than two or three. Share your opinions with us below, or on LinkedIn or X. We’d love to hear your take on this.

Leading Thought: What is the Johari Window?

A useful framework to think about the role feedback can play on your team is the Johari Window,1 a tool used by organizations around the world to improve communication and understanding among individuals in a team. This model for self-awareness comprises four quadrants or windows, each representing a different possible combination of awareness between the leader and their team. 
The first window represents the “open” self, which is known to both the leader and others on the team. The second window is the “blind spot”, which is unknown to the leader but known to their teammates. The third window is for insights that the leader knows but others do not (the “hidden” area), while the last window represents the “unknown”, which is where we all don’t know what we don’t know.
What is the Johari Window?
Generally, the goal of the Johari Window is to increase the size of the “open” window by increasing information sharing and feedback among teammates. Getting feedback from others is a crucial way to shift knowledge from the “blind spot” window to the “open” window, but that is sometimes easier said than done.
Read more here in our Leadership White Paper series that explains our leadership development ethos and has more details on the Johari Window.

What We’re Reading

Finding the Coaching in Criticism by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone (authors of the book Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well): Learn how to have difficult conversations with your athletes now to build a culture of giving and receiving feedback that is crucial to team improvement.
Pair with: This episode of the Tim Ferriss Show podcast where Dr. Heen discusses a number of great points concerning feedback giving and receiving, especially at the 46-minute mark, 1:51:50, and 1:58:37 timestamps.

In Case You Missed It

Our latest blog post on useful tidbits for pitching affordable, sustainable leadership development to potential donors.

It’s always a good time to think about leadership development, whether you’re a high school, college, or pro coach. Don’t forget about our free resources page, we’re always updating!
Don’t forget to follow us on X or LinkedIn. Lots of good stuff, like even more podcast and book recommendations.

Where are we?

Florida, and all highways in between Baltimore and Orlando.
We’re driving from headquarters to the Athletic Directors’ conference in Orlando in mid-December, so if you’re anywhere on I-95 or near some good golf courses let us know. We’d gladly make a point of driving through to see you and talk leadership in athletics. 

And if you’re at the NADC conference, be sure to stop by booth #218.

Free dry erase markers, a very orange banner, great times. 

Contact us anytime: info@developingathleteleaders.com, we’re here for you.
– Evan Bruno and Jen Baker 
www.developingathleteleaders.com



1 Luft, J. & Ingham, H. (1955). “The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness”. Proceedings of the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.

Leading Thought: The Johari Window

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