The Real Reason Your Team Isn’t Performing, And It’s Not What You Think
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In this compilation episode of the Tech Leaders Playbook, Avetis Antaplyan brings together three powerhouse voices from the world of elite sports and leadership: Rex Kalamian, assistant coach in the NBA and head coach of the Armenian National Basketball Team; Dr. Jen Welter, the first female NFL coach and a pioneer in sports psychology; and Dick Vermeil, Super Bowl-winning NFL coach and Hall of Famer.
Through their stories and reflections, these leaders offer raw, actionable insights on team building, ego management, mental resilience, and human-centered leadership. Rex shares how he galvanized a culturally fragmented team into national champions. Jen dives into the emotional intelligence required to coach high-performers and handle personal struggles as a leader. Dick gives hard-won lessons on delegation, trust, and building deep team culture through consistency and care.
The episode blends sports and business in a way that reveals timeless truths about leadership, identity, and performance under pressure. Whether you're a founder, executive, or aspiring leader, this is a masterclass in cultivating winning teams without losing your humanity.
Takeaways
- Effective leadership requires upfront emotional investment—build trust before you ever coach performance.
- Winning cultures start with clarity: build, enhance, then sustain.
- Ego management is critical. A coach’s first job is to neutralize ego—both theirs and the player’s.
- Killer instinct can’t be taught; it must be identified early and nurtured over time.
- Great leaders don’t motivate the unmotivated—they hire self-starters and avoid demotivating them.
- Being human and apologizing authentically creates deeper relational capital and loyalty.
- Female leaders face invisible barriers—intentional mentorship and allyship are critical to systemic change.
- Tough love works when it’s consistent, fair, and rooted in seeing people’s full potential.
- Delegation is not a weakness—it’s a multiplier. Trust and systems are prerequisites to scale.
- Great leadership requires learning to listen more than you speak—and never assuming you're the smartest person in the room.
- Long-term success comes from defining a plan, surrounding yourself with good people, and showing them you care.
Chapters
00:00 Intro: Mastermind Compilation of Leadership Wisdom
00:42 Rex Kalamian: Building Armenia’s National Basketball Team
03:54 Uniting Diverse Talent and Building Belief
06:15 Leading with Sacrifice and Mission-Driven Mindset
07:23 Coaching Superstar Egos with Relationship-First Approach
09:07 Can Killer Instinct Be Taught or Is It Innate?
12:22 Translating Lessons from Sports into Business
13:46 Jen Welter: Performance Dips & Empathetic Leadership
15:27 “Do You Need a Minute?” — Spotting the Signs of Mental Strain
17:59 Balancing Leadership While Being Human
21:50 Lessons for Women Breaking Barriers in Leadership
24:55 The Power of Mentorship and Intentional Advocacy
25:19 Dick Vermeil: Tough Love and Consistent Standards
27:00 When Talent Isn’t Matched by Work Ethic
28:26 Bringing People Into Your Home to Build Culture
30:35 Delegation, Obsession, and Why He Walked Away in ’82
33:14 How to Evaluate Talent Beyond Interviews
35:08 Can Leadership Be Taught or Is It Born?
36:33 Coach Vermeil’s Playbook: 7 Core Principles of Winning
38:52 Final Thoughts and Outro by Avetis
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