The Game.
Brené Brown sat down with Emmanuel Acho, a former NFL Linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles, and asked him about the one quality that separates elite quarterbacks from everyone else.
Speed? Strength? Decision making?
His answer:
“Pocket presence”.
“Pocket presence is the ability to stay calm when 300-pound men are trying to destroy you. It's trusting your offensive line to do their job while you do yours. You can't see them. You can't control them. But you have to trust they're holding the line."
In American Football, the quarterback can't watch the rush (the defensive players). If they're looking backwards, they're not looking for an open receiver and they’re not executing the play.
The best quarterbacks to play the game, Tom Brady; Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow to name a few, have something most don't…
The ability to trust what they can't see.
They know the chaos is coming but they stand firm, trust their protection and deliver the ball.
That's pocket presence.
Without that trust, you panic, you make a bad decision that loses the ball.
The Analysis.
As a leader, you're in the pocket. Deadlines, competitors, market shifts, operational fires all closing in.
And just like a quarterback, you can't see the whole field.
You don't know if your commercial team are closing the contract, you don't know if your operations team is managing the crisis - but you have to trust them to do their job, while you do yours.
The problem is most leaders don't.
They try to see everything and end up micromanaging - pulling people off their responsibilities to ‘check-in’. They turn around to watch the defensive players instead of focusing on the play.
Brené Brown talks about this in her work on leadership:
Vulnerability is the courage to trust people even when you can't control the outcome.
That's what pocket presence demands. The courage to stand in the chaos and trust your team.
The critical part?
Clarity creates trust and trust enables execution.
In the NFL, a quarterback can only trust their offensive line because everyone knows their responsibility.
If your team doesn't know their role, understand the expectation or have the autonomy to execute, then you can not trust them. Not because they're not capable, but because you haven't set them up to succeed.
Dan Sullivan says it clearly in his book Who Not How: "Autonomy without clarity is ultimately a disaster."
Your job as a leader isn't to do everyone's job. It's to create clarity so they can do theirs.
Then you can stand in the pocket and trust the system you've built.
The best business leaders operate the same way.
The Reflection.
Do you trust your team to execute knowing that you don’t see the whole field?
Best,
Daniel Holloway
Founder, Sport of Business
P.S. Know someone building a business who thinks like an athlete? Forward this to them. The best performances are by those who understand the game.