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Leadership Lessons from Coach Williams’ Retirement Press Conference

I’ve been a UNC Tar Heel basketball fan ever since my family moved from Kentucky to North Carolina in 1985. My dad has always been a sports’ fan. He’s began cheering for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team when he moved to Kentucky for Bible College. When a pastoral calling brought our family back to North Carolina when I was five, we could only watch local sports. So we watched a lot of UNC basketball. I began cheering for UNC with Coach Dean Smith and players like Rick Fox, J. R. Reid, Hubert Davis (current coach at UNC), Donald Williams, George Lynch, Eric Montross, and many others. As a kid, I pulled for UNC because I loved the color of Tar Heel Blue. But over the years, I grew to be a fan of all things Tar Heel athletics.

As UNC fan, I was saddened by Dean Smith’s retirement in 1997, but happy for Coach Gutheridge to get a chance at leading the UNC men’s basketball program. I was a fan through the Matt Doherty years which were difficult. And then with other UNC fans, I was thrilled that native son Roy Williams would be returning to coach UNC, the program where he began his coaching career as an assistant under Dean Smith.

Three national championships later and Coach Roy Williams is one of the greatest coaches in college basketball. Known for his work ethic and straight talk, he’s always been one of my favorite personalities to watch. He cares deeply about winning and has kept the same Carolina Family atmosphere that fans have grown to love. On April 1 of this year, news came out that Roy Williams was going to retire. I thought it was an April fool’s joke.

Later that day I listened to Roy William’s press conference where he detailed his decision process for stepping away from the UNC program. As a Tar Heel fan, I can admit that I had a tear or two listening to Coach Roy comment on stepping down.

You may be reading this and not care a thing about basketball or you may pull for a different team. That’s ok. This post is not an apologetic for UNC basketball. But I do want to highlight three leadership lessons that stood out at Roy William’s retirement press conference.

Leaders don’t make excuses. The last couple of years for UNC basketball have not been typically as successful as previous years. There are many reasons for these struggles: injuries, players leaving for the NBA early, the pandemic, etc. There are also extenuating circumstances like the coming “NIL: Name, Image, Likeness” issues that are about to affect college athletes, programs, and schools. When media gave Coach Williams a chance to place blame on some of these issues, he simply didn’t. Leaders are effective because they don’t make excuses.

Leaders take responsibility. Taking responsibility is a corollary to the previous lesson. Coach Williams could have blamed the environment, players, or the coming changes in college athletics. Instead he said something like this, “I’m not the right man for the job anymore. I just couldn’t get through to the players.” As a fan it was obvious that part of UNC’s problem in the last couple of years was a talent deficiency. But as a leader, Coach Williams would not blame the players. He owned the record, the struggles, and the team. Leaders take responsibility when things go poorly. They look inside first. They self-examine and refuse to blame others.

Leaders give away credit. Coach Williams credited his players, Coach Smith, his assistants, and others who supported him for the program’s success under his leadership. One of the values Coach Smith emphasized for his players was pointing to the person who gave you the assist. It is a way of sharing credit and saying “Thank you.” To be a successful leader means that there are plenty of people in your circle of influence who have helped you to be successful.

These three leadership lessons can help any leader of any organization of any size be more effective with the people they are leading. Before concluding this post, let me offer an observation and a warning.

Here’s the observation.

Coach Williams’ retirement press conference felt more like a funeral, than a recognition of a hall of fame coach retiring from a successful career. As a UNC fan, the press conference was obviously sad. But it felt sadder than it should have. Why? I think that’s partly due to Coach Williams’ approach to life and coaching. Known for his work ethic, Coach Williams obsessively values hard work and effort. He poured his life into his work as he details in his book entitled Hard Work: A Life on and off the Court.

Here’s the warning.

Leaders must be careful not to find their identity in their work or the success of their leadership. After listening to the press conference, it was not difficult to connect the challenges of the past few seasons at UNC with Williams’ self-evaluation. Rather than celebrate what had been, Williams questioned what could have been. I don’t have any insights into Coach Williams’ faith or lack thereof. But Coach Williams’ retirement press conference serves as a warning to leaders. As a follower of Jesus, I cannot find my identity in my work, my level of effort, my success, or my leadership. Jesus followers must find their identity in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Nothing else will satisfy. Leadership success will ebb and flow. Quality work will satisfy only until one is unable to work. If we identify ourselves with our labors, then, when our labors are through, we will have a hard time discovering who we are and what really matters in life.

The Bible teaches us in Romans 12:8 that the one who leads must lead with zeal or diligence. Jesus modeled servant leadership. Paul modeled leadership through a team. And I can tell you that leading a church or organization is hard work. It is part of that labor and work that God created his followers for (see Ephesians 2:10).

But we need to balance this effort and labor of leadership against the truth of the gospel. In the gospel Christ worked for our salvation. In the gospel, Christ led where we could not follow. Only Jesus could be the sacrifice and substitute for our sins. We do not labor in leadership and works in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we labor and work from the salvation we’ve received through Christ. Our identity is bound up in grace, not personal success. Our identity is found in Christ, not in our labors and leadership.

So, let’s learn these lessons well. Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility. Give credit to others. But remember that your identity is in Jesus, not the success or failure of your leadership. And Jesus cannot fail. That is good news for the follower of Christ. When our labors are done and we retire from this earthly life into heaven, we can celebrate. For our hope is not in our success, but it is found in the victory of Christ.

Word of the Week: Theology (it’s more than academic)

A tale of two Januaries.

January 2020. I began a Bible study series at my church teaching theology, or the doctrine of God. That series was cut short because of the way the pandemic affected our church programming. Due to scheduling, we have not yet been able to bring that series back to an in-person study though we are hopeful we can in the future.

January 2021. I began posting a word of the week where I defined a theological term. In previous word of the week posts, I’ve dealt with terms associated with the doctrine of Christ (Christology) and the doctrine of salvation (soteriology). In today’s post, I’m going to back up and highlight the broader subject of theology and its importance for Christian living.

Theology is the study of God and God’s relation to the world. It is important to note that everyone does theology, though not everyone does theology well. Whenever we speak to an issue from the perspective of God or Scripture, we are doing theology.

When you say, “God wouldn’t be happy with a particular word or deed,” you are doing theology. 

When you say, “God wants you to live a certain way,” you are doing theology. 

Theology is a course of study in Bible Colleges and Seminaries. It is taught for pastors, missionaries, and ministers. But because everyone who discusses God’s relation and expectations in the world is doing theology, any follower of Jesus can and should learn basic biblical doctrines. These word of the week posts that I share weekly are one of my attempts to help us as followers of Jesus better understand God and Christian doctrine.

There are different theological disciplines that shape how we understand theology as both an academic pursuit and as a practical guide for Christian living. 

Biblical theology—Investigates how each author or book of the Bible considers a particular doctrine. 

Historical theology—How different doctrinal ideas arose and were developed in history. 

Systematic theology—Is a collection of Bible doctrines that flows out of an organized, logical framework. These posts and the terms they define flow out of systematic theology.

Practical theology—Connects doctrines to daily living. 

We need each discipline for clear understanding of God, his Word, and our place in God’s plan. Think of these four disciplines as different perspectives. If one explored the contours of a metropolitan city like New York from a helicopter, this would be like our view of theology from a systematic perspective. Driving through the Burroughs of the city would be like exploring the of the city from a biblical theology perspective. Searching out how the city’s history shapes its current makeup would be exploring the city from the perspective of historical theology. And walking through the city engaging with cab drivers and local shop owners would be exploring the city through the perspective of practical theology. When it comes to Scripture and theology, we need each of these four perspectives to best understand who God is, who we are, and what God expects of us.

It is right to think of theology as a basis for knowledge. But it is not correct to categorize theology as a primarily academic or intellectual pursuit.

We take our understanding of knowledge from the Greek worldview. Gnosis in the Greek language emphasizes cognitive or intellectual understanding. Much of our educational model in the West is shaped after this academic paradigm.

But the Old Testament in particular and the Bible in general offers another, deeper perspective on knowledge. The Hebrew word for knowledge that is used extensively for knowing God is da’at. This term means relational knowledge. While it does not exclude an intellectual component for knowledge, the cognitive is not the primary means of knowing.

One of the classic verses on knowing God stands out here.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

The word for knowledge is the Hebrew word da’at. The verse indicates that reverential awe and respect of God for who he is is the beginning of the relational knowledge of God.

This biblical view on knowledge is important for our theological understanding in at least two important ways.

First, knowing God relationally as well as intellectually shapes our understanding of salvation. Salvation is not just an intellectual assent of the facts of the gospel. Salvation is not less than this assent. We need to know the facts about Jesus (his person as God and man, his perfect life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and ascension into heaven) for our salvation. But merely acknowledging facts is insufficient biblically. This is because knowing God is more than intellectual. It is relational. Trusting in Christ for salvation is a personal and relational response to the gospel. Salvation necessitates confession and repentance acknowledging the broken relationship between man and God. Salvation necessitates trusting in Christ alone to repair that broken relationship granting us the privilege of knowing God relationally. Salvation also anticipates the expectation that trusting Christ alone brings us into relationship with God whereby we follow him with our life and choices.

Second, knowing God relationally underscores the practicality of theology. Knowing more about God intellectually, doctrinally, or academically is only part of the equation. As a professor at Bible college, I try to instill in my students this important recognition. If we know about God academically so that we can pass a class, but fail to grow in knowing God relationally, we’ve missed the point. Knowing about God rightly can help us to know God better relationally.

Right knowledge is both relational and intellectual.

Sarah P. Sumner, “Intellectual Discipleship and the Value of Theological Education” in Theology, Church and Ministry: A Handbook for Theological Education

I believe that growth in our knowledge of God and his work in the world is vital to the Christian faith. My hope is that these posts help you to know God better intellectually, but more than that inspire you to know God in a deeper way relationally.

Photo by Hieu Vu Minh on Unsplash