Season Two of Ted Lasso: A Master Class in Soft Skills

In the first article titled Ted Lasso: A Master Class in Soft Skills, we learned that Lasso is brilliant at creating synergy, transparency, and a psychologically safe environment for effective communication while combining collaboration, teamwork, and creativity into a dynamic learning system greater than the sum of its parts. In season two, the show dives deeper into soft skills with characters dealing with career, relationship, and personal issues from the past, along with a major conflict within the coaching staff.

Sports Psychology and Anti-Silo Relationships

After Danny accidentally kills the team mascot on a penalty kick, Higgins recommends a sports psychologist to deal with Danny's "yips." Ted reluctantly agrees while stating transparently what many coaches feel when bringing someone in from the outside: it puts "knots in his belly." Sports psychology should be a vital component of an embedded high-performance department, but numerous coaches sometimes do not like what is not understood. With applied sports science being new in the US, a natural resistance to change exists with turf battles and often irrational fear of losing power. Lasso-level soft skills are necessary to develop anti-silo relationships by proving that you are only there to serve, support, and assist that strength department.

The show is commended for its cognitive diversity with a female minority psychologist in a male sport. Hopefully, we will not have to mention this fact in the future but only the hiring of a qualified professional. The multilingual Dr. Sharon Fieldstone immediately displays confidence and competence when introduced while quickly curing Danny of the "yips" to the surprise of Ted. Dr. Fieldstone also attends practice to further understand the culture — just as sports scientists should do and not just rely on data on a laptop.

AFC Richmond embodies four of the five characteristics of enhanced teams — dependability, meaning, impact, psychological safety — except for one: structure and clarity. This lack of well-defined roles may foreshadow future issues with Nate.

Growth Mindset

Excellent communication continues with the Diamond Dogs and allows players to speak freely while team unity grows with a united player protest. The show's characters, even reluctant Roy, are growth mindset examples with basic qualities cultivated through effort, instead of a fixed mindset with qualities set in stone. Mistakes are an opportunity to learn and growth mindset organizations have more collaboration, innovation, and trust. After Roy tries broadcasting, he helps the team as a coach and finally grows in his relationship with Keely. Ted creatively becomes "Led Tasso" — a yelling crazy coach who gets the team mad at him to forget about being mad at Jamie Tartt.

Ted's Mental Health

But Ted is avoiding helping himself by putting off meeting with Dr. Fieldstone. Ted has a panic attack during a game which he blamed on a stomachache. He finally asks to meet with Dr. Fieldstone but attacks her profession while being very defensive before finally telling her that his father committed suicide when he was 16. Dr. Fieldstone also deals with her own demons with apparent alcoholism and Ted assists with her issues. Ted shows transparency by admitting to the team regarding panic attacks.

Athletes and Mental Health

With the focus on mental health within the AFC Richmond team, it is worth mentioning real-life examples. Athletes have been told they were taught to "show no weakness" — such as tennis player Mardy Fish who had severe anxiety disorder and withdrew from the 2012 US Open. HBO's The Weight of Gold documentary narrated by Michael Phelps states admitting mental health issues is "at odds with being a competitor." The documentary stated 80% of Olympians, including medal winners, have post-Olympic depression. Michael Phelps states "it is ok not to be ok."

College athletics are understanding the importance of all aspects of athlete health with the University of Colorado's Whole Athlete Initiative — emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual health. Colorado partnered with Intelligence Platform provider Kitman Labs whose vision is to fundamentally change how the performance industry uses data to power performance, health, development, and talent strategy.

Nate — Psychological Safety Without Structure

Lasso had repeatedly given the former kitman Nate the psychological safety that created a culture to take interpersonal risks with coaching creativity — linked to higher team performance with more open-minded, motivated, and adaptable team members. It was refreshing to see a kitman with low confidence and parental issues work his way up to making a difference in coaching the team, but Nate did not remain humble and became obsessed with his reputation while treating players and staff rudely.

Beard overhears Nate's rudeness but does not tell Ted about the incident. Nate displays unethical behavior detrimental to the long-term success of the HP department and team by revealing private health information to the press concerning Ted's panic attacks. A rare communication breakdown existed in which Beard and Ted could have addressed Nate's behavior earlier to possibly prevent the Machiavellian behavior. As Nate goes from a naïve kitman to a power-hungry Machiavellian coach, we see the possible negative aspect of excessive psychological safety without assigned roles and continued communication.

Improving Soft Skills — Jesse Wright

An excellent personal sports science mentor, Jesse Wright developed Balancing the Bar virtual conference in 2021 with twenty high-performance professionals. Jesse has spent over two decades working in the NFL, NCAA, the private sector and most recently spent 14 years with the Philadelphia 76ers, first as the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach and then as the Director of Performance Science. "As we all seek the path that empowers us to have a lasting effect on others, let's recognize that interpersonal, or 'soft' skills play a major role in that journey. In high performance, power lies not only in what you know but in who you are," states Wright.

Wright also recently presented at the NSCA Coaches Conference with a focus on helping coaches lay a foundation for a greater understanding of the athletes they train, how athletes receive coaching and direction, and how they may consider refining their approach. I also highly recommend his book The Intent is to Grow which tells the journey of a young strength coach Nathan who could be described as the opposite of Ted Lasso — strong hard skills but lacking soft skills. The Six True Pro Attributes are:

VOICE — A game-changing analogy and model for strong communication skills, crafting the most effective message, and how adjusting your approach based on the audience is critical.
HUSTLE — 12 practical strategies that can help young professionals earn respect right away, rise through the ranks, and stand out amongst their peers.
SOUL — Research and details regarding empathy and compassion, real-world examples of how to go above and beyond for others to create real connection.
LEADERSHIP — A charming allegory to communicate all the important elements of transformational leadership and a servant-based approach to guiding others.
VISION — A creative combination of a children's game, sports analogies, and a 1980s movie reference to review the literature on self-awareness and cultural awareness.
VERSATILITY — How a generalist mentality makes for a great teammate and how having a flexible skillset can lead to big-time opportunities.

Other Resources

Simon Sinek discovered patterns in how great leaders and organizations communicate and described soft skills as "human skills required to be a better human." SureAthlete is attempting to quantify soft skills and define organizational cultures with Prism psychometric evaluations and behavioral analytics to train the "emotional, relational, and team intelligence" of coaches and players.

Dr. Pat Ivey is the Associate AD for Student-Athlete Health and Performance at the University of Louisville — a former college and NFL football player with over 20 years of experience and a Ph.D. in sports psychology. Louisville is at the forefront of applied sports science in the US with Director of Sports Science Ernie Rimer in an embedded High-Performance Department. Dr. Ivey leads a Mental Conditioning & Leadership Course with a focus on implementing 13 lessons to develop mental toughness and leadership to improve everyday performance in life and sport.

Summary

Ted Lasso is a heartwarming comedy while unknowingly demonstrating that "patterns of relationships among complex interactions" within physical, mental, technical, and tactical can be used to describe successful coaching/high-performance teams and winning sports teams. While the team finally begins to win, possible soft skills mistakes lead to internal conflict that negatively affects the team. Performing at a high level within sports, business, or a healthcare team requires these soft skills — such as communication, leadership, and accountability — and could be where the greatest improvements in healthcare and sport occur in the next generation.