Leadership Growth: Escaping the "Control Trap" for Young Coaches

In college football, the leap from hands-on contributor to true organizational leader often marks the biggest turning point in a coach’s development. A video that surfaced recently captured PJ Fleck reflecting on exactly that shift — moving beyond the urge to control every detail and instead focusing on culture, vision, and empowering others.

The core message was direct: “Control is for amateurs.”

As the leader of the program, the head coach’s primary job is to set the tone and the message while serving as the living example of the culture 24/7. Everything else comes down to hiring strong people and then trusting them to do their jobs.

This advice highlights a common early-career pitfall many coaches encounter. When you’re younger or earlier in your leadership journey, it’s natural to try to do more yourself — to stay involved in every meeting, every drill, every decision, wanting to control the way everything is done within "your" program. But that approach has limits. The real growth comes when you recognize that your value as a leader is no longer measured primarily by how much work you personally complete.

Instead, it’s measured by how many people around you can thrive and perform at a high level without you doing the work for them.

That transition is often one of the hardest parts of leadership. It requires letting go of the need to have your fingerprints on everything and shifting focus toward building a staff and program that can sustain excellence independently. By hiring the right people and creating an environment where they can operate with autonomy, a leader multiplies their impact far beyond what any single person could achieve alone.

Fleck’s comments underscore a broader principle for anyone stepping into a head-coaching or coordinator role: your greatest legacy isn’t the plays you call or the schemes you install — it’s the people you develop and the culture you establish that continues to drive success long after any individual game or season.

For young coaches and rising leaders in the profession, the takeaway is clear. Resist the “control trap.” Set the standard, live it every day, surround yourself with talented people you trust, and measure your effectiveness by how well the organization runs when you’re not in the middle of every detail.

That mindset doesn’t just make you a better coach — it builds programs that last.

Have a listen as PJ Fleck explains this mindset change.