Three Leadership Lessons From Seahawks GM John Schneider | The GM Journey

I had a blast sitting down with Seahawks General Manager John Schneider in the latest episode of The GM Journey ! I joined John in Bellevue, Washington, to dig into how he's become one of the most popular GMs in the league since assuming the role in 2010.

Listen to the full episode here .

It's hard to choose only a few favorite moments from our conversation so be sure to listen to the full episode, but here are three of my favorite leadership insights from John.

1. Figure out what uniquely differentiates you.

Becoming a front office executive is no short-term pursuit. John has had a successful career spanning scouting, player personnel and football operations roles, so I knew he would have impactful advice for aspiring executives. His recommendation: Figure out what is going to separate you from your peers.

"Well, it's so different now. Right? We get these resumes where guys have their Master's in sports administration - that really didn't exist when we were coming out, right? So what's going to separate you from the next guy? You know, like we said, nobody's training us to do this. Now, we do have these bigger organizations now - the Ohio States and the Alabamas and the Clemsons have their own personnel department, right? So you can go there and guys can come out of that. But like, what can you take to [your potential boss] to show him that you're different, and that you're going to make a difference for the organization, and that you're going to bring it every day and you're going to be special?"

2. "If you're going to go for it, go for it being yourself."

I truly believe John is one of the most well-liked GMs in the league, partially because of the way he builds his teams, but also because of how personable and affable he is. There's a notion with some folks around the league that when you come into a GM position, you have to be a bit of a harsh hard-ass, but John does not fit that mold. He explained to me how he got to a point in his career where he realized that he would have higher potential to succeed if he worried about being the best version of himself instead of worrying about trying to emulate other people.

"There became a point where in my career, just from a confidence standpoint, I just felt like just be yourself, if you're going to go for it, go for it being yourself... I got to a point where I saw a number of really good evaluators fail because they got into a leadership position where they tried to be [someone else], right? As you know, we have to make decisions like that every day. And if you don't know who you are at your core then how are you going to get to making those decisions in a quick manner, right?"

3. Playing is not a required prerequisite for becoming a great leader.

John and I spent some time talking about the league's DEI efforts and rising stars in the Seahawks organization. John made a great point about the misconception that talented leaders and coaches are all former players. He called out the fact that playing experience is not a required prerequisite to becoming successful in a front office or team role.

"My argument is, you know, there's a couple scouts in the NFL that I know that never played, there have been guys who've been head coaches that never played, so why can't a female evaluate people and coach?"

Thanks to John for joining the podcast...one of my favorite episodes thus far. Be sure to check it out!

Next on The GM Journey: Andrew Berry, general manager of the Cleveland #Browns !

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