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Thought leadership contribution from Dirk Holste
Picture this: a packed stadium, an eager crowd, and two teams lined up on the field. The whistle hasn’t blown yet, but something unusual is happening. The coach holds a microphone, and every player is wearing an earpiece.
“Pass now.”
“Run to the right.”
“Shoot!”
Every move is dictated. Every decision is micromanaged. No player reacts to the unfolding game; they wait for instructions instead. Within minutes, the coach is exhausted from issuing constant commands, and the players are drained from having to obey instead of think. They are no longer playing soccer — they are merely executing orders.
It’s an absurd scenario, yet many organisations unknowingly recreate it every day. Leaders believe they must control every detail to ensure success. They give directions, follow up, check outputs, and repeat. They carry the entire weight of performance on their own shoulders. But at what cost?
A team — in sport or in business — can never truly win under these conditions. Not because the players lack talent, but because they’re never given the trust or space to own the game.
What Great Coaches Do Differently
A wise coach understands that victory doesn’t come from controlling the game, but from developing the people who play it.
Instead of shouting commands, the coach:
- teaches players how to read the field,
- helps them interpret the opponent’s behaviour,
- explains strategy and the “why” behind it,
- builds cohesion and trust among teammates, and
- then steps back when the game begins.
Once the whistle blows, the coach cannot play. The players must make the decisions. They must read the moment, adapt, improvise, and create. When the match is won, it is not because a coach controlled every move — it is because the team executed with intelligence, skill, and unity.
That is the essence of real leadership.
Where Care & Growth Comes In
The Care & Growth model describes this shift beautifully.
Leadership is not about winning the match.
Leadership is about developing the players who can win the match.
A Care & Growth leader concentrates not on controlling outcomes, but on building capability, accountability, and confidence within the team. The real product of leadership is not the results achieved — it is the calibre of the people who achieve them.
- Care means the leader is invested in the person: their wellbeing, their success, their development.
- Growth means empowering people to take responsibility, understand their role deeply, and make decisions with increasing independence.
When leaders do this, control naturally turns into trust. People stop functioning as “resources” and start acting as responsible agents. They engage. They think. They contribute. And they innovate in ways no leader, no matter how skilled, could have dictated from the sidelines.
From Micromanagement to Collective Ownership
Care & Growth helps leaders move away from the exhausting illusion of control and toward a team-based approach to performance. It invites leaders to:
- focus on capability instead of compliance,
- invest in development rather than direction,
- and shift from doing the work themselves to enabling others to excel.
This shift transforms the culture of the organisation. When people feel trusted and capable, they stop looking over their shoulders and start looking ahead. They step forward. They take ownership. They bring their intelligence, initiative, and creativity to the work.
And when success comes, it is not a leader’s triumph alone — it is a victory created by the team.
The Final Truth
In both soccer and leadership, one principle holds true:
The leader does not win the game.
The team does.
A leader’s role is not to play every move, but to shape an environment where the players grow strong enough and confident enough to play brilliantly on their own.
Care & Growth gives leaders the tools to become that kind of coach — one whose legacy is not the goals they scored themselves, but the people who learned to win long after the leader stepped back…