When you silence the noise, the signal appears.
That’s true in sport and leadership.
• Behaviours beat narratives—watch what people do, not what they say.
• Private disciplines drive public results—habits when no one’s watching compound.
• Character is the edge—honesty, humility, and hard work show up when you turn the volume off and the spotlight down.
As an outsider to sports management, it took me a while to understand winning and losing games during a season.
Regardless of our performance, the outcome of the game dictated our response—reflect and learn from losses or rejoice and celebrate wins.
The problem, of course, is that winning and losing, certainly in a finite ecosystem such as a league or game environment, is a poor indicator because it is comparative.
In other words, it doesn’t matter how badly you play; if you were better than the opposition, even marginally, you won. Sometimes that margin could be a point, a free throw, a bad referee decision, or just plain luck.
This mindset can be limiting – narrowing ones focus to transactional tactics rather than aspirational, purpose-driven cultures. But more on that later…
All the coaches I worked with usually paid particular attention to the game tape after a loss. The version we received post-game by our video coach was always edited to remove breaks, timeouts, and audio.
It was fascinating to review a game with the sound off! It seemed like a completely different game to the one I witnessed firsthand the night before.
Pressing the Mute Button
Because when you turn the volume off, you also shut out the noise—and all you have is the signal!
You have clarity.
You see things for what they are without the narrative, the excuses, the sound bites, the spin.
Without commentary, crowd noise, or sideline interviews, you’re forced to focus on what truly matters: the movement, positioning, effort, and chemistry. You see who hustles on defense, who cuts without the ball, who dives on the loose ball, who communicates with body language, and who quietly leads by action.
In management and leadership, it pays to turn down the volume on what people are saying and instead tune in to what they are doing.
It is easy to be seduced by charisma. Psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic shows that overconfidence is often mistaken for competence—especially in leaders.¹ As he notes in Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?, flashy language and bold promises often mask deeper deficits in empathy, humility, and follow-through.
In an age of social media where soft-focus, varnish, exaggerations, and AI-enhanced narratives can muddy the waters on what is real, leaders must increasingly press the mute button to avoid being duped by hyperbole.
In business, these individuals might dominate meetings or write inspiring memos but underperform when it matters.
Good leaders don’t just evaluate what’s being said; they weigh it against what’s being done.
We must not be influenced.
We must tune out the noise and discern truth.
Away from the Spotlight
What happens when no one is watching? For it is what we do in darkness that truly defines us.
Individual character, when aggregated and compounded, defines team culture.
The only way to shape culture is by recruiting people of good character, micromanaging deviations, and compounding good habits.
All else is noise.
But how do we identify good character? We believe in honesty, humility, and hard work as three key metrics that separate good team players from bad ones.
A key test is what people do when the lights are dimmed and no one is watching.
What does one do when there are no consequences?
How does a potential candidate treat the receptionist? The security guard at the entrance? The waiter at the restaurant?
How sincere, truthful, faithful, and dedicated are they in their personal lives with their family and friends?
How disciplined are they with their appetites, addictions, and temptations?
Aiyesha Dey’s “When Hiring CEOs, Focus on Character” highlights the importance of character traits and personal conduct in predicting leadership success or failure.² Her research, ranging from diplomats and parking tickets to Tyco’s CEO Dennis Kozlowski—who spent $6,000 on a shower curtain and $15,000 on an umbrella stand for a New York apartment and was later convicted of 22 criminal charges and served six and a half years in prison—clearly outlines the correlation between private behavior and ethical performance.
Definitely before, and certainly after, any recruitment decision, leaders must look for lead indicators away from the spotlight. For this is when one’s true character is evidenced.
Private Habits – Public Results
“Is there a court I can train on tomorrow morning?” this player asked midway through our championship celebrations. I thought I misheard his request amidst the deafening celebrations. He asked again and left me with no doubt.
“Why tomorrow? Don’t you want to take a break and enjoy the moment?”
“I don’t want to miss a day of training,” he replied.
And so he did. Show up. As he did every day without fail. Even when the others took days off. He was always early, last to leave, bugging the coaches to rebound.
When the volume is off and lights are dimmed, disciplined habits shine through.
This player went on to win multiple league MVP titles, averaging more minutes per game than anyone else. Because he’d trained for it.
Hard work leaves tracks.
“Level 5 Leaders aren’t necessarily the loudest voices in the room,” as Jim Collins put it.³ “But they build great organizations by quietly modeling the behaviors they expect from others—discipline, consistency, and ethical action.”
Mind the Gap
What are we looking for then?
Using our model of honesty, humility, and hard work with the lens that looks for private consistent rituals without the fanfare, we focus on consistency.
The ability to string consecutive actions together to form good habits that become normalized—character forming, identity shaping.
We want to exclude the outliers and focus on consistency.
For in a game, you can only count on what is consistent. Not the one-off standouts. Everyone has good days and bad days.
But the ones that narrow down the gap between their best and worst performances are the ones you can rely on.
And reliability is what counts in team performance.
5 Practical Next Steps to Implement This in Your Workplace
1. Implement “Mute Button” Performance Reviews
– During quarterly reviews, spend 30 minutes analysing each team member’s actual work output and deliverables without considering their verbal contributions in meetings or presentations
– Create a simple tracking system that measures actions vs. words: track what people commit to versus what they actually deliver
– Use objective metrics (project completion rates, quality scores, peer feedback on actual work) rather than self-reported achievements
2. Establish “Character Observation” During Recruitment
– Include informal interactions in your hiring process: have candidates interact with reception staff, security, or junior team members, then quietly gather feedback
– Ask behavioural questions about how candidates handle situations when no one is watching: “Tell me about a time you went above and beyond when you knew no one would notice”
– Check references specifically about character traits, asking former colleagues about the candidate’s consistency and integrity in daily interactions
3. Create “Spotlight Off” Accountability Systems
– Implement anonymous peer feedback systems that focus on day-to-day behaviours rather than high-visibility achievements
– Track aspirational habits – even micro habits – helping colleagues without being asked, and following through on small commitments
– Establish “consistency metrics” that measure the gap between someone’s best and worst performance over time
4. Institute “No-Noise” Decision Making Protocols
– For important decisions, require a “data-only” phase where teams present information without commentary, spin, or persuasive language
– Create structured evaluation processes that separate what people say they will do from evidence of what they have done
– Establish regular “action audits” where you compare stated intentions from meetings with actual outcomes, addressing gaps directly
5. The Marvin Scout
Shameless sales pitch here – but we developed the marvinScout specifically to analyse character and engagement of individuals. Unlike the many psychometric tests on the market our Scout Survey looks for Honesty, Humility and Hardwork – amongst other key character-based metrics.
These steps will help you build a culture that values authentic performance over performative behaviour, creating a more reliable and trustworthy team environment.
Footnotes
¹ Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2019). Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It). Harvard Business Review Press. Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/08/why-do-so-many-incompetent-men
² Dey, A. (2022). “When Hiring CEOs, Focus on Character.” Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2022/03/when-hiring-ceos-focus-on-character
³ Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. HarperBusiness. Level 5 Leadership concept available at: https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/level-five-leadership.html
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