On Sept. 30, Mike Tomlin will keynote the North Carolina Central Men’s Basketball Tip-Off Banquet in Durham. The event is open to the public.
Tomlin coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 19 seasons, never posting a losing record. His 19 straight non-losing seasons are the most to begin an NFL coaching career and are tied with Bill Belichick for the second-longest streak by any coach, behind Tom Landry’s 21. He won a Super Bowl in his second season and made the playoffs 13 times. Eight of those years, the Steelers won the AFC North.
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Tomlin stepped down in January and joined NBC Sports, rather than taking another coaching role. This is the first September in 19 years without a Steelers camp on his calendar, and he chose to spend part of it in Durham.
Influence is an asset
Successful leaders build more than income over a career. They build relationship capital, reputational capital, and access. People return their calls. Their recommendations open doors. Their presence puts a spotlight on people and programs that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Tomlin could speak anywhere in the country. He’s choosing Coach LeVelle Moton’s program, the winningest in NCCU history, built by a coach who grew up in Raleigh public housing, played for the Eagles himself, and has spent almost his whole career in the Triangle. Coach Moton is an example of a leader using his influence on something bigger than himself.
High standards and wider access are not competing ideas
Tomlin built his reputation on four words: “The standard is the standard.” Rosters changed. Many teams churned through coaches every few years. What he asked of his teams remained the same.
A lot of leaders treat raising the bar and widening who gets a shot at clearing it as a trade-off, but this mistaken idea just prevents talented individuals from getting in the game. Giving someone a legitimate opportunity tests whether they can meet the standard, nothing more and nothing less. I have watched leaders quietly protect a high bar by keeping the door narrow, when the harder (and better) move is to leave the bar exactly where it is and open the door wider.
Visibility isn’t the same as ability
Tomlin is proof of his own argument. Pittsburgh hired him in 2007 at 34. He had no head coaching experience and would be the youngest head coach in the NFL. Plenty of people questioned that hire. Tomlin answered the critics, winning a Super Bowl two years later.
Nobody lowered the standard to get Tomlin that job. Someone recognized what he could do before his résumé fully proved it.
Many leaders make this type of mistake. They assume the most credentialed person in the room is also the most capable. Sometimes that is true. More often, though, that person simply had more chances to show what they could do. Great leaders get better at spotting the second kind of talent before everyone else does.
I know this from the inside
I wrote a book called Underestimated because I spent years being judged on where I started, instead of what I could do. Grant Williard, my mentor and one of the Triangle’s great entrepreneurs, eventually gave me a shot before my résumé fully justified it. Grant opened a door instead. He expected performance, and I delivered.
Opening a door only guarantees a chance. What happens after that is based on performance, not pedigree. That distinction has shaped how I think about every hire, mentorship, and introduction I’ve made since.
What this has to do with you
Coach Moton built NCCU’s program on a similar idea: develop people, demand performance, and create chances that outlast a single season. Tomlin is lending part of his career to that work by speaking at the Tip-Off event.
If you are in the Triangle on Sept. 30, come hear Tomlin talk about it directly. Bring someone who has earned a seat in the room, but hasn’t been handed one yet. Corporate tables include added access before the event, and individual tickets are available to the public at NCCUTipOff.com.
Tomlin didn’t guide hundreds of players through 19 years without a losing season by lowering what he expected of them. He found success again and again by determining who could meet the standard once given the chance. Most of us don’t have Tomlin's platform, but we make the same choice every week, just as consequentially for the person on the other side of it.
About the Author
Donald Thompson is Managing Director of the Workplace Options Center for Organizational Effectiveness, host of the High Octane Leadership podcast, and author of The Employee Engagement Handbook.