Josh's Weekly Insights - February 18, 2026

“A coach’s job is to teach and demand. A players job is to prepare and perform.”

-PJ Fleck

This quote stuck with me this week because it clearly defines responsibilities. The job to teach someone, provide them with the tools, and then demand their commitment to the task is on a leader. However, the ultimate outcome relies on the team members ability to prepare for the moment and then perform when it matters the most.

I want to break down the team members portion of this because it has come up multiple times recently. 

The preparation component is one that trips some people up because they are waiting for the moment to show up before trying to ready themselves for it. However, then they aren’t ready to step into the spotlight because they failed in their preparation test. 

So,

the advice to take away from that piece is to always be preparing. Like a backup on a sports team, you don’t know if your number will be called. However, if your team member is injured and your number is called, you don’t get a chance to go back and run more reps to be ready for your moment. If you are constantly preparing, it doesn’t mean that you will be successful (plenty of teams that practice hard still lose). It does mean that you gave it your best and can be proud of the effort you put in to being ready. And if you didn’t prepare well, then it may be something that haunts your dreams.

The second piece is about performance. No matter how practiced something is, we can still trip up or make mistakes when it comes time to execute the plan. We are all human and make mistakes. Just look at the ongoing Winter Olympics and you can see countless stories where people were completely prepared and practiced for tons of hours but stumbled on the biggest stage. This is juxtaposed by the stories where unlikely underdogs had the performance of their lifetime and earned a medal. Performing under pressure is funny though, because many times that just means the next performance will bring higher expectations which means even heavier pressure. The best performers figure out how to clear their heads and ignore the pressure even if that isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

My encouragement for this week is to identify where you struggle the most. Is it your preparation or is it when you perform? Identify the area that is the hardest for you and then look for ways to overcome that roadblock. If you can improve you preparation and performance metrics in whatever role you have currently, don’t be surprised when new positions and opportunities present themselves.

Now get out there and crush your week!