Leading the next Cubs core. Build your leadership identity, communication toolkit, and daily teammate impact system — before the captain's role finds you.
The research on team cohesion and performance consistently shows that psychological safety — the sense that it's safe to take risks, speak up, and be yourself — is the strongest predictor of team performance, above and beyond individual talent. Google's Project Aristotle, the most comprehensive study of team performance ever conducted, found this across every team type they studied.
In baseball, psychological safety looks like: the veteran who checks on the struggling rookie, the leader who doesn't change after a bad game, the player who knows when to break tension and when to get serious. Steve Kerr has described his entire coaching philosophy as creating an environment where players feel "safe to be themselves and free to compete at their highest level." David Esquer's approach at Stanford has a similar DNA — a culture of accountability that's rooted in care, where the standard is high and the environment is human. Both of them figured out what the research confirms: the culture is the competitive advantage.
You're in a position right now where the Cubs are in transition — experienced enough to be a model for younger players, young enough to be a peer rather than a distant veteran. That's a specific kind of leadership that requires intentional development. This module builds it.
Steve Kerr built a Warriors dynasty on a culture he described with one word: joy. Not comfort — joy. The joy of competing, of caring about teammates, of playing the game the right way. He learned it partly from Phil Jackson, partly from losing his father, and partly from a career that taught him what really matters. "The culture," Kerr has said, "is the competitive advantage." That's not soft — that's the reason four championships happened at Chase Center.
David Esquer has built Stanford Baseball on a similar foundation — connecting competitive excellence to something larger than individual results. His players graduate. They develop. They come back. The culture he's built on the Farm is one where the standard is clear, the expectation is excellence, and the environment makes people want to meet it. From the Bay to Wrigley, this is what lasting leadership looks like: not a title, but a standard you set with your own behavior every single day.
Leadership isn't one style — it's a repertoire you deploy situationally. Select the style that resonates most right now, and reflect on when it works and when you need to draw from the others.
Build your communication playbook for six key leadership communication scenarios in the Cubs clubhouse.
The biggest leaders do the smallest things consistently. Build your daily teammate impact system — specific behaviors you commit to regardless of how you played or how you feel.
Mark each day you made an intentional leadership impact — a conversation, a behavior, a moment of connection.
Season 2 is done. You have the routine, the pressure response, the defensive awareness, and the leadership toolkit. Season 3 is the long game.