Coaches & Leadership
The room you lead in was not designed with you in mind.
The institutional structures, the cultural assumptions, the informal networks, the way success gets evaluated and recognized — much of what surrounds the coaching role was built by men for men, and the adjustments made since then are real but incomplete. You are leading effectively inside a structure that was not designed for your effectiveness, and you know what that costs.
Read this passage slowly.
Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.
Judges 4:4–5 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Deborah was leading Israel. Not leading despite being a woman. Not leading in the absence of male options. Leading — exercising genuine authority, making consequential decisions, being sought out because of the quality of the judgment she provided. The text does not treat her leadership as exceptional in a way that requires apology or explanation. It states it as fact.
The female coach in an athletic institution carries something Deborah would recognize: the exercise of genuine authority in a context that did not automatically confer it, that required it to be earned through the quality of the judgment, the consistency of the character, and the excellence of the work. That is a heavier load than the one carried by a leader whose authority is assumed by the structure. It is also a different kind of credibility when it is established.
The institutional environment that was not built for you is a real constraint. It is not the final word on what you can build within it. The coach who leads with full awareness of the constraints and full investment in the calling — who does not wait for the institution to change before demonstrating what excellent leadership looks like — builds something that the institution eventually has to reckon with.
Lead fully. The room is yours.
The institutional environment that was not built for you is a real constraint. It is not the final word on what you can build within it. Lead fully. The room is yours.
What specific institutional constraint do you navigate most regularly? What would it look like to lead at full capacity within that constraint rather than waiting for it to be removed?
Practical and grounding. The question focuses energy on what is within reach rather than what requires institutional change.
Lead fully. The room is yours. The constraints are real and they are not the final word.
This devotional is for female coaches and women in athletic leadership. Deliver only in that setting.