694: Clark Lea - LIVE! At The 2026 Learning Leader Growth Summit: The Mission Is Winning, Checking the Cabinets, Leading as an Introvert, Alabama Week, Decoupling Worth From Outcomes, and Building a Championship Culture

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Clark Lea, Vanderbilt's head football coach, shares insights on leadership, culture, and personal growth during a live session at the 2026 Learning Leader Growth Summit. He discusses turning around a winless program, leading as an introvert, and building a championship culture rooted in relationships and resilience.

Key takeaways

• Winning starts with self-reflection and long-term vision over short-term outcomes.
• Great leadership blends technical mastery, genuine relationships, and curiosity.
• Decoupling self-worth from results fosters resilience and sustainable growth.

Transcript preview

I don't know if it's always a good idea to rank somebody on a 1 to 10 scale but for the purpose of this example I'm going to if you view yourself as an 8 or a 9 who wants to be a 10 if you're the type of person who wants to put a positive dent in the world then I have something for you my next book comes out soon it's called the price of becoming I love it if you would pre-order it now go to Amazon or learning leader dot com all the details on my book the price of becoming pre-order it now thank you let's get on with a show welcome to the learning leader show presented by Insight Global I am your host Ryan Hawk thank you so much for being here go to learning leader for show notes of this and all podcast episodes go to learning leader dot com now onto the night's featured leader he's back Clark Lee head football coach at Vanderbilt spent 14 years as an assistant coach including three as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame before returning to his alma mater in 2021 to inherit a program that had gone winless the year before he's now the back-to-back SEC coach architect of one of the great turnarounds in college football history. We recorded this conversation at our 2026 Learning Leader Growth Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. We were surrounded by members of our Learning Leader Circle while recording. It was so cool. During our conversation, we discussed. Clark's a self-described introvert who was told by a mentor that there are times you're not allowed to be one. he's grown into the role. Then from zero wins to beating the number one team in the country, the full story of that Alabama week, the preparation, the game, the practicing in the jubulation afterwards. And then why he had more captains than any team in the country and what that says about how he builds a winning team. Really, really good. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy my conversation with Clark. Lee. What's up, man? I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you. I just mentioned the idea that you took over a program that won zero games and had to find a way to turn it around. You also are a local guy here. You care deeply about the place where you're at. What does it like at the beginning of that process right after you get hired? What are the first, I don't know, the first three days? 30 days, 100 days like, what are you trying to accomplish in that time? I think, first of all, it's so awesome to be with you guys. And this is like a little bit of a dangerous choice by you because you're in SEC country and some people may love me and some people may hate me. So I'm grateful to be with you. I think in so many ways when I took the team over, I didn't actually know. I mean, you get the job because of how you performed as a defense coordinator in my case. I'm, and prepares you for what this seat is like. So I think a lot of it was just I was pretending to know what I was doing. You know like I did interview like 17 offensive coordinator so that was pretty extensive. I was trying to build a staff. I was thinking about what I wanted, what we were going to tear off the walls. I mean it was just it was everything and yet I feel like if I reflect back without judgment because I you know how do you know I probably screwed 50% of it you can pivot but as you mentioned we had a really sick program and so there was a lot of triaging that had to happen and so I had a little bit of a runway there to make my mistakes and to learn from them I think Candice took a bet on what five years would look like not necessarily what your one would look like and I'm grateful for that too. You mentioned you interviewed all those offensive coordinators so more broadly maybe you speak to that hire or all of your staff hires I'm fascinated by the hiring process when it comes to leave What are some of those must-haves when you're hiring someone to be a coach on your staff? So much of it is, for me, has been a journey of really understanding what I want our program to look like. This is where losing is such a powerful teacher, even though we don't want to experience it, we have to, it almost cleanses us or purifies us in certain ways. When you're not having success results, you can make a couple of choices, one of which is to blame other people and there are plenty of coaches and there are that actually probably feels a little better. You know, you can take total responsibility and then get into this kind of like cocoon of self-pity and self-judgment. I don't think that's healthy either or you can say, okay, like, what am I learning or what am I meant to be learning right now? This is always what I had in my mind and I'm a special kind of screwed up. I'm the Vanderbilt football coach. You guys understand it's like there's a special kind of maniacal that exists in here, but I felt as though breakthrough was inevitable. if it was a matter of when. I was hopeful that it would happen while I was here. Because that's how deeply I believed in the potential of the place. And so when I was going through these things, I would say, okay, if I could fast forward 15 years and I could look back on this moment, what am I meant to be learning right now that will help me pivot, help me adjust, help me adapt, help me grow that will lead to that inevitable breakthrough? So it's always. looking or reflecting on the moment from a place in the future and that places of success and breakthrough and saying what is it that I did now what is that I learned now that allowed the evolution to occur so to go back and talk about staffing or hiring which I think is the most challenging thing but it has become not easier I've become more effective the more in focus I am in what I want from our program in 23 we had our second, so we went two in 10 and 21, five and seven and 22, two in 10 and 23. And that was kind of the moment where I thought, okay, I'm not guaranteed kind of the vision I'd had. It's almost like letting go of the expectations that I came in with of like parades and statues and all those things and realizing like, okay, this may not happen. What do I want to be proud of in the attempt? That was really helpful to me. because you just start to refine or simplify the way you see the world. I want to play good football. I want to be known to be a team that fights and scraps and plays for all four quarters and is always a tough out. I want to be around a group of people that care about one another. And I want to feel genuine and authentic. I want to stop with all these facades that I see every day. Well, to stop that, I've got to I've got a strip mine down too. I've got to enter the building unguarded. So if you're really. in I think it becomes really clear on whether or not they not just fit but they can help elevate you towards the vision of what you want and I think the contrast can be dramatic the more we are very specific about who we are and what we want the more anything that doesn't like look like sound like talk like that becomes easy to say discard there's three things that light me on fire every single day about coaching the first of the three is relationships And that means that I need people that are willing to create a sense of belonging for someone else. Will they sit with the person, see them for who they are, see them for what they want in the world, and realize they are a conduit to that outcome. Think about the responsibility embedded in that. Think about the honor it is to steward that kind of journey, but that's ours. So that relationship matters. We spend so much time parenting our own kids. The role is to parent other people's kids. And it can't be manipulative. And it can't be manipulative. And it can't be manipulative. It can't be do this because it's what I want. It's do this because it's in your best interest. So relationships first. Second is this technical aspect of coaching. And this is true across any field. It just so happens like we play football and there's footwork and there's pad level and there's strike points and there's all these things that are fundamental technical. When I learned as a coach that I could build skill and another human that I could help them acquire skill to help them navigate a play. I became like just totally nerdy about it and so that started for me with this book Talent Code by Daniel coil which was like a game changer for me just learning the science of building skill the wrapping a mile and all the things the spirit of repetition so the technical parts of it I need to hear fascination from a person a coach a curiosity someone in search of a better way to do it and the third is the tactical or the teaching those three things you know demonstrated ability to navigate the relationships. They need to have a curiosity for the technical and I need the clear communication that this guy is going to take hard things and make them simple. Can they chunk the information? Can they communicate in a way that's consistent and repetitive? Those were kind of the foundation of what a coach in our program looks like. In addition to that it's like you have to be a little maniacal alongside me. And I don't do this in like dumb ways. and I'm not one of those guys where it's like, oh, it's fourth and goal every day in the office. Like I don't live that way. But we chase our curiosity, we build connection with one another, you need to be a part of a team. That team has a deep belief in what's possible at Vanderbilt. Because for forever, the world has told us what's impossible there. And so we have to be able to reject external narratives and focus and focus only on what we're doing inside. And in that way, we're kind of like building a cult, I think, I think, so anyways. So anyways. curiosity is one of my favorite things about you is how curious and kind and generous you are but also you'd think with all this success you're like all right people are just gonna come to me and we're asking me questions and yet I asked where have you been you've been on the road well you've been up with the Milwaukee Brewers you're gonna go with the Baltimore Ravens you're still out there searching to learn what was it like you just got about for Milwaukee what's the purpose of going there what did you're happenstance connection for us that someone who cared about our program who was also kind of tied to the Brewers thought that it would be a good marriage. I went and saw him for the first time last spring in Arizona and I then went to Milwaukee and June last year. Went back to Arizona in the spring and just spent my second weekend in Milwaukee last weekend. The ball is different. The problems are the same. And I think this is true in these environments. too. I think if you really take time to listen to other leaders you realize like oh like this is all kind of the same what we're doing. But specifically with what the Brewers offer first of all Pat Murphy's their manager. He is the best at navigating the we are close because within 10 minutes he had me pegged and to be honest with you I think I had him pegged too and that's where we connected is like reading human behavior reading questions looking into curiosity, realizing there's real synergy. there. The human parts of leadership, the human parts of sport, he is a mastermind. And then on the front office side, you have a group of people who are insanely smart, who have created these systems that support winning on the field. And they're doing it, I think, better than anyone else in that league. And I don't know much about the major leagues, but you can look at the amount they're spending on the roster and their productivity and their wins and realize these guys are crushing it. So every time I'm with them there's one or two things that I'll take away that I think can help us evolve a system or change a perspective with how we're approaching a problem. And when I go on these trips that's what I'm looking for. How are they seeing the world? To be honest with you, sometimes it's easier for me when the ball is different because I don't walk in with this preconceived understanding of what they're doing. I actually walk in like trying to orient myself. And that means I ask a ton of questions. And that kind of starts a process for me where I'm pulling on a thread and ultimately I get to where, okay, this is how we might be able to apply this perspective or this banish point and what we're doing to. What are some of your favorite questions to ask? You know, typically, like I'll start, I mean, honestly, and just going back to this weekend, you know, and I'm sitting with the R&D group at the Brewers. You know if you guys remember this movie, I'm like we're all about the same generation here. Unfortunately, that means I'm getting old. But sorry, that was a, that was a shot at you guys. You guys are too polite. Yeah, so office space, and I mean, this is the worst, do you guys remember that movie? Okay, thank you. God, I went out on a limb there and you rescued me. And don't judge me for my taste in movies either, but it's a classic classic. It's a classic. So you remember the two guys. like what do you do what do you do yeah there the bobs this is great I like to start with like tell me what you do you know like and almost I thought about this this weekend because I'm like these guys probably think that Matt Arnold the GM has planted me here to check in on productivity there's so much I don't understand one of the things I love about that group is like how again fascinated these guys are with their roles and how interested they are at answering questions in our program is to have a group of people that are constantly thinking about what questions need to be answered. It's like knowledge is limiting. Once I know something I stop to pursue it. I think that's a really important thing, but when I have a question, it illuminates. I can chase that question for a long time. And so I think the questions we ask are the first kind of constraints we put on, the knowledge we attain and how we understand the world. And so I want to know what kind of questions we they're asking. What are they answering for? What are the problems they're solving for? When I sit with Murf or people in like those kind of human emotional roles where they're really interacting with like players or you know in our in our world, how quickly can I get past kind of like the touchy feeling good stuff and get to like hey tell me what's screwed up here? You know like I want to hear the worst of a player behavior or a point of a point of failure because now we can create relatability. Oh man, I've experienced that too. And you start to realize that like I think we live in a world where we think our problems are all our fault and they're not. What we are is problem solvers. So I tell our staff all the time that the problems are there, it's just whether or not you're willing to look for them. We say in our program, so I think I've got a little manual that we go through and it has some principles for our staff. One of them is check the cabinets That came from when my wife and I were in LA together, living together for the first time we had, it was like maybe 700 square feet, one bedroom, like it was tight. It was on the 12th floor, we were looking west in Santa Monica. I was working at UCLA at the time. Big kind of high-rise building there. And we're making dinner one night. I go to the cabinet with the pots to get a pot. I go down to get it and what do I find, like, of these little roaches running around, okay? Sorry if this is, I should have given a warning beforehand. But there's good news. I call down to the front desk and say, hey, we got a problem here. They're like, all right, here's the deal. Take everything out of your apartment and put it on the balcony. Be out of your apartment by 8 a.m. Don't return until 8 p.m. We'll come and fumigate and we'll make sure the roach should not. So we do it. We do it. We do it. We do it. We do it. We get back that night that night that night. gone, bring everything back in, life goes on. About a couple months later in the kitchen, bam, cabinet open, what is it, roaches? Okay, again, call down, move your stuff out, 8 a.m, come back 8 p.m. They'll be gone, sure enough, like magic, they're gone, come back, move everything back in, we're going. A couple months later, you know, what do we do? Open the cabinet? There they are again. So, you know, like I took me a while to figure this out, but else is a