About DeadThree - Coaching and Leadership Development
Every team plays to the standard its leader holds.
The DeadThree Coaching Show gives leaders a working system. No pep talks. Host George Evjen breaks down real team and leadership situations the way he does with clients: set the standard, build the discipline to hold it, then execute.
Every episode ties back to the SDE Framework (Standards, Discipline, Execution) or the Nine Principles of high-performing teams. Every episode ends with one move you can make in your next conversation.
Built for leaders and managers who already know culture matters and want to know what to do about it on Monday.
Take the free 30-question SDE assessment and get the SDE Playbook at deadthreecoaching.com (https://deadthreecoaching.com).
Your team isn't stuck because of bad ideas. It's stuck because everyone is waiting for permission.
Taking action and making mistakes is OK. Being idle is not. In episode 135, I break down WE 4 from Kyle McDowell's Begin With We, and I'll be honest: this is the one I struggle with most.
You can set great standards. You can lead by example and keep every commitment. If nobody on your team is willing to move, try or risk, everything you've built is a well-organized parking lot. Ideas, strategies and plans, parked and going nowhere.
McDowell tells a story about a leader named Bob. Bob heard a talk on culture, loved it and wanted to bring it to his team. First, he said, he'd need to ask permission. Permission to talk culture with his own team.
Who's stopping you? Nobody.
Bob is in every company, at every level. Senior leaders waiting for permission to do the very thing they were hired to do.
In this episode:
- Why being idle feels like caution and prudence, and why it's really a choice
- The question Jesse Itzler asks his kids every night at dinner: "What did you fail at today?"
- The best restaurant in the world, and the man in the back of the room who said, "That looks exhausting"
- What happens to people when you ask them to do less than they're capable of
- Why nobody pays for average
- Why "we've always done it that way" should be considered profane, and what Northwestern basketball teaches about losing cultures
- The one question to ask about every process on your team: would I keep doing this if I owned the company?
Your move this week:
1. Name one thing you've been waiting on permission to address. A process that makes no sense. A conversation you keep putting off. An initiative sitting in the parking lot. Get it done. You are the leadership.
2. Have one conversation with your team that gives them permission to act. Not a policy. Not a memo. Tell them: if you see something to improve, go do it.
"Taking action and making mistakes is OK. Being idle is not." — Kyle McDowell
Chapters
00:00 WE 4 of the Begin With We series
03:10 Why this is the WE I struggle with most
04:22 Taking action is OK, being idle is not
04:48 Ben Newman and stacking days
06:30 Recap: WE 1, WE 2 and WE 3
08:23 A well-organized parking lot
08:56 Books, people and the risks you take
13:26 The enemy of action is being idle
14:09 Shawshank and asking permission
15:19 Who's stopping you?
17:04 Bob is everywhere
21:55 Mistakes are inevitable
22:45 What did you fail at today?
24:39 Write this down
25:15 Being idle is a choice
27:09 "That looks exhausting"
29:25 Asked to do less than they're capable of
30:31 Nobody pays for average
32:35 The status quo sandwich
33:45 "We've always done it that way" should be profane
34:21 Northwestern basketball and a losing culture
39:22 If I owned this company
42:57 Two actions for this week
45:13 The parking lot's full
Mentioned in this episode:
- Begin With We by Kyle McDowell
- The Standard by Ben Newman
- Mindset by Carol Dweck
- 2 Second Lean by Paul Akers
- Don Meyer, Jesse Itzler and Ed Mylett
This is WE 4 of 10 in the Begin With We series. Catch up with episode 132 (We Do What Is Right, Always), episode 133 (Who Sets the Temperature on Your Team?) and episode 134 (Built or Destroyed One Commitment at a Time).
If this one hit, send it to the leader on your team who's still waiting for permission.
Find out where your team stands. Take the free 30-question SDE assessment and download the SDE Playbook at https://deadthreecoaching.com/sde-assessment (http://deadthreecoaching.com/sde-assessment)
28 Sept 2026
Built or Destroyed One Commitment at a Time
Your team is keeping score. Not on your title. On whether you did what you said you'd do.
Your credibility is your brand, and it gets built or destroyed one commitment at a time. In episode 134, I break down WE 3 from Kyle McDowell's Begin With We: we say what we're going to do, and then we do it.
This is the principle that decides whether the first two are real. You can do the right thing and lead by example in every meeting. Miss the delivery, and none of it counts. Follow-through is the proof.
In this episode:
The Friday-at-3 moment every team faces, and the engineer who shut it down with "Ain't nobody going anywhere. We said we would do this."
Why your clients are grading your delivery right now, and how a team climbs from a D-minus to an A-plus
The two kinds of trust every team runs on, and what breaks when either one is missing
Why your employees are your first customers
Why most follow-through failures come down to clarity, not character
The three things every meeting has to end with
Your move this week:
End every meeting with who's doing what, and by when. Confirm everyone heard it the same way. Put it in writing. Run it for 30 days and watch what changes.
Find one commitment you made and didn't keep. A deliverable, a conversation, a check-in you cancelled. Close it this week.
"Be a leader. Do what you say you're going to do, then demand the same thing from your team." — Kyle McDowell
Chapters 00:00 The Sunday-afternoon culture test
02:44 Recap: WE 1 and WE 2
04:32 The leader who had integrity and modeled it
07:12 WE 3: we say what we're going to do, and we do it
09:00 Friday, 3 p.m.: "Ain't nobody going anywhere"
10:52 Your credibility is your brand
12:51 "Always delivers" or "seldom delivers"?
15:18 Follow-up and follow-through set you apart
18:08 Confidence is keeping the promises you make to yourself
19:59 How your clients grade your delivery
22:08 The two levels of trust
28:56 High-integrity teams can't deliver bad service
32:37 Your employees are your customers
33:57 Ambiguity is the enemy of execution
35:40 Who's on point, what, and by when
39:46 Two moves for this week
43:25 Three lines to lead by, and what's next
Mentioned in this episode:
Begin With We by Kyle McDowell
The Athletics of Business podcast with Ed Molitor
The Standard by Ben Newman
The 4 Disciplines of Execution
John Maxwell and Ed Mylett
This is WE 3 of 10. Start with episode 132 (We Do What Is Right, Always) and episode 133 (Who Sets the Temperature on Your Team?). Next up, WE 4: we take action, and the most dangerous word in any organization.
21 Sept 2026
Who Sets the Temperature on Your Team?
George is back with the second principle from Kyle McDowell's Begin With We: We Lead By Example. Using Einstein's line that example isn't the main way to influence people, it's the only way, he breaks down Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, a software engineer named Z who reset her team's standard on a Friday afternoon, and the question every leader has to answer: are you the thermostat, or are you the thermometer?
In this episode
Recap of WE One — we do the right thing always — and why it means nothing on a poster or an email signature
WE Two: we lead by example, opened with Einstein's quote that setting an example is the only means of influencing others
Current reality and compelling vision, and the Chris Collins / Northwestern basketball turnaround
Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls: the hotel room story from The Last Dance, and the moment Jordan chose not to walk in
Thermostat versus thermometer — who sets the temperature in your organization, and who just reports it
Z, the software engineer who reset her team's sprint standard on a Friday afternoon: "ain't nobody going home"
The standard you set is the standard you get — Jordan on why a great player lands on a bad team
Small standards that are really big standards: punctuality, cameras on in meetings, Danny Hurley's intensity at UConn
The mirror test — your words and actions get replicated by your team whether you like it or not
Two actions for the week: a 48-hour audit, and closing one gap
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
10 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 34 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
36
Social presence
91
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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