Seattle Seahawks General Manager on Talent, Teamwork, and Tough Conversations | John Schneider

John Schneider (0:00)

My leadership style is, it's definitely provision, division. Everybody's gonna be going for this vision, like every single day. There's no end line, we're always communicating. We never ever think we have the answers. If you think you have the answers, we're in a really hard time working together.

Michael Gervais (0:13)

What does it take to consistently build and lead one of the most respected teams in professional sports? Welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast, where we dive into the minds of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. I am your host, Dr. Michael Gervais, by trade and training, a high-performance psychologist. This week, recorded right in the heart of Seahawks territory in Seattle, I got to sit down with my friend, John Schneider, General Manager of the Seattle Seahawks. John has spent over a decade helping to build one of the NFL's most consistent and competitive franchises, blending grit, humility, and an honest commitment to excellence.

John Schneider (0:55)

We tell everybody in the whole operation, when you get in the car in the morning, what are you thinking about? How are you improving the organization? Because we feel great about you. It's a reciprocal thing.

Michael Gervais (1:03)

Having worked closely with John for nine seasons, including two unforgettable trips to the Super Bowl, he's just great. There's nothing contrived, there's nothing manufactured about John. He leads by being himself, by caring about his teammates, and it's wonderful.

John Schneider (1:17)

I want the fans know we're going to bust our ass every single day. We're doing everything we possibly can for them.

Michael Gervais (1:22)

Now, as you listen, I want to invite you to reflect on how you respond when things don't go as planned. This is a big part of mastery and excellence, is having the ability to pivot, to adjust, to eloquently respond when things aren't going the way that you thought they would go.

John Schneider (1:38)

What are you doing every day to let ownership, fans know that we're getting better?

Michael Gervais (1:44)

So let's dive in with my friend, the GM of the Seattle Seahawks, John Schneider. All right, so this is a fun conversation for a lot of reasons. One is my respect for you.

John Schneider (2:02)

Same.

Michael Gervais (2:03)

Thank you, ditto. Two is we're friends, and we've been able to be shoulder to shoulder on a lot. And so I just love this conversation. There's no chance that we will be able to do justice to two things. One is how much we laugh, how hard we work together, the jams we've gotten out of together, and you're a genius.

John Schneider (2:27)

Okay. Go down, Sheriff.

Michael Gervais (2:31)

So, all right. There's 32 jobs in the world that are general managers in the National Football League. You hold one of them, and you've been doing it for a long time. So when I think about that, there's 32 jobs. When you set out as a youngster and you thought that you wanted to be in the NFL and you wanted to be a general manager, there's only 32 jobs in the world.

John Schneider (2:51)

Right.

Michael Gervais (2:52)

You're here, and you're flat out bringing it. This is a world class organization. So can we start at the beginning and talk about how you were shaping your future and just kind of where you came from and what the breakfast table and dinner table was like? Take us back to the beginning.

John Schneider (3:11)

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for having me on. Yeah, so thought a little about what we're going to talk about, the leadership, how does it go, and how do we start everything, and the foundations of it, what brings you back to who you are and how you get to where you are. And that really truly started with my parents. My parents were very strong, are, thank God, they're still with us. Grew up in rural Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Michael Gervais (3:42)

What does that mean to somebody that's just like out of the country?

John Schneider (3:45)

Yeah, it's farmland, but it's home spread out. You know, I didn't grow up on a farm, but I grew up, my dad built a house, like on four acres out in the country.

And yeah, my dad was raised in, my mom, both of my mom and dad were raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My dad was raised in the south side and his father was an immigrant, was a crane engineer, came from Germany, built cranes for P&H and instilled this really strong work ethic for my dad. And my dad started working, digging ditches when he was like 12, 13 years old. So we had this really strong work ethic, my father, my mom did as well. But I think really, my dad ended up being a self-made, like I said, it's like really truly like self-made, very successful orthopod and started his own practice in Green Bay. And he had one year, I think it was like 1987 or 1988, where he did like the most total hips in the country and was lying around giving these presentations and everything. But he built his own practice in Green Bay. And I'm the youngest of six. And so my mom was like, when you build your own practice, you're basically sitting at the emergency room waiting for people to come in to take care of him. And so I think that the things that growing up like that, seeing my parents, my dad being gone all the time, my mom being as strong as she was, we're Catholic, very, very strong faith. So my dad was very much like, you're not going to be hanging out at the country club. He did not want to raise his kids like, I hate to say like a typical doctor's child or something like that. So it was basically like, we're going to grow up in the country. I have four acres and y'all are going to work your tails off. And so I always tell people the two biggest gifts my parents gave me were my faith and my work ethic. And I always felt like I struggled in the classroom with ADD or whatever. I don't know what it was.