In this solo episode, I explore a question that’s been on my mind for a long time: what actually separates an adequate leader from a good one, and a good one from a great one?

I use football as an analogy, not to glorify sports leadership clichés, but to illustrate a distinction that shows up everywhere. In business. In manufacturing. In engineering. In organizations that win once, versus those that win consistently.

An adequate leader operates at the tactical level. They make good decisions in the moment. They motivate. They call decent plays. They can win games with the right inputs.

A good leader operates at the strategic level. They game plan. They understand matchups. They align tactics to strengths and weaknesses. They win more often.

But the leaders who succeed year after year are doing something fundamentally different. They are designing systems.

Using the Michigan Wolverines’ path to the 2023 national championship as a concrete example, I break down how Jim Harbaugh and his staff stopped optimizing plays and started optimizing the entire organization around a clear objective. Recruiting. Strength training. Scheme. Coaching roles. Player profiles. Even quarterback selection. Everything was designed to work together toward a specific outcome.

This episode is about leadership as organizational design. About why “great people” alone are not enough. About why the right person in the wrong system still fails. And about the leader’s real job: creating a structure where people can exercise judgment, take ownership, and succeed without constant direction.

This is a working hypothesis, not a manifesto. But it’s one I believe matters deeply for anyone responsible for building teams, systems, and results that last.

Building Better with Brandon Bartneck explores what it means to build—better companies, better systems, and better lives. Through conversations and reflections, Brandon digs into the principles that drive growth, purpose, and meaningful work.

Music credit: Slow Burn – Kevin MacLeod