With seven Super Bowl rings to his name, NFL legend Tom Brady is universally regarded as one of the greatest—if not the greatest—football players of all time. Yet, as the quarterback for both the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady emphasizes that his success as a leader on the field hinged on identifying the right levers to inspire and motivate his teammates.
Brady credits his drive to an intrinsic motivation. “You wake up and do something you love, and you don’t want to look at the person in the mirror and fail them,” he explained at the Fortune Global Forum. His relentless commitment to personal excellence fueled his performance and inspired those around him. However, he recognized that not everyone shared his self-driven mindset. “A lot of other guys aren’t motivated like that,” he said, acknowledging that some needed external encouragement to unlock their full potential. To foster this, Brady set the tone by trying to exemplify what a culture of 100% effort and accountability looked like.
