Fall means football. And in today’s college game, the transfer portal has changed everything. Players now move more freely, often following coaches they trust and respect. When a coach builds the right kind of culture, talent doesn’t just stay—it attracts and even follows.
This “transfer portal” of talent isn’t just a sports story. The same is true in business. People don’t just join companies; they join leaders. They seek opportunities where they can grow, contribute, and feel truly valued.
That’s why I wanted to write this post with my friend, Doug Batie. He’s someone who has proven that the best talent isn’t hired on whim; it’s intentionally cultivated and drawn in by leadership. In fact, roughly 20% of his team at Fulcrum Collective is made up of people he has worked alongside in the past. As a leader I admire and respect, I asked him to help me unpack how to become a leader worth following.
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The Blueprint for “Followable” Leadership: Mutual Respect Beats Blind Loyalty
In football, one of the clearest examples of followable leadership is Nick Saban. When he left the Miami Dolphins to take over at Alabama, a significant portion of his coaching staff followed him. That core group helped Saban establish what became known as “The Alabama Way.” And here’s the key: They weren’t following a title—they were following a leader who had earned their respect. Saban didn’t surround himself with yes-men. He built a staff that would challenge him, sharpen him, and ultimately make the team better. Deion Sanders is another example of a followable leader. When he became the head coach at Colorado, he recruited dozens of players from across the country to help him rebuild the football program through his charismatic vision and strategy.
That’s the heart of followable leadership. It’s not about blind loyalty. It’s about mutual respect and casting a vision to do great work.
I (Doug) am not a big fan of loyalty. I am a much bigger fan of mutual respect. I work with people I have built great relationships with. That does not mean we always agree. In fact, it is often quite the opposite. The people who I’ve worked with before know my strengths, but they also know my blind spots. They’re not blindly loyal. They care enough to call me out if I’m heading in the wrong direction. That’s more valuable than loyalty tied to a title.
So how do you cultivate that kind of respect? Here are a few lessons we can learn as leaders:
1) High Expectations + Genuine Care
My (Doug) family is a volleyball family, so I’ll give you an example from volleyball for what this looks like. Dawn Sullivan, head coach at Mizzou, recruited my daughter and has completely turned around their program. She’s tough—tough enough that if a bear attacked her, you’d feel sorry for the bear. But she’s also deeply caring and maternal toward her players. That combination of high standards and genuine care is what makes her followable.
2) Get Your Hands Dirty
Respect is earned in the trenches. You do not need to pray for crises, but when they come, embrace them.
I (Doug) will never forget the time our team was traveling to Boston for work. Our flights back got cancelled last minute and we had to find another way to quickly get back home. We decided to rent a van and make the 1,500 mile drive. I can definitely say that a 23-hour drive is something our team will never forget. But it was also an incredible bonding experience for every single person on our team.
A well-handled crisis can build five years of trust and equity in five months. Nothing bonds a team more tightly than overcoming hard things together.
3) Consistency is Everything
Mutual respect isn’t built in a single moment. It comes from years of consistent, steady behavior. People need to see you respond the same way—under pressure, in good times, and when things fall apart. Respect grows when people know who you are day in and day out.
4) Mentorship > Management
I (Kent) believe that the best leaders are inherently great mentors. They don’t just manage their teams; they invest in them. They care about helping their team members grow, personally and professionally, just as much (if not more) than they care about the bottom line. When you approach leadership through a lens of mentorship, you’re creating relational equity that could pay significant dividends for future work opportunities.
Casting Vision: The Playbook to Entice Top Talent
Even if you are a leader people respect, how do you actually convince them to join you on a new journey? Many leaders know top performers, but they struggle with how to have those conversations. Here are insights from our personal experience — Doug’s as a senior leader and Kent’s as a talent acquisition leader.
1) Be Your Best Recruiter
As a leader, you are your best recruiter. It can be incredibly valuable to stay in contact with great people. Build a list of individuals you would love to work with someday, even when you’re not hiring. This is one way to build your network of potential hires to consider when the time comes.
From my (Kent’s) years in talent recruitment, I’ve learned that if a leader can’t recommend anyone they’ve managed from their past as someone they could potentially hire, that could be red flag on their leadership style.
2) Know Their “Why”
A followable leader knows what inspires each person. You must understand their unique personality. What truly motivates them? If you can speak into that—if you can align your vision with their “why”—you’re not just filling a role, you’re building a team. This is something we see with coaches like Andy Reid, who’s helped build the Kansas City Chiefs into an NFL dynasty.
One of the biggest benefits of knowing a person’s unique motivations is that you’re inviting them into an opportunity where they get to be themselves. Contributing in a way that aligns with their core wiring is beneficial for them personally and makes an impact within the team.
3) Cast a Vision for a Problem to Solve
Top performers don’t just want a job. They want a challenge. They want a problem worthy of their talent. When I’ve (Doug) recruited people I’ve worked with before, it wasn’t because I offered them a bigger paycheck. It was because I showed them a problem that mattered, gave them space to grow, and invited them to help solve it.
4) Practice Radical Transparency
This is crucial. You must be honest with people you recruit about the challenges they will face. Be clear about the underbelly of the work. People want to solve real problems, but they need to know what they are stepping into.
5) Hold Top Performers with Open Hands
Ultimately, great leadership is about developing people. You must hold your top performers with open hands. Think about the coaching family trees in football. There is a lot of “catch and release.” Top coaches understand that if they are succeeding, and leading well, their assistants might get opportunities to become head coaches or coordinators at bigger programs.
We (Kent and Doug) have both experienced the same thing in our careers, having good employees take advantage of opportunities at other companies. Even though it was hard, that is what good leadership is all about. It shows you care about their journey beyond just their contribution to your current team.
Evaluating Your Record: A Leader’s Self-Evaluation
If you want to know if you’re a leader worth following, ask yourself a few questions:
- Am I cultivating mutual respect, or simply expecting loyalty? Do my actions show that I value my team’s input and well-being as much as their output?
- What is my “unscripted” leadership style? How you handle adversity tells the story about you leadership style and your company. How do I respond in moments of pressure, and are those reactions consistent with the values I claim to uphold?
- What stories are being told about me? Am I creating a narrative of transparency and honesty, or one of guardedness and uncertainty?
- Am I a talent “hoarder” or a “developer”? Do I hold on to top performers for my own benefit, or do I empower them and hold them with open hands?
These aren’t easy questions. But they’re the questions that separate managers from leaders people want to follow.
Beyond Wins and Losses: Your Leadership Legacy
The most successful college athletic programs are full of leaders who attract talent that follows them. Business leaders can do the same. But it’s not about charisma or titles. It’s about respect. It’s about consistency. It’s about vision.
So, here’s the challenge: If you left your company tomorrow, who would want to follow you? If the answer is “not many,” then today’s the perfect day to start leading differently.
Because in the end, your true record isn’t wins and losses. It’s the people who would choose to run alongside you again.
By Kent Wilson & Doug Batie
Doug Batie Bio:
Known for his blend of operational excellence, resourcefulness, and people-first leadership, Doug is recognized as a transformational leader who builds trust while driving growth. He currently serves as the CEO of Fulcrum Collective, a family-office-style organization that modernizes and scales supply-chain solutions for essential grocery categories.
Doug has a proven track record of building and leading high-performing teams, from entrepreneurial startups to nationally scaled enterprises. His career reflects a pattern of applying innovative frameworks from one domain to solve persistent problems in another. This includes co-founding and successfully selling GEN Z Water in just 18 months and founding an analytics company that served top NCAA women’s basketball programs. At Fulcrum, he is currently spearheading a five-year strategic plan to transform the perimeter of the store through a tech-enabled, value-chain-as-a-service model.
Outside of work, Doug lives on his family ranch in Arkansas, where faith, agriculture, and family remain central to his life alongside his passions for sports and Formula 1 racing.