Les Snead on Building a Team

Les Snead is the General Manager of the Los Angeles Rams, a position he’s held for 11 years. He was hired in 2012, and we’re actually going to talk about how to create sustainability and longevity in that position and handling the ups and downs and the stresses that come from losing, and also the accolades and the adulation that come from winning and the rollercoaster that is sports. In his role as General Manager, he partners with Head Coach Sean McVay to direct all personnel decisions for the football team. He hired Sean McVay when he was a 30-year-old, and we’re going to talk about that decision and what went into hiring a Head Coach at such a young age. Snead coordinates all aspects of the club’s football operations with Coach McVay and joins forces with COO, Executive Vice President of Football Operations Kevin Demoff, and Vice President, Football and Business Administration Tony Pastoors to direct the team’s business ventures. Les is going to talk about in this conversation how he works with Kevin to also impact and to have communication lines open with ownership. We talk a lot about in this conversation the power of alignment and how important it is for Les to work hand in hand with his Head Coach and also the ownership group. His tenure has been marked by strategic, aggressive moves that have created a strong core nucleus of talent and depth throughout the roster. We use those words like talent, strategy, and aggression throughout the conversation today, and we talk about when to be aggressive and when not to and how strategy impacts decision making. We also talk about the importance of creating a team and not just assembling talent. If you follow the NFL, you know that the LA Rams have had a lot of success lately; Under Les’s leadership, they went to the Super Bowl in 2019 and they won the Super Bowl in 2022. It’s interesting to talk to Les about those experiences and the duality that comes with finishing second, which he’ll call almost like winning a Silver Medal, compared to what it’s like to win a Gold Medal and win a Super Bowl. This conversation is deep; you’re going to love the nuance in which Les speaks with. He loves to read, he loves to learn, he’s a super curious guy. During our entire conversation he was taking notes, and I could see him taking things from our conversation that he was going to bring back with him. We didn’t talk about it, but he also likes to journal, and he loves to read; those are big parts of who he is and what his identity is and how he leads an organization that’s had some success lately for sure, but that he’s trying to build into a contender year after year.

Les had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“It’s probably the hardest thing in sports; there’s always going to be change, and when do you maybe move on from a veteran player who provides a lot of those leadership type skills, a lot of the wisdom that age actually provides?” (11:45).

“Every year the team is going to change. The art form is trying to figure out what pieces of the puzzle do you keep, what pieces do you let go?” (12:45).

“The General Manager and the Head Coach have to be aligned. It doesn’t necessarily mean we have to agree on every decision, agree on every philosophy, every paradigm, but the important thing is for us to be aligned on who we hire, who we bring in, the systems that are in place to allow the people that we do bring in to work together and do their part to make the Rams better” (17:00).

“If it comes down to one thing [to get done during the day], it would be working on that relationship with [Head Coach] Sean [McVay]” (17:45).

“In sports, especially football, it’s such a sophisticated collaboration of a lot of human talent, from players to coaches to staff” (27:10).

“If you can not worry about the offseason headlines, and just focus on whatever you do in the offseason… there’s a good probability that what you did in the offseason is going to lead to some semblance of progress during the season” (30:00).

“Our self-esteems are probably unhealthily associated with the Rams record. That’s our scarlet letter: our record” (42:10).

“The teammate who supports, pats on the back, you’d rather have that than the other” (47:35).

“Usually when you have alignment and continuity, even though there’s going to be ebbs and flows in the cycle of life of a sports ecosystem… usually they’re going to be a very competitive team” (50:35).

“Let’s keep the main thing the main thing” (54:20).

“We’re blessed, we’re fortunate, or we’ve earned, whatever you want to call it, this variable of continuity” (1:00:05).

“Could we be intentional about using continuity as an edge, but also being very aware that there is stress and drudgery involved” (1:01:35).

“To prevent burnout, you can’t be result oriented” (1:02:55).

“I often tell our younger leaders the best thing you can do is onboard people that can execute really well-too-do engineered systems that you’re no longer needed” (1:08:10).

“What is your not to do list?” (1:08:50).

“[When you win a Super Bowl], you’re more happy for other people than yourself” (1:14:55).

“I was fathered by football” (1:20:25).

Thank you so much to Les for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.