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In the National Football League, the players typically hang out in the locker room and the head coach hangs out in his office. This sends a very clear message that the head coach is the boss and the players are the subordinates. As a result, relationships between players and their head coach are typically not very open or honest. Ron Rivera, head coach of the Carolina Panthers decided to change all that after receiving some advice from fighter pilots. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal written by Kevin Clark, the pilots told him, that to promote honest relationships with his players, he needed to” remove rank” when addressing them. As a result, Coach Rivera now hangs out in the locker room as an equal rather than a boss. As Coach Rivera put it, “Unless you are exposed to them there, when they let their hair down, you won’t get to know them….” The players absolutely love the arrangement and have responded by winning the first six games of the season.

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