Jaime E. Peña

Mike Macdonald says one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is confusing a good result with actual progress “Wow. This might be controversial, but it doesn't bother me how the division shook out. It would've been great to make the playoffs, but I knew we weren't a championship team yet. We weren't good enough. Just straight up. It was what it was.” “In a way, it was a little bit of a blessing to get a head start on the offseason because we knew how much work we had to do to get things going in the direction we wanted. It's great to have a division title, but it's the same thing about having a Super Bowl. We're proud of the Super Bowl, but we're more proud of the team we became.” “The opposite works true, too. We didn't win the division, but that's not what we're trying to achieve. We're trying to become the great team. John was a huge help in that. The way I look back at it now, it's like he had the answers to the test, but he didn't force them on me.” “He guided me. He let me navigate the course and figure these things out, but he never left my corner the whole time. When it came time to make those decisions in the offseason, we were a team. I was a better coach and a better leader from the experience I just had, without having cheated the process.” “We went at it step by step. The personnel decisions, the trades, the acquisitions we made, in real time, probably to the outside, it seemed like it happened fast. But there was definitely a sequential, step-by-step order of what we were trying to do.” “Having that person in your corner with that expertise and wisdom gave me a sense of confidence as we navigated. There was a lot of noise about what we were doing, but I felt really good about it. So let's trust that it's the right move and go from there.”