Managing Up: How Head Coaches Build Trust with Their Athletic Directors

Winning matters. But the relationship between a head coach and an athletic director can shape a coach's entire experience leading a program.

As a Division I athletics director, I learned that successful coaching relationships require more than winning games. They require trust, sound judgment, communication, accountability, and an understanding of the broader institution. Now, as an executive leadership coach, I see this relationship as an important leadership skill—one that deserves more attention in coach development. Head coaches spend years learning their sport, developing athletes, and recruiting talent. But very few receive formal training in managing up, navigating executive relationships, or communicating effectively with the person responsible for their department (not to mention the university president, board members, elected officials, major donors, and sponsors).

Managing up isn't about politics. It's about building a professional relationship that helps both the coach and the athletic department succeed.

Trust Is the Foundation

Athletic directors need to trust their head coaches. They need confidence that a coach will communicate honestly, exercise good judgment, follow through on commitments, and raise concerns before those concerns become larger problems. Trust is built through consistent behavior, not a single conversation or a winning season. Research supports the importance of trust in leadership. Dirks and Ferrin's (2002) meta-analysis found meaningful relationships between trust in leadership and important workplace outcomes. Research on leader–member exchange also connects the quality of working relationships between leaders and colleagues with performance and other organizational outcomes. For head coaches, the practical lesson is straightforward: your athletic director's confidence in you is shaped by how you lead, communicate, and handle difficult situations—not just by the scoreboard.

Five Ways Head Coaches Can Build Trust with Their AD

1. Communicate Before You're Required To

One of the most damaging patterns in an executive relationship is the avoidable surprise. If a personnel issue is escalating, a significant donor is unhappy, a student-athlete concern could reach senior administration, or a decision may create institutional consequences, your AD should not be learning about it from someone else. That doesn't mean reporting every minor issue. It means understanding which situations require early communication and using sound judgment about when to raise them. I had a great coach who often reminded me that coaches like bad news soon and fast - so they can deal with it and move forward. ADs are the same. Don't wait to share information. No surprises is a valuable operating principle.

2. Understand the AD's Broader Responsibilities

Your athletic director is not responsible for your program alone. ADs must balance budgets, support multiple sports, manage personnel, work with university leadership, oversee compliance, budget, marketing, communication, engage donors, protect the interests of the institution, and much more. A decision that seems ideal for one team may create financial, operational, or political challenges elsewhere. Effective head coaches understand that context. They make their case, explain the implications, and work toward solutions that account for both their program's needs and the department's priorities. You don't have to agree with every decision. You do need to understand the environment in which those decisions are made.

3. Bring Solutions, Not Just Problems

Problems are inevitable in college athletics. How you approach them matters. When raising a difficult issue, explain what happened, what you know, what remains uncertain, and what you recommend doing next. You won't always have the answer. That's fine. What matters is demonstrating that you've thought critically about the situation and are prepared to work toward a solution. This approach builds confidence in your judgment and makes difficult conversations more productive.

4. Handle Disagreement Professionally

Strong working relationships don't require constant agreement. A head coach should be able to challenge a decision, advocate for resources, question a strategy, or explain why a proposed approach may not work. The key is how the disagreement is handled. Raise concerns directly and respectfully. Use evidence rather than emotion. Listen to the AD's perspective. Once a decision is made, understand your responsibilities in implementing it, while still raising legitimate concerns through appropriate channels. Professional disagreement can strengthen trust. Personalizing disagreement can damage it.

5. Make the Relationship a Priority Before You Need Something

If the only time you communicate with your AD is when you need more money, additional staff, a facility upgrade, or help resolving a problem, you're missing opportunities to build the relationship. Regular, substantive communication helps both people understand priorities, expectations, and emerging challenges. Ask what matters most to the AD and the department. Share progress on your program's goals. Discuss challenges before they become urgent. Seek feedback on your own leadership. Don't treat the relationship as a transaction. Treat it as an ongoing professional partnership. One of my favorite things was having lunch with a head coach. Important relationship-building time, and it was always good for the community to see the AD and a head coach spending time together at a restaurant.

Managing Up Is a Leadership Skill

These practices may sound simple, but they require self-awareness, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and the ability to see situations from another person's perspective. Those skills rarely develop through technical coaching expertise alone. They are leadership capabilities—and they can be developed intentionally. In my executive and leadership coaching practice, I work with coaches and athletic leaders who want to strengthen these capabilities and navigate the increasingly complex demands of their roles. That work begins with understanding how a leader communicates, builds relationships, makes decisions, and responds under pressure.

As I've discussed in Why Great Coaches Need Executive Coaching, the modern head coach is an executive leader, even if formal executive development was never part of their training.

And as I explored in What Athletic Directors Really Look for in Coaches Beyond Wins and Losses, leadership effectiveness extends well beyond competitive results.

A Final Thought

The head coach–athletic director relationship will not always be easy. The two may have different priorities, perspectives, or approaches to solving a problem. That's normal. The goal isn't to eliminate disagreement or ensure that everyone always gets their way. It's to establish the trust and communication necessary to work through difficult issues professionally. Great head coaches don't just lead their teams. They learn to lead relationships across the institution.

Managing up is part of that responsibility. And like recruiting, communication, and other essential leadership skills, it can be learned, practiced, and improved. 

For head coaches: What's one behavior that has helped you build a stronger relationship with your athletic director?

About the Author

Doug Knuth is a certified executive leadership coach, NCAA Division I athletics leader, higher education fundraising executive, and doctoral candidate in Strategic Leadership. Drawing on experience as a student-athlete, coach, athletics director, university cabinet member, NCAA governance leader, fundraiser, and leadership coach, he works with coaches, athletic directors, and organizational leaders to strengthen self-awareness, leadership effectiveness, communication, relationships, and organizational culture.

Learn more about Doug Knuth and his executive and leadership coaching practice.

References

Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 611–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.611

Martin, R., Guillaume, Y., Thomas, G., Lee, A., & Epitropaki, O. (2016). Leader–member exchange (LMX) and performance: A meta-analytic review. Personnel Psychology, 69(1), 67–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12100