Jamie Dimon: Why I Like Ted Lasso So Much

In Ted Lasso, Jamie Dimon sees humility, teamwork, 

and the need to listen and learn

By Yiannis Damellos

Source: Fortune

November 8, 2026

There is something rather unusual about Jamie Dimon, the longtime chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, choosing a fictional football coach as an example of how to run one of America's largest corporations. But Dimon has a point, and it has less to do with football and more with human nature.

In an October interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dimon said he loves Ted Lasso, the relentlessly optimistic American football coach who finds himself managing an English soccer club despite knowing remarkably little about the game. Lasso arrives at AFC Richmond without the technical knowledge his new position would normally demand. What he does bring is an understanding of people, an ability to listen, an acceptance of his own limitations and a determination to make a group of very different personalities work together.

As Dimon sees it, that combination is precisely what leadership requires.

“He comes in and he doesn’t know anything about football, and he’s just gracious,” Dimon said. “He’s working with people—their insecurities, their bad behavior, their work ethic—and he’s getting them to function as a team.”

That is the interesting part of the comparison. Lasso does not pretend to be the most knowledgeable person in the room. He does not build his authority by making others feel inferior, nor does he consider admitting that he doesn't know something a personal defeat. Instead, he recognizes what others can contribute and creates an environment in which they can perform.

For a television character, that is a fairly refreshing approach to management. For a corporate executive, it can be the difference between a company that learns and one that eventually discovers its mistakes the expensive way.

Dimon explored the same subject earlier this year on the Master Investor Podcast, explaining why insecurity can become one of the greatest threats to senior executives. His observation was straightforward: the higher someone rises in an organization, the less direct knowledge that person necessarily has about the individual operations under their responsibility.

“The bigger job you get, the less you know—literally—about the job,” he told host Wilfred Frost.

It is a natural consequence of promotion. Someone who becomes an expert in one department may eventually be responsible for ten departments, each requiring specialized knowledge. The successful executive understands that the job has changed. The insecure one continues behaving as though being in charge means being the smartest person in every room.

That is where the trouble begins.

According to Dimon, some executives respond to their lack of knowledge by surrounding themselves with people who make them look good rather than people who tell them the truth. Presentations become carefully managed performances, unpleasant information gets filtered out, and employees learn that delivering bad news can be dangerous to their careers.

“It becomes PowerPoints, you know, make them look good, don’t tell them the bad news. And that is what causes the problem,” he said.

In other words, the executive may still occupy the corner office, but the information reaching that office has become increasingly unreliable. Problems are concealed, mistakes are softened, and decisions are made on the basis of what management wants to hear rather than what is actually happening.

Ted Lasso offers a different model. His authority comes not from pretending to know everything but from making room for the knowledge, experience and personalities of others. He can be challenged without treating disagreement as disloyalty. He can recognize a weakness without turning it into a humiliation. And he understands that a team cannot function if its members are constantly looking over their shoulders.

Dimon makes a similar argument about criticism. A chief executive should be able to hear that a product is failing, a service is inadequate or a business decision was wrong without interpreting the information as a personal attack.

“You’re not going to hurt my feelings by telling me we have a crappy product,” he said. “If you’re right, I’m gonna thank you for letting me know.”

That willingness to accept uncomfortable information is particularly relevant to customer complaints. A company cannot correct a problem it refuses to acknowledge. Nor can management improve a business when employees have learned that protecting the boss's feelings takes priority over protecting the company's interests.

Dimon has previously warned about bureaucracy, complacency and arrogance as threats to otherwise successful organizations. In April, he argued that companies should get rid of managers who care more about procedures and internal politics than actual results. He has also used Muhammad Ali's famous rope-a-dope strategy as a reference for the kind of evasive internal politics that can obstruct decision-making.

Other business leaders have made similar arguments. Microsoft's Satya Nadella has promoted a shift away from a know-it-all culture toward a learn-it-all culture, encouraging curiosity and continuous improvement. Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, has advocated radical transparency, allowing employees to challenge assumptions and confront mistakes openly.

Dimon also says he tries to put his own principles into practice. For two decades, he has stepped outside board meetings to allow directors to discuss matters without the pressure of his presence and what he describes as his forceful personality. He has argued that leaders must earn the trust of their employees every day, including by admitting mistakes and accepting criticism without taking it personally.

There is, of course, a difference between managing a fictional football club and running a banking institution with hundreds of billions of dollars in market value. Dimon has spent more than two decades leading JPMorgan Chase, building its position through acquisitions, conservative risk management and what he calls a fortress balance sheet. His experience gives his observations considerable context.

But his Ted Lasso reference points to something that applies well beyond banking. Leadership is not an examination in which the person at the top must demonstrate that he knows every answer. It is the ability to recognize where the answers are, bring the right people together and create the conditions in which the truth can travel upward without fear.

Perhaps that is why Dimon likes Ted Lasso so much. The coach understands that winning is a collective achievement, not a personal performance. And perhaps the most valuable thing a powerful executive can learn from a fictional football coach is that admitting you don't know something is not a weakness.