Re:Thinking with Adam GrantThe NHL's first woman coach Jessica Campbell on breaking leadership barriers | ReThinking
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Jessica Campbell on belonging, leadership, and coaching as NHL trailblazer
- Campbell describes growing up as the only girl on boys’ teams and learning to treat belonging as non-negotiable rather than conditional.
- She explains how an NHL player’s explicit belief in her potential became a catalytic “permission to believe,” helping her commit to pursuing elite coaching.
- Campbell outlines her coaching philosophy—“listen, lift, and love”—as a disciplined approach to relationship-building, standards, and psychological safety, not a gendered stereotype.
- Grant and Campbell unpack what makes feedback change behavior, emphasizing task- and behavior-focused coaching, self-assessment, and building a clear picture of the desired future state.
- They explore the hidden costs of being “first,” including heightened scrutiny, stereotype penalties, and the emotional weight of representing a broader group while staying authentic.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasBelonging can be a stronger driver than ambition in barrier-breaking.
Campbell didn’t set out to be “first,” but her deep identification with hockey and awareness of representing women helped convert pressure into purpose and persistence.
Reframe hostility as information about impact—not identity.
She learned to interpret targeting or trash talk as evidence she was threatening opponents’ status, using it as fuel while refusing to accept “less than” treatment.
When institutions block you, build an alternative platform.
After repeated “no’s” and closed doors, she started her own coaching business—“build my own house and see who walks in”—which later attracted NHL players on merit.
Distinctiveness is a competitive advantage in copycat environments.
Because she didn’t come up through NHL coaching pipelines, her drills and methods were her own; that novelty plus consistent follow-up strengthened player buy-in.
“Listen, lift, and love” earns the right to challenge performance.
Campbell treats players as whole people, pairs high standards with psychological safety, and uses care to reduce defensiveness so hard messages land as coaching, not attack.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesI never really understood what I was doing until I was standing behind an NHL bench in a space no woman had held before, and I felt this flood of emotion and pressure and weight of responsibility to do something good with it.
— Jessica Campbell
I always saw it as if they're threatened by me, then it's d- I'm doing something better than them, and to just keep pushing and to leaning into that, and it, it definitely fueled me to want to do more, be more, and ch- strive for more.
— Jessica Campbell
I had to silence all of the hate, all of that noise, and I had to avoid all of that and, you know, turn within and ask myself, "Okay, what am I gonna do with these noes? Like, am I gonna let it squash my passion? No, because I love this. This is what I love to do."
— Jessica Campbell
Instead of, you know, getting to the door and trying to apply, trying to get the job, trying to work for the team that was resistant, trying to be the first, I just said, "That's okay," walked away and built my own house and decided to see who would walk in.
— Jessica Campbell
The one that drives me the most crazy, and I hope you can help me unpack it more, is, "Just be grateful to be in the NHL." That one really sucks because, you know, when I hear that sometimes I'm like, just be grateful has not gotten me anywhere in life.
— Jessica Campbell
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
