What does it take to lead people well? Is it experience, confidence, the ability to make tough decisions, or something else entirely?
Craig Clutts has spent much of his life answering that question. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy, he served 23 years as a naval officer, leading sailors and Seabees around the world, including in combat environments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, Craig is an entrepreneur, Christian business coach, and author of Leadership Is Not Likership. He joined Mark Rowan on the 2000 Cubit Rule podcast to share what God has taught him about leadership, identity, and trusting Him through changing seasons of life.
And as it turns out, some of his most valuable lessons came from places you might not expect, including coaching six-year-olds in tee ball.
Leadership Is Not Likership
During his Navy career, Craig heard a phrase repeated by senior enlisted leaders: “Leadership is not likership.”
The idea was simple. Making the right decision doesn’t always make you popular. Sometimes leading people means confronting problems, addressing conflict, or making decisions that someone won’t appreciate.
But Craig wanted to understand what leadership actually was if being liked wasn’t the goal.
While running one day after returning from a deployment to Afghanistan, he began talking with God about that very question.
What he sensed God telling him was equally simple: Leadership is loveship.
That realization became central to the message he now shares through his coaching and his book.
Loving people doesn’t mean agreeing with everything they want or avoiding difficult conversations. It means considering what’s genuinely best for them, the people around them, and the responsibilities you’ve been entrusted with.
Craig points to Jesus as the example. Love should shape our decisions, including the difficult ones.
Five Things to Consider When Making Decisions
Craig shared five levels of consideration that have helped shape his approach to leadership.
1. The Individual: How will this decision affect the person involved? Does it help them grow, develop, and move forward, even if it’s not what they initially wanted?
2. The Team: Every decision has the potential to affect other people. Craig learned this firsthand while responsible for hundreds of sailors and Seabees. The needs of one person matter, but so do the needs of everyone working alongside them.
3. The Mission: What are we responsible for accomplishing today? A decision might seem beneficial in isolation but create problems for the larger mission.
4. The Vision: Craig distinguishes between mission and vision. The mission is what we’re doing today. The vision is where we’re headed. Good decisions should account for both.
5. The Legacy: For Christians, there’s another consideration. How do our decisions reflect God’s will, and what are we investing in that will have eternal significance?
These principles apply well beyond the military. Whether you’re running a business, serving in ministry, raising children, or simply interacting with someone in your community, the decisions you make affect more than yourself.
What Coaching Tee Ball Taught a Navy Captain
Of all the experiences Craig could draw from, one of his favorite leadership lessons comes from coaching tee ball.
Anyone who has spent time around six-year-olds knows keeping their attention can be a challenge.
Craig discovered something remarkably effective. When he regularly called each child by name, they stayed engaged.
They weren’t as distracted by the dirt, the dandelions, or whatever else was happening around them. They knew their coach was paying attention to them.
And the connection extended beyond the baseball field. When Craig encountered those children around town, they’d run up to him excited to see their coach.
Why? Because he knew them, and they knew him.
During our conversation, Craig connected that experience to the picture of a shepherd whose sheep know his voice.
That really stood out to me.
We all want to be known. Being liked can change depending on circumstances, but genuinely knowing someone requires time, attention, and relationship.
It’s a valuable reminder for anyone responsible for people, whether that’s at home, in business, or in ministry.
When Your Career Is No Longer Your Identity
Craig also talked about the challenge of transitioning out of military service.
For 27 years, including his time at the Naval Academy, the Navy was a major part of his daily life. He had the uniform, the rank, the responsibilities, and the identity that came with them.
Then one day, that chapter ended.
He was no longer Captain Clutts. He was Craig.
Of course, he had always been Craig, but after decades of being identified by a particular role, adjusting to something different wasn’t easy.
He credits prayer, mentorship, business coaching, and a program focused on moving from career success toward Kingdom significance with helping him navigate that transition.
I think this is something many of us can relate to, even if we’ve never served in the military.
It’s easy to allow our career, business, accomplishments, or even our ministry to become the primary way we identify ourselves.
But what happens when those things change?
Our identity as children of God remains, regardless of the role we occupy or the success we experience.
God’s Vision Doesn’t Always Include the Entire Roadmap
Toward the end of our conversation, Craig shared an illustration that his business coach had given him.
Imagine you’re planning to drive from the West Coast to Phoenix.
You know where you’re going, but you can’t see every mile of the journey. You don’t know what construction, weather, or unexpected circumstances you’ll encounter.
You can, however, see enough to take the next step.
Craig explained that he naturally wants to know the entire plan. With his engineering background and military experience, planning comes naturally.
But following God doesn’t always work that way.
Sometimes we have a clear understanding of the destination without knowing exactly how we’ll get there.
And sometimes God closes a door we were convinced would remain open.
That doesn’t mean we stop moving forward. It means we continue listening, trusting, and responding to what He’s showing us.
Learning to Trust God’s Provision
One of the most personal moments of our conversation came when Craig shared what God had been speaking to him about his business.
Like many entrepreneurs, he had experienced challenging seasons when things weren’t progressing as expected.
His response was to work harder.
He’d spend the day at the office or on a project site, take a break for dinner, and then continue working from the couch in the evening.
More hours. More effort. More activity.
Yet all that additional work wasn’t necessarily producing the results he wanted.
Craig shared how he felt God convicting him that, despite saying he had surrendered the business, he was still trying to make everything happen through his own strength.
He was reminded that his provision had never ultimately come from the Navy, his government career, or his customers.
It had always come from God.
That part of the conversation resonated with me because I’ve experienced similar moments.
When something doesn’t work out the way we expected, it’s tempting to double down on activity. We see someone else’s strategy working and figure we should do the same.
But how often do we stop and ask the Lord what He’s actually directing us to do?
Hebrews 4 speaks about entering God’s rest. There’s something important about learning to work from that place of trust rather than constantly striving to manufacture an outcome.
We still have responsibilities. We still take action. We still steward what God has placed in our hands.
But we also have to give Him room to move.
Making Room for God to Move in Business
Craig’s story is a reminder that the lessons God teaches us in one season often prepare us for something we can’t yet see.
His early desire to become a Marine eventually led him into the Navy, where he served alongside Marines as a Seabee. His military experience prepared him for new opportunities in government, business, and coaching.
And through those experiences, God continued developing his understanding of what it means to love and serve people well.
That’s part of what we explore on the 2000 Cubit Rule podcast.
How do we recognize what God is doing, respond to His direction, and make room for Him to move in our businesses and everyday lives?
Craig’s encouragement is to keep moving toward the vision God has given you, remain open when circumstances change, and remember that the provision comes from Him.
Connect with Craig Clutts
Learn more about Craig’s coaching and his book, Leadership Is Not Likership, at Engedi Life.
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