With 3 Heartfelt Words, KC Chiefs Tight End–and Taylor Swift Boyfriend–Travis Kelce Taught a Lesson in Leadership

Centerback L’Jarius Sneed is leaving the Chiefs. Kelce didn’t want him to go.

Travis Kelce. Photo: Getty Images

This week, during a podcast episode, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce gave a special callout to his teammate, cornerback L’Jarius Sneed. Sneed has now been traded to the Tennessee Titans, but at the time, Kelce was hoping he would stay on the Chiefs. It was a lesson for every entrepreneur or business leader about how to let colleagues and employees know just how much you appreciate and value them.

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl last month. But even on that elite team, Kelce occupies a special place. For one thing he’s been there for 11 seasons–his entire career. Also, he’s considered by many to be the best tight end in the NFL right now. He’s a celebrity beyond football, having hosted Saturday Night Live, modeled, and even starred in his own reality series called Catching Kelce. And, of course, he’s dating Taylor Swift.

Kelce and his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, jointly host the New Heights podcast, which is so popular it was recently voted Podcast of the Year in the iHeartPodcast awards. It has 2.3 million YouTube subscribers, so when Travis shouts out to a teammate on the show, that can have a significant effect. And that’s what he did on Wednesday for Sneed.

Hoping to keep Sneed in Kansas City.

The backstory is that Sneed was at the time exploring his options to leave the Chiefs next season, reportedly wanting to become one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in the league. At the time of the podcast, Sneed had not signed a contract with the Chiefs or any other team. He had publicly expressed a desire to stay with the Chiefs. But apparently the two parties couldn’t agree on money. In the meantime, the Chiefs placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on Sneed, which meant that he could have played next season for the Chiefs under a one-season contract for $19.8 million.

With all that in mind, Kelce went out of his way to mention Sneed during a New Heights segment called “Free Agency Roundup.” After discussing the Chiefs’ newly signed wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, Kelce mentioned that the Chiefs had also re-signed defensive tackles Tershawn Wharton and Derrick Nnadi. He continued, “And as of today, at 6 am [the show’s recording time], we’ve still got L’Jarius Sneed, baby!” Then he appealed to Sneed directly. “LJ, man, stay just right there. Just keep cruising. It’s still early in the off-season, baby. Stay right there.”

Recognition matters.

Stay right there. Football players have notoriously short careers–Jason Kelce just retired at the ripe old age of 36–and an injury can end any player’s career at any time. So no one could fault the 27-year-old Sneed for seeking to earn as much as possible while in the NFL. But when people ask for more money, they are usually also asking for more recognition, and Kelce served up a whole heap of recognition to Sneed. Thanks to his connection with Swift, Kelce is the most famous football player in the world right now. And the most famous football player in the world just told his audience of millions how important he believed Sneed was to the Chiefs lineup and to the team’s ambition to become the first ever to win the Super Bowl three years in a row.

In the end, that shout-out wasn’t enough to keep Sneed on the Chiefs. But in a slightly different scenario, that extra little bit of encouragement might have made a big difference. And given Kelce’s super-high profile, it’s possible that by singling out Sneed as a valued team member, he made Sneed look more valuable to the Titans as well. All in all, it was an extremely thoughtful and very kind thing to say. And, as with everything Kelce says, it appeared to come straight from the heart.

In a business, inspiring valued team members to stick around and stay enthusiastic can make the difference between failure and success. Getting compensation right is a big piece of that, but it’s not the only one. Letting people know how much you value them and want them around may be just as important. It’s especially powerful if you say those words when a lot of people are listening.

There’s a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or tip. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Want to learn more? Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.) Many are entrepreneurs or business leaders who know how important it is to call out employees and let them know how important they are to the team. Kelce’s shout-out to Sneed is a very classy example of how to do it.