Josiah Sears is a driven, competitive, and dynamic leadership change agent with experience in high school, college and professional football, both as a player and a coach. As a player, Josiah was a fierce competitor, courageous leader, serving as a team captain for Indiana University. After graduation, he spent time with the NFL’s Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills before beginning his writing and coaching careers.

Josiah is the author of Character Leadership: A Guide to Leadership Development through Character Training, designed to aid leaders in the coaching and business worlds create and implement a leadership development system for their organization. The book draws upon Josiah’s extensive player and coaching careers and his success in building strong teams while navigating shifting challenges and opportunities. Josiah is devoted to leadership excellence - through a commitment to discipline, growth, and intentional development - as he impacts individuals and organizations.

Most recently Josiah was part of the coaching staff at IMG Academy, one of the world’s most advanced sports and educational institutions. Since its inception, IMG Football has emerged as a perennial national power, finishing in the national top-10 of the MaxPreps Xcellent25 rankings each of the past five seasons. During his time at IMG, Josiah implemented new leadership and developmental protocols, creating specific expectations in technique development for position coaches, mentoring other coaches in professional development, and building relationships with members of the mental coaching and leadership programs. Utilizing technologically advanced methods of teaching and creating playbook systems for players, Josiah implemented an efficient offensive system that scored on nearly 10% of plays called, helping lead IMG to another top 10 National ranking.

Prior to IMG Josiah worked in higher education serving as football coach for a number of college programs including Franklin College, Wheaton College, and Benedictine University. As Offensive Coordinator, he contributed extensively to the most competitively successful seasons in the history of football at Franklin and Wheaton, implementing an offensive system that broke many school records and saw several players earn all-conference and all-American recognition.

As head football coach at Benedictine University, Josiah utilized intentional leadership development training to transform members of a dysfunctional group into a team operating “on the same page”. He drove the program to new levels through mentoring, evaluating and hiring staff while creating a culture that was driven by excellence through accountability. During this time, he also authored a leadership curriculum that served as a practical guide to character training and leadership techniques for players and coaches. The implementation of his curriculum resulted in a team that functioned more cohesively, had a greater investment in the culture of the program by players and coaches, and improved productivity on and off the field in terms of wins, effort, passion, and growth as individuals and players.

Josiah holds a Masters in Executive Leadership from Liberty University and a BS in Finance from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Currently he is working on the second revision of his book which will expand the curriculum designed for football programs to meet the needs of coaches, team leaders, and mentors interested in creating a system to cultivate leadership in their own organization.