Do all the right things to precision and “the score will take care of itself”
you aim for perfection and miss, you’re still pretty good, but if you aim for mediocre and miss?
However, a resolute and resourceful leader understands that there are a multitude of means to increase the probability of success.
The ability to help the people around me self-actualize their goals underlines the single aspect of my abilities and the label that I value most—teacher. —BILL WALSH
“If you’re up at 3 A.M. every night talking into a tape recorder and writing notes on scraps of paper, have a knot in your stomach and a rash on your skin, are losing sleep and losing touch with your wife and kids, have no appetite or sense of humor, and feel that everything might turn out wrong, then you’re probably doing the job.”
I must stand and fight again, stand and fight or it was all over.
Many can’t summon the strength; they can’t get up; their fight is over. Victory goes to another, a stronger competitor.
MY FIVE DOS FOR GETTING BACK INTO THE GAME:
MY FIVE DON’TS:
Regardless of your specific job, it is vital to our team that you do that job at the highest possible level in all its various aspects, both mental and physical (i.e., good talent with bad attitude equals bad talent).
My Standard of Performance:
If you were lucky enough to receive a 49er paycheck, it meant you were part of an organization that had high expectations of itself and of you,
That perfect appearance was a predicate of perfect performance.
hiring personnel with four characteristics I value most highly: talent, character, functional intelligence (beyond basic intelligence, the ability to think on your feet, quickly and spontaneously), and an eagerness to adopt my way of doing things, my philosophy.
Everybody was connected, each of us an extension of the others, each of us with ownership in our organization.
Likewise, failure belongs to everyone. If you or a member of your team “drops the ball,” everyone has ownership.
Leaders sometimes wonder why they or their organization fail to achieve success, never seem to reach their potential. It’s often because they don’t understand or can’t instill the concept of what a team is all about at its best: connection and extension.
It’s why egotism can hurt group pride and unity so much. An individual who acts like a big shot, as if he or she is solely responsible for what the team has accomplished, has taken over ownership of the group’s achievement.
Michael Jordan being interviewed after a game. The Chicago Bull would tell the media, “Scotty Pippen did a great job on defense; Dennis [Rodman] got a couple of key rebounds, and our bench really picked up the slack in the third quarter to give us a little breather. It was a great effort by everybody.”
The exceptional assembly line comes first, before the quality car.
Before you can win the fight, you’ve got to be in the fight.
The key to performing under pressure at the highest possible level, regardless of circumstance, is preparation in the context of your Standard of Performance and a thorough assimilation by your organization of the actions and attitudes contained within your philosophy of leadership.
Rather than feel that somehow I had to get a supreme effort from our personnel—“try harder and harder”—I trusted that it was going to happen because we had prepared thoroughly.
Some leaders drive their team past being able to perform with poise and presence and into a state of anxiety where they’re not thinking as clearly as they should.
Creating gold from dross is alchemy; making lemonade when you’re given lemons is leadership; making lemonade when you don’t have any lemons is great leadership.
They were locked into the past and unwittingly locking themselves out of the future.
It’s often the case that a “game changer” takes a while to change the way the game is played.
“What assets do we have right now that we’re not taking advantage of?”
perceptive, astute, and shrewd listener who did not fear change.
Few things offer greater return on less investment than praise—offering
The local fire department was called in to help rescue a cat stuck up in a tall tree. During all the congratulations afterward, the fire truck drove off and ran over the cat.
You must continually be anticipating and preparing to deal with what management expert Peter Drucker characterized as “foul weather.”
but I would expand Drucker’s category to include “fine weather”—what you’ll do if the cat is rescued.
to be prepared I had to factor in every contingency: good weather, bad weather, and everything in between.
You must envision the future deeply and in detail—creatively—so that the unforeseeable becomes foreseeable. Then you write your script for the foreseeable.
it was almost impossible for me to make quick and correct decisions in the extreme emotional and mental upheaval that accompanied many situations during a game.
I don’t care how smart or quick-witted you are, what your training or intellect is; under extreme stress you’re not as good.
Contingency planning cleared away the clouds and removed the shadows. It brought clarity to what could be a confusing situation.
A leader must see the forest and the trees.
Hearing someone described as being able to “fly by the seat of his pants” always suggests to me a leader who hasn’t prepared properly and whose pants may soon fall down.
it’s a macho attitude to believe, “I’m at my best when all hell breaks loose.” But it’s usually not true; you cannot think as clearly or perform as well when engulfed by stress, anxiety, fear, tension, or turmoil.
When it counts is before all hell breaks loose.
scripting, adapted to your own environment in your own way, can have the same tremendous benefit for you that it did for me, and I offer this summary as a good point of reference:
When Lawrence Taylor entered the NFL, not everyone understood how much his presence changed things. I did.
all solutions are only temporary. They last until your competitor makes a meaningful countermove to your own countermove. At which time it’s your turn again.
The key is to quickly recognize the nature of the threat and then to creatively and expeditiously respond to it. Otherwise, the game will be over before it begins.
Every leader does year-end reviews and comes to conclusions of one sort or another.
My observation is that two leaders—coaches—looking at the same information will not see the same thing. The one who’s a more skilled analyst, who digs deeper and wider, will benefit more.
Every organization has them, influential people who’ve got your back—or are putting a knife in it.
one end of the scale there were locker-room leaders who were positive and supportive and at the other end influential players who were very negative. Most important, he understood that all the guys in the middle could go one way or the other; they were up for grabs.
others follow you based on the quality of your actions rather than the magnitude of your declarations.
It’s like announcing, “I am rich!” when you’re broke.
They simply would not quit in their effort to install their own system, to push forward with their plan, not someone else’s or a committee’s.
Some leaders are volatile, some voluble; some stoic, others exuberant; but all successful leaders know where we want to go, figure out a way we believe will get the organization there (after careful consideration of relevant available information), and then move forward with absolute determination.
My ultimate job, and yours, is not to give an opinion. Everybody’s got an opinion. Leaders are paid to make a decision.
The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.
a problem this prerequisite leadership trait—strength of will—can pose, namely, the problem of determining when “my way” is the wrong way.
It’s a delicate balance: You must persevere to achieve anything of import, but at what stage does perseverance become pigheadedness?
was staying with a bad plan because my ego was committed to the stupid challenge I had made
New Coke was introduced in April and taken off the shelves in July.
A leader must be keen and alert to what drives a decision, a plan of action.
One of the great leadership challenges is to recognize when hubris has you in its grip before it is too late to change.
Leaders who don’t understand what their territory is and how to protect it will soon find themselves with no turf to protect.
When you fall prey to the naysayers who eagerly provide you with all the reasons why you won’t succeed, why you can’t win, and why you should quit, you have lost the winner’s edge.
Twelve habits I have identified over the years that will make you be a better leader:
Coach George Allen head coach of the Washington Redskins, sent a staff member out to the Coliseum for an entire afternoon to chart the movement of the sun during the hours when the game would be played.
While it is critically important to concentrate on the smallest relevant aspects of your job without losing sight of the big picture, it is easy to become so completely overwhelmed by ongoing setbacks that you start focusing on issues completely extraneous
“There’ll be plenty of time for pencils, parties, and socializing when I lose my job, because that’s what’s going to happen if I continue to avoid the hard and harsh realities of doing my job.”
Ten additional nails you can pound into your professional coffin:
trademark of a well-led organization in sports or business is that it’s virtually self-sustaining and self-directed—almost autonomous.
an organization is crippled if it needs to ask the leader what to do every time a question arises.
“Commit, explode, recover (if you’re wrong)!” which was shorthand for having a plan of attack, executing it suddenly and powerfully, and then reacting quickly and intelligently to the results of what you’ve done.
If everything goes great when you’re around but slows or stops in its tracks when you’re not there, you are not fulfilling your responsibilities. Your leadership has not percolated down.
Demonizing the competition is a common but contrived method for stirring up emotions.
a player needed me to light a fire under him by turning the other team into a demon, he was lacking something I couldn’t give him.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.
don’t assume because of odd circumstances that everything will somehow sort itself out. Rather, play for keeps all the time. The clock never stops running; there is never a “time-out” when what you do is somehow less meaningful.
a leader needs a very hard edge inside; it has to lurk in there somewhere and come out on occasion.
You must be able to make and carry out harsh and, at times, ruthless decisions in a manner that is fast, firm, and fair.
Leadership is expertise. It is not rhetoric or cheerleading speeches.
because I could function under stress. I was clearheaded and made sound decisions.
For members of your team, you determine what their inner voice says. The leader, at least a good one, teaches the team how to talk to themselves.
four messages in common:
Of course, Joe had the talent, but talent alone won’t make you a leader
Despite the fact that he was the starting quarterback, with all of the trappings that come with that position, he never played favorites or believed that a person’s reputation, status, or credentials entitled him to special treatment.
you were treated as an equal.
Joe didn’t have to talk the talk because he walked the walk.
proved you don’t need to shout, stomp, or strut to be a great leader—just do the job and treat people right.
employ an approach that is based on the following principles:
Joe Montana threw three interceptions against Cincinnati in the first half. I pulled him over and asked him innocently, “How’s it going out there, Joe?” He got my joke, and I think it took off some of the pressure and anger he had at himself.
General George S. Patton, from “Letter of Instruction Number 1” (from War As I Knew It), offered six key dictates.
You will alleviate this burden by eliminating non-essential demands.
an inflated label like “Genius,” or any other form of hyperbole, comes with a big downside—that
create both external and internal problems, making your life and job a lot tougher than they already are.
The real damage occurs when you start to believe that future success will come your way automatically because of the great ability of this caricature you have suddenly become,
that the hard work and applied intelligence you utilized initially are not as crucial as they once were.
You demonstrate a lack of assuredness when you talk constantly in negatives.
very sharp in criticizing a player or coach, but I always made an effort to counter it by following up the barbs with more upbeat input immediately afterward.
When I criticized or gave feedback to someone, it wasn’t defeatist. It was always focused on the here and now
clear, specific, and comprehensive without an ounce of ambiguity.
Brown would start each season with the phrase, “Gentlemen, let’s set the record straight,” and then proceed to do exactly that. Step by step by step, specific after specific, he would cover every aspect of being on the Cincinnati Bengals
Needless to say, he continued with this kind of direct and clear communication in the months that followed—in practice, during games, and elsewhere.
Employees can thrive in an environment where they know exactly what is expected of them—even when those expectations are very high.
don’t be subtle, don’t be coy, don’t be vague.
Lombardi could see that his defensive players were not getting it done, were not really doing the hard job of tackling runners.
He let them know that “grabbin’ ” was not their job description and simply going through the motions was going to get them beat.
John Wooden summed it up like this: “Don’t mistake activity for achievement.”
Quality collaboration is only possible in the presence of quality communication;
“having big ears”—the skill of being a great listener—is the first law of good communication.
(The second law is “When you’re not listening, ask good questions.”)
An individual doesn’t need to be an expert to ask an intelligent question or offer useful insights. A sentence beginning with the words “This may sound dumb, but . .
Sitting in your office with the door closed and issuing edicts from on high is not communication, and is certainly not collaborative leadership.
You should be willing to go to someone’s office or desk and help him or her do his or her job. “management by walking around.”
if your left hand doesn’t know what your right hand is doing, you’ll get knocked out.
coach John Wooden has always urged, “Be more concerned with finding the right way than in having it your way.”
A leader who just wants to hear “yes” is like a child who only wants to eat candy.
setting aside your ego, resisting the temptation to let the world know how smart you are or think you are.
If you’re doing your job, the team will recognize your abilities.
someone told me that leadership is as easy as one, two, three, I’d reply, “Only if the one, two, and three are as follows: 1. Listen 2. Learn 3. Lead”
comfort zone is dangerous because it creates an often almost imperceptible lowering of intensity, focus, and energy, which leads directly to reduced effort, additional mistakes, and diminished performance.
if you’re predictably difficult or predictably easygoing, others become predictably comfortable.
feeling comfortable is first cousin to being complacent.
Leadership requires poise under pressure.
Knowing in advance what I would do in various situations—for example, scripting a game—was insurance that I could stay poised when it counted.
There are winners, and there are people who would like to be winners but just don’t know how to do it.
Passion is a love for the act of teaching itself—believing in your heart that it is not a means to an end, but an end in itself.
The greater your expertise, the greater your potential to teach, the stronger and more productive you can be as a leader.
good rule of thumb: “The more you know, the higher you go.”
Many mistakenly believe that just presenting facts—information—is teaching. Successful teaching is a two-way process.
I have spent literally thousands of hours in front of an overhead projector diagramming and explaining plays to a bunch of easily bored athletes
I did it with facial and body language—moving assuredly and with energy,
“Guys, this one should knock ’em on their asses!”
started and finished my description with nothing but optimism, enthusiasm, and belief. Never a caveat, no “ifs,” no hesitancy.
practices to facilitate what you do as a leader who is a great teacher:
Companies led by good teachers, those with passion, expertise, communication skills, and persistence, do very well.
He’d say to us coaches, “I’m going to yell at you in front of the players once in awhile. When that happens, don’t get upset with me. Your players will work even harder for you because they’ll feel sorry for you.”
He wanted input, but once the decision was made, he wanted it carried out precisely.
From the first day I took over, we treated people right. More than money, that’s what made the San Francisco 49ers a first-class organization
“Fella, I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at the SOB who hired you.”
an organization is only as good as the people who work there
and that the leader determines who works there.
My checklist of personal qualities—assets—in potential staff members:
checklist for keeping good staff members on the same page:
More people are more familiar with losing than with winning.
As with losing, there is fallout from success, and many of the symptoms are the same. The only difference is that you go down with a smile on your face instead of a frown.
being knocked off balance emotionally and mentally—is one of the fundamental reasons it is so difficult to continue winning;
Success Disease—overconfidence is a major symptom—can happen in any profession
Mastery requires endless remastery. In fact, I don’t believe there is ever true mastery. It is a process, not a destination.
Fend off the fallout from achievement; specifically, Success Disease:
in the history of the Super Bowl, no team has been able to win three in a row.
instill in each member of our group the belief that, regardless of the opponent, we were a one-point underdog, that the upcoming team was just a little better than we were or had motivation enough to really raise their level of play—the
While he was capable of being a leader under positive circumstances, he was not capable of doing it under losing circumstances.
It takes extraordinary fortitude to stay with it when times are bad.
Don’t let anybody tell you that a big ego is a bad thing. Tiger Woods, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Cal Ripken Jr. have lots of ego, and so does anyone anywhere who is dedicated to taking his or her talent as far as it will go.
Unfortunately, a strong, healthy ego often becomes egotism.
Psychologists suggest that there is a strong link between ego and competitiveness.
when I sense ego turning into egotism, I sit down and talk with the individual to help him understand his problem, to recognize why he’s on the team, to see if we can’t get his perspective back in balance and minimize his inflated sense of value to the organization.
Most of those who strutted around were the less intelligent players. And being less intelligent, they couldn’t understand my message and ended up being isolated by their teammates—ostracized
At the beginning of each year’s training camp, I made the following promise to our team: “Every single one of you guys will have at least one chance to win a game for us. I ask you to prepare for that opportunity with the attitude that it’s a certainty, not a possibility.
Those comments were aimed specifically at the so-called bottom 20 percent of our team—the
the backups, “benchwarmers,” and special role players,
others with plenty of playing time didn’t need me to remind them
the bottom 20 percent who were more likely to feel overlooked,
the bitching of the bottom 20 percent often overshadows the positive enthusiasm of the other 80 percent.
whiners seem to have a disproportionate impact.
a “dance of death” occurs when a wildebeest is run into exhaustion by a lion. Waiting to be killed as the lion circles, the wildebeest meekly submits to its fate—head drooping, shoulders slumped, eyes glazed over.
“Fellas, I guess we’re gonna lose today. How do you want to do it?” They knew what I meant. I was asking them to stand up and fight and if they lost, at least to lose with dignity.
I care a lot more about how we lose than if we lose.
Even in the worst circumstance (and this was pretty close to being the worst), do not unravel mentally or emotionally; continue to fight and execute well, even if the cause appears to be lost; act like professionals.
Your competitor must never look at you across the field, conference table, or anywhere else and conclude, “I not only beat you, I broke your spirit.”
having the courage to say, “I believe in you,” in whatever words and way are comfortable for you. These four words—or their equivalents—constitute the most inspirational message a leader can convey.
Nobody will ever come back to you later and say “thank you” for expecting too little of them.
One of your great challenges is finding the middle ground between the well-being of the people who work with you and the achievement of your goals.
If your team is constantly working on adrenaline, in a crisis mode, running as hard as they can, they become vulnerable. When an emergency arises, when the competition suddenly presents an unexpected threat, your team has no next level to step up to, no reserves to draw on.
We got beat because we were beat.
What’s difficult to do is recognize when extra effort, extreme exertion, working “as hard as possible” starts to produce diminishing returns.
we must try our best to encourage, support, and inspire, but eventually—ultimately—people must do it for themselves.
trusting your own judgment enough to be resourceful, innovative, and imaginative. It means resisting the herd mentality.
Conventional thinking didn’t produce Jerry Rice.
necessary to initiate communication after a conflict, even if the other person had misunderstood you or wrongfully ridiculed you.
negative relationships have ongoing negative consequences.
transformed from an adversary into an advocate.
by minimizing the forces working against you, you do away with resultant distractions and free your mind and conserve your energy to focus on your work.
This included providing him with a budget manual (thick), an operations manual (thick), a personnel manual (thick), an overall set of job descriptions that included the specific job of each player and my evaluation of that individual (thick), and a detailed listing of my performance goals and expectations (even thicker). On and on and on. Paper. Paper. Paper. The information was not frivolous “filler,” but substantive and sizable.
I wanted the owner (and his advisers) to understand that I was applying maximum effort and paying attention to every single solitary detail
Positive results—winning—count most. But until those results come through your door, a heavy dose of documentation relating to what you’ve done and what you’re doing, planning to do, and hoping to do may buy you just enough extra time to actually do it.
Whether they read it or not, flood your superiors with information that is documented—projections,
We learn in many ways from many sources. One of the most powerful is a mentor,
any head coach or general manager I worked for thought of himself as my mentor. Nevertheless, they served as such because I consciously assimilated as much of their great know-how as I could—asking
asking questions about the logic supporting their decisions; analyzing their behavior in managing others; drawing my own conclusions about how to incorporate it into my own approach
practiced how to practice.