March Madness Biggest Surprise

This year’s NCAA tournament surprise team West Eastern State University provides some great messages for all leaders.  Maybe the best message is that great leaders take adversity and figure out how to turn it into success.  Often the traditional or conventional way of doing things does not work when you are disadvantaged in regards to resources, tradition or talent.  Faced with almost certain failure Coach Holton found a way to be successful by looking for non-traditional recruits and then adapting his teaching style to allow those recruits to use their unique set of talents.  Then figuring out how to fit those skills into the team setting and having all the players buy-in with no jealousy toward the Ivan Brothers was the true test. Remember quite often the axiom of “big risk, big reward” is what makes great leaders great, West Eastern University took a big chance and it paid off with a huge return.  The attached video is a great lesson.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CapitalOne

Dooley Long-Term?

When the University of Tennessee hired Lane Kiffin they were very interested in “winning the press conference.”  Clearly Kiffin had the “wow factor”.  He was handsome, had the LA background, had been an NFL Coach, had the beautiful wife and brought a confident and charismatic personality.  Following Phil Fulmer, Kiffin could energize the entire Volunteer Nation.  He immediately created a great deal of enthusiasm.  Yet soon thereafter red flags started to surface.  NCAA violations, disdain for authority and a marginal won-lost record raised doubts as to was Kiffin really the answer.  When last week USC came calling, without much concern for UT, Kiffin bolted Knoxville for the bright lights of Hollywood.  This time the Vols learned their lesson and chose Derek Dooley who assuredly does not command the national spotlight like Kiffin.  His 17-20 record at Louisiana Tech would not immediately put him on the national radar screen.  Yet there is no doubt that Dooley will build a program over the long haul and will do it right.  Remember as a leader this is a marathon not a sprint, you need to make decisions that are congruent with your mission.

Conventional wisdom and the Jets

Interesting enough this year the New York Jets qualified for the playoffs and made it to the second round.  When comparing this result to last year, one would would have to scratch his noggin and wonder how you could get a better result this year with a rookie quarterback compared to last year with a guaranteed hall of famer.  You have to give credit to the Jets leadership this year as they controlled the situation and developed a system that  uses the talents of Mark Sanchez while minimizing his shortcomings.  They put him in a position to succeed and accepted the responsibility of making that decision.  With Brett Favre last year they pretty much handed over the reins and then sat back and hoped for the desired outcome.   Conventional wisdom is—- rookie quarterbacks don’t win—-reality is—–good leadership wins.

texas tech and mike leach—a question of loyalty

As the  Texas Tech administration plowed through the confusing saga of Coach Mike Leach and his interaction with student-athlete Adam James, many questions started to surface.  However, the number one question had to be, what kind of leader do we want in our most visible position?  It is pretty clear the Leach had a very strong belief that he was in total control of the program and felt comfortable making arbitrary decisions with little concern for the implications of those decisions.  Interestingly enough this is the same program where Bobby Knight had more than a couple blips on the public relations front yet seemed to always have the support of the administration.  What was the difference?  When Leach pursued the Washington head job just months after signing his $12 million five year deal, he demonstrated no loyalty to Texas Tech and for all intent alienated all the administration who had supported the new contract.  On the other hand, Coach Knight always had strong support and a good relationship with AD Gerald Meyers.  When the ugly situation with James surfaced, the equity he had gained from his wins on the field were not going to trump the lack of loyalty to the Administration and the University.   Coach Leach had no no advocates in the decision-making positions and all his .  That lack of loyalty coupled with a dose of arrogance led to the final outcome.  Remember leaders need advocates at every level.

Leaders Understand Failure

Out of nowhere, David Duval became one of the compelling stories in this year’s US Open at Bethpage Black.  There is a  great lesson to be learned from Duval’s amazing resurrection from the dead.  Clearly all leaders are going to have to deal with failure at some time during the course of their career.  Kyle Rote Jr. had an interesting take on being successful, he said, “There is no doubt in my mind there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser and that is to fail and not look beyond the failure.”

One thing that leaders must possess is an understanding of the reality that sometimes adversity in the form of failure will occur.  At that point we see the real substance of the leader.  Does he learn from the adversity and build a bigger and better plan and rally the organization?  The great leaders respond to failure with a new resolve and use it as a learning experience.  Leaders don’t make excuses, they evaluate why something happened and then fix it.

One of the best coaches I have ever been around is a guy named Paul Kostin (I will quite often refer to Paul as there are many lesson to be learned from him).  He is the tennis coach at VCU and has probably won more matches than any sitting Division 1 tennis coach in the country.  His normal  year is conference championships (M&W) and a deep run in the NCAA tournament.  This year neither his men’s or women’s team won the conference championship or advanced in the NCAA’s.   Talking to Paul there were no excuses, his response was simply I have to recruit better players and coach them better.  He did not mention the incredible number of injuries or the youth of his team, he just focused on what he needed to do to compete at the highest level.  That is the course of action of great leaders, what do I need to do and what did I learn from the setback?

As so clearly brought to focus by David Duval, all leaders must understand FAILURE IS TEMPORARY!  Like Paul Kostin understands the most important thing about adversity is HOW YOU DEAL WITH IT?

Leaders Have to Step Up to the Plate

Challenge sets the stage for greatness. When Phil Jackson returned to coach the Lakers he had a big challenge. In his book he had indicated the Kobe was “uncoachable” and was not a good teammate. The year before the Lakers had won just 34 games and seemed to be a haven for selfish, underachieving big name players.

Enter Jackson with his unique style and nine world championship rings. Jackson, probably as well as anyone, understands the concept of role players and superstars. The trick was getting everyone to accept and relish their role. While Bryant clearly was the centerpiece, Jackson was able to convince ownership to acquire individuals who could work with the temperamental and sometimes difficult superstar. Derrick Fisher, Pau Gasol, and Trevor Ariza all fit perfectly into Jackson’s successful paradigm of “stars and their helpers”. Clearly the model while sometimes erratic proved to be the format for success. The challenge in the land of movie stars and acerbic media was one that many individuals with Jackson’s previous success would have not even considered. The intense scrutiny and critical fan base that had driven other successful coaches out of the LA sports scene, proved to be the perfect stage to crown Jackson’s leadership greatness. His nine world championship and previous success with Lakers bought him time while he cleverly positioned himself to have the control and resources necessary to succeed.

While the Zen Master was not afraid of the challenge, he also was insightful enough to make sure he had the support necessary to get the job done. GREAT LEADERS ACCEPT CHALLENGES AS OPPORTUNITIES.

They understand that being successful dealing with difficult situations is what makes a leader great and they relish the chance. How do you look at tough challenges? The big market teams are the biggest opportunities for any coach. They also are the biggest chance for failure.

Lane Kiffin: Arrogant or Enthusiastic?

Lane Kiffin has hit the ground running as the leader of the University of Tennessee football program and created enough controversy in four months to last a career. He has called Urban Meyer a cheater, said the recruiting class that Nick Saban signed at Alabama was the result of the efforts of Lance Thompson (who Kiffin has since hired at UT), had to apologize to Pahokee High School in Florida and been reprimanded for secondary NCAA violations. Were these gaffes just irresponsibility on Kiffin’s part or were they part of a bigger plan to bring attention to the UT Football?

With the University of Tennessee coming off a 5-7 record, Kiffin understands that status quo is not what the Big Orange family is looking for. He has done what many good leaders do and that is to stir the pot, create an environment where everyone understands that expectations and the way of doing business has drastically changed. Right now the Tennessee faithful are rallying around Kiffin and his new energy. The question is how will this all play out in the long-term and will it result with wins on the field. Right now “the Kiffin style” is generating a great deal of attention which he hopes translates into better recruits, more exposure and ultimately championships. What Kiffin has done that both leaders and entrepreneurs do is take a risk. Great leaders take risk but not foolhardy risks. Is this arrogance or enthusiasm—-time will tell.

Wooden vs. Lombardi…Who Wins?

They both do…in very different ways.

John Wooden and Vince Lombardi are two great leaders who survived the test of time.  When we look at their personalities some might think they had very little in common.  Lombardi demanded toughness and was a rigid disciplinarian while Wooden was the quintessential psychologist who was focused on the mental part of the game.  Because of the differences in personality, appearance, communication style, etc., how can we extract any great lesson from this two remarkable leaders?

One thing that this two great coaches had in common, along with all great coaches, is that they had an incredible belief in what they were doing was 100% right.  They believed with all their heart that they were doing great things for their followers and their “system” was absolutely bigger and more important than any one individual.  They created a value system, committed totally to that value system and were able to get there teams to believe in their system.

An important question: What is the first step in getting followers to believe in the system?

Listeners Needed – FOLLOW UP…

Yesterday I conveyed how watching the total undivided attention that Anthony Grant received from his players, coaches, managers and trainers during a timeout truly demonstrated that he is a great leader. Clearly the reaction that he receives from his team speaks volumes for his leadership talent, yet the critical learning element is “how did Coach Grant get that total commitment?” The answer is Anthony developed a personal relationship with each and everyone of those “followers”. They believed that Coach Grant had their personal well-being as a major focus of the program and that they were very important to the teams success. Each and everyone had developed a belief (fostered by Anthony Grant) that their contribution was important and actually critical to the success of the team. How do you build that buy-in?

• Communicate freely
• Build trust
• Define goals bigger than an individual
• Manage individual goals
• Make individuals accountable
• Eliminate fear of failure
• Celebrate successes
• Learn continuously

How many times have you seen very individually talented teams or groups not succeed because they have not bought-in to the some element of the program. Intuitively a team such as the Phoenix Suns with Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudamire, Grant Hill and Jason Richardson should be able to compete with anyone, but in spite of the individual talents, leading this group is a tough job.