Management Misses: Flexibility Changes Miss to Hit
by Miki Saxon
Sports has long been used as an analogy to various business practices—the best sales training film I ever saw was done by Vince Lombardi explaining how selling was akin to the plays in football.
But using good business practices to motivate a sports team isn’t heard of as much, except when it comes to ‘leadership’, a subject that, in its current ascendancy, annoys me no end.
A couple of years ago I read a post by Mike Kavis in which he focused on how Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin turned around his own career and his team using best practice leadership techniques.
“He listened to the constructive criticism of his bosses and players and decided to make some changes. What he found was that his vision was not fully understood by all of the players on the team. So he formed a leadership committee made up of various players on the team who could help him clearly communicate the vision. Better yet, he let the players select the leadership team. Since the players participated in forming the leadership team, it gave them a sense of ownership in the process…”
The creation of the leadership team accomplished the following:
- Clear understanding of team’s vision
- Participation in overall strategy
- Constant feedback
- Clear communication
- Accountability
- Buy-in
- Shared goals
- Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
And a Super Bowl trophy, I might add.
In his summary of what happened, Mike says, “If you want people to change, first change yourself.” which gave me a chuckle, not because it’s inaccurate, but because it’s so true that it’s the tag line of my company—To change what they do, change how you think.
A winning team is the goal of every person ever put in charge of an endeavor.
“Coughlin had a very rigid methodology that he followed to a T. It wasn’t working but he kept following it because it worked when he was with the Jaguars several years ago. By listening to his players, he made some minor tweaks to his methodology and the team responded.”
Those who are truly successful understand the importance of putting their egos in their respective pockets in order to listen and change themselves as needed.
The rest will continue to go their merry way, listening to no one, issuing edicts, and complaining when their people don’t buy-in or perform.
Image credit: heathbrandon on flickr
