7 Tips for Success From Superbowl Champion Coach
by 1970 on Feb 7, 2012 9:26 AM PST
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PrintHere are the 7 things every CEO can learn from Coach Coughlin:
- Get the most out of the talent you have: The great coaches in the NFL are the ones who are able to coax a performance from a player that exceeds his talent level. Just as Coughlin helped Victor Cruz grow from an unknown, undrafted wide receiver to become a pro Bowler, an effective CEO knows how to nurture talent, provide training, and reward performance.
- Run a strict meritocracy. Starting spots in NFL rosters are given to players who produce. As much as an employee has produced in the past, if he no longer gets the job done, he's out. David Tyree may have helped win one Super Bowl for the Giants, but he was long gone before this one.
- Encourage internal competition. Every football team has a depth chart. The starting quarterback knows there's a guy right behind him who would kill for his job. Every year there's a training camp and very few starting jobs are etched in stone. In the business world, effective leaders let their employees know that initiative will be noticed and rewarded. Promotions based on merit (not just seniority) provide incentive to every member of a team and keep everybody on their toes.
- Spend hours scouting the competition. The way to win in football is to know the strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies of the opposition. Coughlin knew the Patriots had a weak secondary, so Eli Manning went out and completed his first 10 passes. In business, the CEO should be making a similar effort in researching the opposition. Where are they advertising? What are their best products? What are they doing on Twitter? Facebook?
- Give underdogs an opportunity to shine. Over the course of the 2011-12 season, Coach Coughlin made a point of giving younger players playing time. When injuries happened, these players were able to step in and get the job done because they had some NFL experience under their belts. You'll never know if your younger employees will be able to advance in their careers unless you give them the opportunity to take on real responsibility. Not everyone will succeed, but this creates an environment where every employee feels like a real part of the team.
- Plan your game meticulously. A great coach knows exactly how he wants his team to perform long before the team takes the field. He knows his team's strengths and plots out a strategy to defeat the competition. A smart CEO plans marketing campaigns, new product launches, and customer service with the same level of precision, leaving very little to chance.
- Get great at judging talent. In the NFL, a great draft can make or break a team. The Giants raised a lot of eyebrows when they selected the relatively obscure Jason Pierre Paul in the first round of the 2010 draft. Two Pro Bowl seasons later, nobody questions the pick. Similarly, a CEO can advance the company with a brilliant hire or set his/her company way back by making poor hires, especially at mid to senior-level positions.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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just do what he did: follow John Wooden’s teachings
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Interesting that Coughlin's #4
(Spend hours scouting the competition) is so anti-Wooden.
To this day, it blows my mind that Coach Wooden spent almost no time whatsoever scouting the opposition—not even for NCAA playoff games. And, yet, Coach’s approach makes perfect sense.
Coach Wooden’s philosophy was to spend all effort in getting your own machine running as perfectly as possible. Take care of your own business. Don’t worry about what the opponent will throw at you. Worry that what you throw at them will be the best of what you’re capable. Let them react to you.
It makes perfect sense, but it still blows my mind. This is one of the many practices that set Coach Wooden apart from other coaches. What an inspiring, beautiful man was Coach.
It might have been due
to the technical limitations of the time. Not sure how much game tape was available back then.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Oh, no
Lots of coaches were doing it then. Scouting your opponent was the norm, especially during playoffs. There wasn’t youtube and camcorders back then, but there was film and professional video tape. There was also good old fashioned networking—talking to coaches of common opponents, scouts, and so on. Through all the years, the fact that Coach didn’t change his approach, not even for playoff games, was definitely a contrast with most coaches back then.
Bill Walton used to talk of some of Coach’s practices, when Coach would let the players run the scrimmages themselves, and Coach would sit alone, high in Pauley, getting a high-level overview of his basketball team, seeing the machine move in fluid motion, seeing the whole that’s hard to see at floor level. Coach was being the Master, looking for ways to tune his Ferrari even finer.
I think that Coach’s preoccupation with his own team and his relative unconcern with his opponent is just an extension of this.
Coach was next level to be sure.
It takes a great coach to get a team running on all cylinders and humming like a well tuned machine. But, to focus on your own productivity rather than what your opponent is doing is mind boggling. I probably not believe it if I haven’t heard the man speak myself. Not, because he particularly addressed this topic, but because every last one of us walked out of the lecture hall believing we could accomplish anything.
Next Level.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
A couple of links
Wooden spent minimal time studying his opponent. He focused on what he could control — his team’s preparation and conditioning. “I did less scouting than any other coach I’ve ever heard about,” he wrote. “I wanted our team to concentrate on what we could do — namely, try to execute our style of play to the best of our abilities.”
link
Former UCLA coach John Wooden told me he preferred to do very little scouting because he found it either made him scared of the next opponent or lulled him into a feeling of overconfidence. Instead, he wanted to spend most of the time preparing his team to do what it did best.
I should mention that no one is saying that Coach was completely oblivious to his opponents’ styles of play, or that he was seeing them for the first time when they played. No doubt, his assistant coaches informed him of tendencies; no doubt that Coach had his own thoughts and observations; and so on. But, for Coach, scouting was an area of de-emphasis. This, alone, would make him rare or unique across the coaching landscape.
Every time I think about Coach Wooden, my respect grows deeper.
I see
At the end of the day, you can only play your best, and I guess when UCLA played its best it didn’t matter if anyone scouted them, and it didn’t matter if Coach scouted anyone.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
I wish you guys could have seen the two championship teams before Alcindor.
We did not have the best players, but we had by far the best team. We had absolute confidence in Coach. If something was going a little wrong, we knew Coach could fix it. Those were the most exciting days that I can remember. 30-0 was when I was in high school, but 28-2 was my freshman year. Not a lot on TV back then, but enough. We made the trek to the Sports Arena for our home games, but the funny thing was that the trOJies didn’t taunt us during basketball season.
The coolest thing about those NC's were that they were won with no names...
Small but quick. I personally feel those NC’s were the best ones because they were the ones that began the string. Of course, the last one, for Wooden, may be right there as those guys were without a superstar either.
One has to admit, that to not scout the opponent is just simply the ultimate in confidence. One might even say the ultimate slap in the face. Reminds of Vince Lombardi. Just execute a few plays to perfection.
One fact of note is that the full court pressure game plan was the brainchild of an assistant, not the Coach. However, as was the case with Sidney’s suggestion, Coach gave his blessing.
A special time no doubt.
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