From
my perspective…
An
occasional blog on Leadership, business strategy and healthcare industry
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Leadership Lessons from A Major
College Football Coach
“Attacking this day with
Enthusiasm unknown to Mankind.”
- Tweet from Jim
Harbaugh, Head Football Coach, University of Michigan,
January 15, 2015
January
15 marked the first day that Jim Harbaugh could meet in-person with high school
athletes, since accepting his new Head Football Coach position at the
University of Michigan on December 29. With only 6 commitments (of a possible
12-16) and less than 4 weeks to National Signing Day, Harbaugh had his work cut
out for him. He tweeted the above statement at 6:44am, signaling a passionate
and relentless drive that literally took him coast-to-coast and into the
schools and homes of dozens of the top high school athletes in the country.Harbaugh’s
first thirty days on the job provide powerful examples of outstanding
leadership qualities (unless you are a fan the The Ohio State University – in
that case, I am afraid these leadership lessons may be clouded by your aversion
to That Team Up North, TTUN as you refer to it):
Lead with Passion. Upon reading Harbaugh’s tweet
that morning, I was ready to “run through a wall” for Coach Harbaugh – a
questionable idea at my age. What it
signaled – to prospective athletes, current players, coaching staff, fans and
rivals – was an intense passion and commitment to excel. People in any organization – be it a
business, an athletic team and even a voluntary organization – are motivated by
passion. We know that we excel when we
are passionate about what we do. And,
passion is contagious. Leadership
involves demonstrable passion for the activities of the organization and
conveying that passion unto others.
Aim High. Recruiting
is the lifeblood of major college football programs. High school football
players make “commitments” to college programs as early as their freshman and
sophomore years. These commitments,
however, are non-binding until they sign Letters of Intent (LOIs), which cannot
occur until the first Wednesday of February in the senior year of high school. With less than four weeks to secure LOIs,
Harbaugh went after the best high school seniors possible, ignoring their
commitments to other elite programs.
Prospective student athletes, already committed to such major programs
as Alabama, UCLA, USC, Ohio State, Florida, LSU and Texas, were targeted by
Harbaugh and his staff. Undeterred by
their commitments, Harbaugh lived by an expression he
often quotes - “we bow to no man, we bow
to no program.” Instead, he set his
sights high, knowing that to be the best, he had to expect to be the best of
himself, his staff and his players.
Surround Yourself with
Exceptional Talent. Upon accepting his new position at the U of M,
Harbaugh wasted no time in assembling the best coaching staff possible. More critically, he was unabashed in his
resolve to attract the best coaches to join him in Ann Arbor. He also wasn’t
shy about attracting people at the top of their profession, even offering them
roles that could be considered a “lateral” move or even a step back from their
current roles. To wit, Harbaugh’s staff
of nine assistant coaches include seven with NFL experience. On both the defensive and offensive sides of
the ball, Harbaugh hired 2 coaches with experience as coordinators – in fact,
the 2 defensive coaches with coordinator experience coached 2 of the top ten
defensive in the sport in 2014. Clearly,
Harbaugh wasn’t simply filling his staff with qualified coaches, he intended to
assemble the most experienced and successful staff possible.
Remain True to Who You Are and to
Your Culture. Today, “spread” offenses are all the rage in
college football. Ohio State, the newly crowned National Champion, embraced the
spread offense under Coach Urban Meyer (I wonder how Woody Hayes of “three
yards and a cloud of dust” fame would feel about this). Yet, Harbaugh does not
appear to want to follow this crowd. Instead, he recognizes where his
competency lies and, where the culture and tradition of the University of
Michigan football program resides – power, pro-style offenses, featuring big
“road-grating” linemen, tall, accurate quarterbacks, bruising running backs and
tight ends that can both block and catch. Whether his explicit intent or not, Harbaugh
is acting upon the adage that “Culture eats Strategy for lunch”. Harbaugh’s commitment to power football, albeit
against the trend, is an explicit recognition by Harbaugh that real,
sustainable success, at this program, will flow from doing well what
Michigan has traditionally done best. In
business terms, trying to be something you are not or something foreign to your
organizational culture, likely will not it be successful – even if it’s the trend.
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