Leadership Development.... trying something new

For 26 years as a head football coach, I believed that the culture of our football program would be strong because we had a quality staff of assistant coaches and we ran our program the right way. In 2017, I realized that was no longer enough. And, as I talked to other long time head coaches, they shared some of the same things over the past few weeks.

I still think your staff and running your program are the foundation to have a strong culture, but I am also convinced it takes a more deliberate effort to get the leadership needed in your program in the 21st century.

The last two weeks, two different groups of players have come to our home to eat together and then discuss Jon Gordon & Mike Smith's book, You Win in the Locker Room First.

After eating, I give the group an overview of why we are meeting.... although our team is made up of good people and we have a good culture, it is not where we want it and where it needs to be for us to be the best.  Leadership has been a deficiency that must be corrected.

We begin by picking out passages from the book and specifically highlighting the one day at at time/process approach, and an in depth look at the leadership models early in the book (Matt Ryan, Tony Gonzalez, Ray Lewis).

Then we divide the book into sections and have smaller groups read those sections. After reading, each group discusses their section. Finally, each group presents to the larger group what they found that will make our team better. We will then compile that and use that information to help us focus on being that culture and being those types of leaders each day.

Tonight was our 3rd session and we will have one more group. All of the sessions have gone well. Our guys WANT  a great culture and they WANT better leadership for our team. One day at a time, I believe we will get where we want to be. And, we will do it together.