have to be well prepared both physically and mentally to go out and compete each week. You must have a great game plan, and it's essential for coaches to call the right plays and for players to execute effectively. Strategy is important. Execution is imperative. However, the most overlooked aspect in team sports, and what most coaches and leaders fail to grasp, is the fact that it is your culture that will determine whether your strategy works and is sustainable. It is the culture you create that is going to determine whether your players perform and execute.
Every week you will face very difficult circumstances that are completely out of your control. There are going to be injuries that effect match-ups, the ball is not going to bounce your way, and there will be mistakes made both by players and coaches. The strategies and game plans are going to change from week to week. In the face of all this, it is your culture that will be the driving force to create the resiliency, toughness, passion, and attitude to overcome the obstacles in your way. The wildcat came and went. The spread option was hot for a year or two. Certain plays work for a while until opposing teams figure them out. X's and O's are important but culture is the rock that your organization must be built upon – and if you do it the right way, you'll have sustained success, as we did for five years. The last two years are another story, however, and later on I'm going to share what we learned from that.
Sustained Culture = Sustained Success
Jon Gordon
I couldn't agree more with Mike about the importance of culture. Mike and I had many conversations about culture and it was very exciting to see him put his beliefs and plan into action. As someone who writes, speaks, and thinks a lot about culture, I loved watching the principles take hold in real life. Theory is one thing; practical application is another. But what Mike did and the way he did it is a great demonstration of why organizations with sustained cultures have sustained success. Culture drives expectations and beliefs. Expectations and beliefs drive behaviors. Behaviors drive habits and habits create the future. If you look at the most successful organizations in business, sports, health care, and education you notice they all have great cultures. Indeed X's and O's are overrated. I once spoke at a football clinic years ago on the topic of culture. I had five people in my session. The workshop on X's and O's had 500 people in it. I knew then that most people don't understand that X's and O's won't sustain success. Culture will. You must spend more time on building your culture than on everything else. Culture is what produces wins over time.
Know What You Stand For
Jon Gordon
If you are looking to build a new culture or transform the one you have, the first questions you should ask yourself are, “What do we stand for?” and “What do we want to be known for?” For example, for my book The Hard Hat, I interviewed coach Jeff Tambroni, who helped build Cornell lacrosse into a national powerhouse, to ask him how he did it. He said, “We know who our people are. We know who fits our culture.” Jeff built a culture that was defined by a blue-collar work ethic (symbolized by a hard hat), as well as selflessness, teamwork, relentless effort, and continuous improvement. By knowing what their culture stood for, Jeff and his staff were able to choose the right people who fit their culture. When you know what you stand for you can find the right people who stand for the same things as you. Brad Stevens, the head coach of the Boston Celtics, told me that your culture is not just your tradition. It is the people in the locker room who carry it on. When you have people who fit your culture and carry it on, it comes to life in a powerful way.
Knowing what you stand for is just as important in the business world. When Apple was just the two Steves (Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak), they knew the culture they wanted to create. They wanted to challenge the status quo. Everything they did was influenced by their culture: the people they hired, the products they created, and the campaigns they ran. This approach still influences everything at Apple. Apple is famous for saying that culture beats strategy. What you stand for drives everything else.
I had the opportunity to speak to Southwest Airlines a few years ago, and they told me how consultants suggested they charge passengers to check luggage since the competition was doing it and they could make millions of dollars in additional revenue. Southwest considered their proposal but in the process asked themselves an important question: “Is this what we stand for?” They went straight to their purpose statement: “To connect people to what's important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel.” They ultimately decided that if they were for everyday fliers and low-cost air travel, they shouldn't charge baggage fees. You would think they would have missed out on a lot of money, but a funny thing happened. Southwest started to get new customers because the airline didn't charge for bags. They ran advertising campaigns highlighting the fact that bags fly free, and they gained market share in the process. Their revenue grew to new heights. It's a great example that once you know what you stand for, decisions are easy to make. Both your strategic decisions and those made on the fly. When your culture dictates your decisions you will enjoy sustained success.
Process and Milestones
Mike Smith
Knowing what you stand for is essential. From the moment I took over as the coach of the Atlanta Falcons, I knew the kind of culture we needed to create and I defined it for the team. The seven responsibilities everyone had were to:
1. Have fun, work hard, and enjoy the journey.
2. Show respect for every person you have contact with in the organization.
3. Put the team first. Successful teams have teammates that are unselfish and willing to put their individual goals behind the team's goals.
4. Do your job. It is defined, but you must always be prepared for it to change (especially if you're a player).
5. Appropriately handle victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation. Do not get too high in victory or too low in defeat. Be the same person every day.
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