What we can learn from great coaches

Recently, just for the fun of it, I drew up a list of those I consider to be the finest coaches of athletic teams. They include (in alpha order) Arnold (Red) Auerbach, Dan Gable, Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi, Joe Paterno, Pat Summitt, Bill Walsh, and John Wooden. Then I asked myself, “What do they share in common?”

1. They are results-driven. Great coaches focus on getting the results they want on the practice field, in meetings, and during pre-season. Bill Walsh wrote a book whose title sums it up very well: The Score Takes Care of Itself.

2. They are avid students. The process begins when they begin to play a sport. They are determined to increase their knowledge and improve their skills.

3. They are passionate teachers. With very few exceptions, great coaches insist that they are happiest during practices. At Penn State, Coach Paterno broke an ankle while demonstrating the proper way to block. He was 78 at the time.

4. They are fierce but principled competitors. Great coaches compete against themselves. To them, “losers” are those who give less than a best effort, waste time, whine and complain, blame others, cut corners, disrespect opponents, etc.

5. They are brilliant innovators. Great coaches are obsessed with constant improvement, theirs and others’, with regard to offensive and defensive strategies, practice and off-season schedules, equipment, and even nutrition.

6. They are obsessed with significant details. Throughout his Hall of Fame coaching career, from the first season at a small high school in Indiana until his last NCAA championship season at U.C.L.A., Wooden devoted all of the first practice session each year to explaining and demonstrating how to put on a pair of wool socks. Not one of his school and college players ever had a problem with blisters.

7. They “grow” other great coaches. All great coaches can be viewed as a “tree” whose “branches” are coaches who had been their assistants. A total of 24 head coaches in the NFL were an assistant coach on Walsh’s staff at one time, and many of them led teams to victory in the Super Bowl (e.g. Brian Billick, Jon Gruden, Mike Holmgren, George Seifert, and Mike Shanahan).

Those in business who have direct reports entrusted to their care and supervision would be well-advised to study the great sports coaches. The most highly-admired CEOs have…and continue to do so.