Leadership and Business Growth

This week is Nick Saban’s Leadership Lesson #6

Do not allow mistakes to go uncorrected.  You must evaluate the previous game and ensure mistakes are corrected for the upcoming game.

This is the value of having a feedback culture.

No, it’s not easy giving candid feedback to your team especially in pointing out opportunities to improve. But your primary job as a leader is to get the team better, not be over-sensitive on hurting feelings. 

Yes, continue to develop you’re soft interpersonal skills so the feedback you provide is better received by your team. But ultimately, your job as a leader remains to provide feedback to those you lead. So do your job.

This week is Nick Saban’s Leadership Lesson #5

You can have no flickering lights.  The torch must be fully lit when passed from the upperclassmen to the underclassmen.

This mindset and standard shows the importance of your whole team being bought into and having a deep understanding of your mission, vision, and values.

While team training should never be tribal. Culture is shared and passed down through the organization. 

This week is Nick Saban’s Leadership Lesson #3

Get out of yourself and into the team.  Coach Saban wants his players to rise above their own selfishness and ambitions and dissolve themselves into the team.

In the study of human nature, humans default to acting in their own self-interest. This is a bi-product of evolution. 

And while there can be many points of value in that.

Long term and if you want to accomplish a BIG GOAL, you have to focus on the team and not yourself.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Another way to look at that is to play work on yourself to look for the long-game perspective. 

As the long game, eventually becomes the short game, quicker than you would like.

Not convinced?

Have a chat with anyone over the age of 60 and ask their perception of time’s speed and the value of a long-game perspective.

Success leaves clues. Like within our franchise system, most times there’s not a need to reinvent the wheel.

Instead, look for success at the highest of levels and model it. 

That’s the formula I have used for any success I have achieved to date. And one that I encourage you to do the same.

 Recently, Steven Hadley sent me the recently published “The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban.” 

If you are not familiar, Saban is the undisputed best college football coach in history. 

It’s an incredible read with some big takeaways from one of the best leaders in history. In the book, there are 11 leadership lessons Saban runs his program by. ‘’

This week is Nick Saban’s Leadership Lesson #2..

Everything you do, you do to the team.  This speaks to personal responsibility and accountability.

Ultimately, we rise and fall as a team. 

When 1 of us wins, we all do. 

When 1 of us loses, we all do.

We are a team unit and rise and fall together.

This is teamwork which is the foundation for leadership.

Success leaves clues. Like within our franchise system, most times there’s not a need to reinvent the wheel.

Instead, look for success at the highest levels and model it.

That’s the formula I have used for any success I have achieved to date. And one that I encourage you to do the same.

Recently, Steven Hadley sent me the recently published “The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban.”

If you are not familiar, Saban is the undisputed best college football coach in history. 

It’s an incredible read with some big takeaways from one of the best leaders in history. In the book, there are 11 leadership lessons Saban runs his program by.

We will explore them over the next 11 weeks starting with Lesson number 1 today.

Lesson 1. There is no “I” in the team. But there is an “I” in win.

Coach Saban preaches individual responsibility.  His teams perform their best when individuals put the group first and do what is best for the team.

Last week I had one of my followers on the Gram tell me I was an idiot on a post I made about citing Adolf Hitler’s strong leadership skills. 

He went on to tell me how Hitler was a horrible person so couldn’t be a good leader. Stating that he didn’t get any electoral votes citing government beauracity and positional authority.

While I agree with his facts on the lack of democracy. I also agree that clearly, Hiter was a HORRIBLE person.

But he missed the point on what leadership actually is. 

Yes, Hitler was a HORRIBLE person but a great leader.

Leadership is influence. 

Nothing more or less.

If you have influence, you have leadership.

And clearly he had it.

Taking it a step deeper into the rabbit hole..

Leadership is actually neutral. 

It is just a tool that can be used for the good and bad.

So my message today is to arm yourself with leadership skills. 

And then use them for good to HELP and NOT hurt others!

The 5 C’s of the leadership framework is Consistency. 

As its essence, Consistency is trust. 

And without trust, a leader is ineffective and the team & mission break down.

The cold hard truth. So if you want to separate yourself, begin cleaning up your consistency.

• Email on a schedule.
• Meet on a schedule
• Work out on a schedule.

Consistency is both predictability & trust which is a great thing when you lead!

So my message today is to clean up your consistency and level up your leadership.

Communication is the 4th C in effective leadership. 

From Kennedy to Hitler (yes he was a horrible person but great leader), to Martin Luther King Jr., great leadership requires strong communication. In fact, you cannot show me a strong leader without this ability. 

This is especially true in today’s technological age. As there are many modalities to master.

From 1-1 meetings, weekly L10’s, boardroom presentations, broadcast emails, live videos on social media, Zoom presentations, and speaking on stage to hundreds, or thousands of people…

There are many ways to communicate.  

Which also means there are many opportunities to improve this critical skill which will add to your leadership ability.

Connection is the next C in the 5 step framework of leadership.

Why?

Leadership is about being able to build deep connections with others. Otherwise known as relationships.

In fact, in order to acquire leadership capital with your following, you have to build strong relationships. 

There’s no other way.

As without deep connection, it’s an uphill battle to lead.

The secret?

You must inherently like people.

Such a basic concept, but mission critical in your leadership.

If you do, you have an incredible advantage as building connections becomes much easier.

As when you do create connections, you increase your influence and can lead at a higher level.

Connection is the next C in the 5 step framework of leadership.

Why?

Leadership is about being able to build deep connections with others. Otherwise known as relationships.

In fact, in order to acquire leadership capital with your following, you have to build strong relationships. 

There’s no other way.

As without deep connection, it’s an uphill battle to lead.

The secret?

You must inherently like people.

Such a basic concept, but mission critical in your leadership.

If you do, you have an incredible advantage as building connections becomes much easier.

As when you do create connections, you increase your influence and can lead at a higher level.