There’s More than One Way to Successfully Lead a Football Team
By
Rex is Rex, Bill is Bill…and Both are Great Coaches:
There’s More than One Way to Successfully Lead a Football Team
I live in New York. I am a die-hard Jets fan. And yes, I love Rex Ryan. I love his bluster. I love the confidence he’s injected into the Jets franchise and its fan base. I love the way he finds the right message to get his team keyed up every week.
I don’t love Bill Belicheck (hate might be strong, but it likely applies). On more than one occasion, I’ve resisted the impulse to throw a half-full beer can through my television screen when I see his ugly mug front and center. But unlike many fans and sports pundits who insist that one of these AFC Divisional head coaches has it right and the other has it wrong, my management analysis shows that both are very good football coaches who manage to squeeze a lot of performance from their respective teams even though they each do it in starkly different ways.
| Effective Leadership Behavior | How Rex Does It | How Belicheck Does It |
| Instilling Confidence | Rex tells anyone who will listen just how much he believes in each and every one of his players. He’s been predicting a Super Bowl championship since he became head coach, and has insisted that his team is the best in football. He’s said it so often and loudly, his team has come to believe it. | Belicheck instills confidence by analyzing game film and developing brilliant game plans that his team buys into because of their elegance and complexity. Bill knows what the hell he’s doing, so his team knows it’s in excellent hands. |
| Motivating His Team | Rex gives as much thought to his pre-game motivational speeches as he does to his game plans. His players speak fondly of Rex’s masterfully-constructed, goosebump-inducing talks that charge them up before they take the field. | Bill does very little to motivate his team. He makes it clear that he will tolerate only excellence and winning, and his players seem to view that implied threat as sufficient motivation to perform. |
| Getting Individual Players to Perform | Rex takes each player under his wing and touches base on a personal level. He comes to know their unique inner drivers, and pulls the right strings to get the most out of each guy.
Rex values individuality, and encourages each player to speak his mind and live as he wishes. Rex takes the “I love you all equally, but differently” approach. |
Bill doesn’t have an interpersonal bone in his body, and evaluates each player by his on-field and off-field objective behavior. If a player – even an objectively exceptional one – steps out of line with the culture, then Belicheck moves him out.
Belicheck maximizes performance by insisting that everyone buys into his “system.” Belicheck is famous for making his whole greater than the sum of its parts. |
To suggest that there’s only one way to be a successful football coach (or manager of any work team) is ludicrous. And, too often, head coaches (and managers) try to take on the personas of predecessors they admired, even if their predecessors’ natural style was quite distinct from their own.
The most critical components of success are:
1. Knowing who you are: Take a personality inventory, get personal feedback from friends, colleagues, direct reports, and/or superiors. Don’t take on another’s persona…be who you are.
2. Knowing whom you’re coaching/managing: Take stock of the people on your team. Who are they? What are their skills and weaknesses? What drives and motivates each one?
3. Committing to a philosophy that factors in both: You need underlying principles by which you shape your team policies. These principles should evolve from your core values and take into consideration who’s on your team.
Rex’s predecessor in New York, Eric Mangini, now admits that when he became the Jets’ head coach, he tried to be someone he wasn’t (apparently, Bill Belicheck) – a coach who was stern, impersonal and cranky – and it wasn’t until that first head coaching job failed and he heard painful but useful feedback from his friends and family about what a different person he had become that he began softening his tone to fit his own style. (The result? Back-to-back 5-11 seasons with the Cleveland Browns, which resulted in his getting fired at the end of this season. Ok, maybe he still has some fine-tuning and self-analysis to do.)
So just because you bleed Jets green, don’t be so quick to adopt Rex’s persona as you manage your work team. Take a minute to figure out who you are, and whether, given that, Rex’s coaching behavior has any application to you.
About the Author
Sean O’Neil is Principal and CEO of One to One Leadership (www.one2oneleadership.com), a sales and management training firm with clients that include the National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, News Corporation, First Data, ADP, Xerox, the Oakland Raiders and the New York Knicks. Sean is the co-author of Bare Knuckle People Management: Creating Success with the Team You Have – Winners, Losers, Misfits and All, which is due to be published in May of this year. Sean has contributed to or been featured in, among others, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Selling Power Magazine and Incentive Magazine.
Hi, Andrew Rondeau here. I have over 25 years of hands-on management experience within a diverse range of different industries including retail, manufacturing, finance and IT. I’ve managed teams of up to 1000 individuals, managing numerous $multi-million projects, mergers, acquisitions and company sales.
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Wow. You did a great job breaking down each coach and their coaching style. I agree each knows how to get it done their own way. Bill to me has no personality and Rex is a character to watch!
Twitter: seoneil
Thanks for your comment and supportive words, Kris. Personally, I prefer Rex as well. His bold. broad support for his team, even when the odds are stacked against his team, resonate with me. Not to mention, I’m a Jets fan through and through. Please check out my posting in a different blog on Mike Tomlin (http://bareknucklemgmtmovement.blogspot.com/2011/01/mike-tomlin-true-to-himself.html).