NFL Exec. Michael Lombardi on the Four Elements of Leadership
Micheal Lombardi (@mlombardifoxtv) is the most influential person in the NFL that you’ve probably never heard of.
He’s worked with Bill Walsh and Bill Belichick and won Super Bowls with both of them.
Belichick, the winningest coach in the NFL and perhaps the best coach ever, called Lombari “one of the smartest people that I know. He’s one of the smartest people I’ve worked with.”
I’ve never worked with Mike but I’m happy to call him a friend — and he’s one of my smartest friends.
Mike is currently one of the smartest voices on TV. Not just about the NFL —he’s exploring thoughtful concepts, like Batesian Mimicry.
I’m here to talk Leadership not sports.
When I interviewed Mike for The Knowledge Project, (which ESPN reported on) we talked about a lot of things, including the difference between a good coach and a bad coach.
Mikes response to my question prompted him to go into detail on the four elements of leadership, which boils down to the management of: tension, meaning, trust, and self.
OK, I think the key here — and now we’re going to fall into the lines of leadership — coaching is leadership. It really comes down to the four elements of leadership. Most great coaches have at least three of the four, and they don’t succeed if they don’t.
The elements of leadership is management of the tension, which means you have a plan. Most coaches have to have a plan. The management of meaning, meaning you can explain your plan clearly and concisely and communicate it to the players or to the people you’re leading.
The management of trust, the players trust you to be consistent within yourself and within the people you’re leading so that you don’t have double standards. It’s one thing to be a really hard, tough coach, but you’re going to have to be hard and tough on everybody. You just can’t pick and choose.
Then the management of self, which is probably the hardest area to be self critical. When you make a mistake or when you do something that’s not effective, you have to be able and honest to say, “You know what? I made a mistake here. I need to correct that.”
When you have those four areas, then you become a better coach. I think that’s really the fine line. Coaching is leadership. Coaching is teaching. It isn’t just a separate issue. It isn’t just a separate singular vocation. It’s truly about being a good leader. It’s about being a good teacher. If you have those two qualities, you certainly can become a successful head coach.
What gets attention matters.
The system is a byproduct of management’s attention, so it falls right into leadership. The leadership is, the system gets their attention. Bill Walsh introduces the West Coast offence to the San Francisco 49ers in 1979. It’s the system, but really that grabbed the attention. Then his ability to explain his system to them captured and propelled his leadership even further.
I think they go hand in hand. If you don’t have a system or you don’t have a belief of what you want to become as a team, as a leader, as the head coach, then it becomes very difficult for you to communicate that to the players. Then all of a sudden you become an independent contractor, and you have a bunch of independent contractors working for you.
If the head coach doesn’t come in with a philosophy and an understanding and he has to suddenly contract all that out, then it’s going to be very difficult for him to sustain leadership and standard over a long period of time.
The rest of the interview is worthy in its entirety.
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