I grew up in Alabama. If you grow up in Alabama in the 1960’s and 1970’s you were not
democrat or republican, you are for the University of Alabama or Auburn. For several years
there was a series of stores with Alabama and Auburn branded items for sale. The stores were divided with tape one side Crimson the other tape Navy Blue and Burnt Orange, cutting the store in half. One side with Alabama items and the other side with Auburn products. I used to watch fans walk around the tape to go in one side or the other. It was all fun for most of us, for some it was not.
Auburn had Ralph "Shug" Jordan as the football head coach and Alabama had Paul “Bear” Bryant as head coach. It was a historic rivalry based on the colleges they represented. It was a time to remember. It was a time I remember fondly. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was being taught lessons for life watching those coaches. Lessons in life and in management. Allow me to tell you about some of the lessons I learned from Coach Bryant.
After the game on Saturday, there was The Bear Bryant Show Sunday evening on local television. I can still hear that gravelly voice talking about the way his football team performed. One of the very valuable lessons I learned watching and listening to him, “When you’re a leader you accept responsibility for failures, but you still praise the performance of the individual players”.
Coach Bryant apologized when the team came home with a loss. He explained how the coaches failed to prepare the team for the game. He explained how, as the coach, he learned and will work harder for the next game.
After accepting responsibility for the loss, they would have several videos of key plays during the game. He would talk about the play, then he would express real pride in the performance of specific players. He would call them out by name. He would make his loss a win for each of those players. Imagine the pride the players felt, the pride the family felt when hearing their players name called out for everyone to hear. To have the famous and legendary Coach know your name and express pride in your performance. No wonder those that played for him are still loyal to this day. Even in a loss Coach Bryant created a win for the individuals on the team. A truly great leader can do that for those working with them. That simple act would inspire all the players to try to be successful for next week’s show.
When the team came home with a win, Coach Bryant would speak about and praise the team. He would explain how hard they had worked and gave all the credit to the team and its efforts. The show would move on to the videos and the same process to single out individuals and their performances. He would let everyone know how proud he was of each of them.
He was “praising in public”. He developed loyalty in the team and in the fans. A loyalty that stands the test of time, especially for those that remember that place and time. He would create a win, win, win for the team, the players and the fans. Everyone wanted to be part of his team. Even fans felt like they were part of the team’s performance.
He was a strict leader. If you broke the rules, you paid a price. You may even lose your spot on the team. Those were handled in private. I know individuals that lost their spot on the team because of something they did or didn’t do while on the team. Removing the disruptive player can help the team far more than accommodating their bad behavior. Those actions may seem hard, but they also build loyalty. If everyone knows you will keep the standards high and will deal with issues in a just way, they understand where they stand on the team. The team becomes tighter and more cohesive as a unit.
I remember Coach Bryant was getting a lot of pressure because he benched a key player. I remember what he said during the show. It went something like “He was wrong, and he was benched for that, he needs to understand, if they win it means they didn’t need him, if they lose it’s his fault”. That was the most public discipline I ever heard from Coach Bryant. It was direct and to the point. All the critics fell silent after that.
Unfortunately, we all know leaders that are quick to blame and quicker to take credit. The leadership examples are out there, we only need to look for them. Not all leaders lead with a vision of helping others.
Coach Bryant wanted to build up those around himself. He worked as if his job was to serve others, especially those on his team. Even when the discipline was made public it was a strong message that everyone received. When you were a fan, a player or a casual observer, you were on his team because we all knew he was on our side.
It’s too bad we can’t find leaders like him today……. or maybe there are great leaders out there. Their teams know who they are.
Jeffery Howard
Stay Safe, Stay Strong and Stay Professional
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