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Nick Saban, University of Alabama head football coach and widely considered one of the greatest college football coaches in history, announced his retirement Wednesday. Winner of a national championship at LSU and six at Alabama, he's one of only two coaches to win titles at two schools. He won nine conference championships. Coached four Heisman Trophy winners. Alabama spent a total of 109 weeks ranked number one in the country, more than any other program. His record at Alabama? 201-29. Maybe "widely considered" the greatest should be "inarguably" the greatest.
Saban was also pretty good at being quotable. Here are five of my favorites:
Saban wasn't alone in seeking to build a high-performance culture by not just trying to develop but also identifying high performers.
As Steve Jobs said, "The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A-players. People said they wouldn't get along, they'd hate working with each other. But I realized that A-players like to work with A-players, they just didn't like working with C-players."
Leadership, no matter how effective, goes only so far. In sports, a team with great players and a decent coach will almost always beat a team with decent players and a great coach. That's why the best college coaches -- like Saban -- are, first and foremost, great recruiters.
Developing skills, building team cohesion, creating an innovative culture, driving performance, focusing on results... all those things are important. But so is adding more great employees -- because superstars love to work with superstars, and success attracts success.
Think of all the things you've wanted to do, but never have. Think about something you dreamed of doing five or ten years ago but didn't work to do... and think about how good you'd be today at that thing if you had. Think about all the time you wasted, and can never get back.
Then, today, start pushing yourself to do what you hope to do, so five or ten years from now you won't look back with regret.
Sure, the work is hard. Sure, the work is painful. But it's a lot less painful than thinking back on what will never be.
One of the most common reasons people give up on their goals is the distance between here, where they are today, and there, where they someday hope to be. If your goal is to someday run a marathon, but today you are only able to run only a mile... the distance between here and there feels insurmountable.
That's why successful people set a goal, and then relentlessly focus on taking the daily steps necessary to someday achieve that goal. They gain a sense of accomplishment from doing what they set out to do today. That makes today fun and lets them inch a little bit closer to achieving their ultimate goal.
As Saban says, "Becoming a champion is not an easy process. It is done by focusing on what it takes to get there -- and not on getting there."
Want to be successful, in whatever way you choose to define "success"? Commit to a process, not just a goal.
And then stick to that process.
Arriving late is rude. Joining a call late implies your time is more valuable than that of other people.
If you need a bottom-line reason, arriving late to a meeting compromises the outcome of a meeting you evidently felt was important enough to hold in the first place. According to a study published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, meetings that start late aren't just a waste of time and a cause for irritation; meetings that start late also turn out to be significantly less productive.
Tend to run late? Figure out why, and fix it. And don't say you're too busy. For the last two years, I've had a weekly call with a near-billionaire entrepreneur/investor. How often has he logged on late? Once. One minute. Because Zoom decided to update itself.
Be on time. Not only is it polite and professional, it shows you care.
Forget slogans and posters. Forget mission statements. Forget culture decks. Culture is partly what you encourage, but culture is mostly what you permit. What you accept. What you allow. What you let people get away with. What you, as a business owner or leader, let yourself get away with.
Look the other way when the salesperson who generates a disproportionate share of revenue uses his perceived "status" to treat admin staff poorly, and you permit a culture where dignity and respect is no longer a given. Look the other way when people take credit for the ideas -- and sometimes even the work -- of others, and you permit a culture where the ability to manage up becomes a meaningful metric.
Look the other way when the voice highest on the hierarchy "wins" and you permit a culture where the source of opinion matters more than the quality of opinion -- which naturally stifles the creativity, engagement, and inclusion you claim to value.
Take a hard look at the behaviors and values you encourage. Take an even harder look at the behaviors and values you permit.
Because the things you encourage may frame your culture, but the things you permit define your culture.
A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta
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