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Insights from Reading about Nick Saban

1/19/2018

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On January 8, 2018, football teams from the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia competed in the FBS College Playoff National Championship game. I had no favorite. Alabama won in overtime 26-23, giving Alabama coach Nick Saban his sixth national championship (5 at Alabama, 1 at Louisiana). Andy Staples wrote a Sports Illustrated article, “It Takes Tua,” describing the game. Staples’s narrative also offered insights into Saban’s management style. Here are my insights for leaders based on my reading about Nick Saban in Staples’s article.
  1. Acquire the best talent that you can. From 2011 to 2017 Saban had the #1 recruiting class, except 2015 when his recruits were #2. This is a theme at the highest achieving organizations.
  2. Know your people and their potential. Saban coaches practices on the field, not from a tower above the field. He gets to know his players, strengths, weaknesses, areas to improve. Staples quotes Saban: “You’re there to see the flaws. You’re a part of quality control.”
  3. Maximize the value of training. Training is more than preparation. On the practice field Saban sees fine details, makes corrections, and develops insights that help him with the “big picture” and strategies.
  4. Adapt quickly to change. To match up better with the new look from high-tempo run-pass-option teams, Saban recruited lighter, quicker defenders. “When the NCAA banned head coaches . . . from visiting high schools to watch practice during the spring evaluation period, Saban became one of the first coaches to use video conferencing to talk to recruits” (p. 37).
  5. Work through adverse events not under your control. Alabama had a difficult year with many injuries but managed to win all but one game during the regular season.
  6. Try to affect outcomes not under your control. Alabama was not a lock to be in the national championship playoffs. Saban “called in to ESPN” and made the case for his team. Did it make a difference? Perhaps. Perhaps not – but he spoke up on behalf of his people. He tried.
  7. Embrace resiliency. After the championship game, Saban told his players, “I hope you take something from this game and the resiliency that you showed in this game helps you be more successful in life” (p. 39).
  8. Analyze, be prepared, be decisive. At halftime trailing 13-0, Saban replaced his starting quarterback Jalen Hurts (who had led Alabama to a 25-2 record) with an 18 year-old backup. The decision changed the game and was called “a drastic – or desperate move” by many. But Saban always had this as an option. It wasn’t drastic or desperate. It was calculated, planned for, and always an option. The halftime adjustment was for an offense with more passing. He knew Tua Tagovailoa was the better passer.
  9. Grow and support your people. Many of Saban’s assistants have moved on to leadership positions in football. In the championship game Saban faced Kirby Smart who “had helped Saban win four national titles as Alabama’s defensive coordinator” (p.39).
  10. Stay hungry for success. “I’m never satisfied. My greatest fear professionally is that we might lose the next game . . . I hate the feeling you have when you lose, but I also hate the feeling that you have when you didn’t do a good job for your players.”

I have often found leadership and life lessons in sports stories and occasionally have made these the subjects of blogs. Here are several: Urban Meyer, Carli Lloyd, Coach K, Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, and Champ Bailey.

Staples, A. (2018, January 15). “It takes Tua.” Sports Illustrated, 128(1), 32-39.

© John Ballard, PhD,  2018. All rights reserved.

Author of Decoding the Workplace, BEST CAREER BOOK Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2016.
 _________________________
"Decoding the Workplace: 50 Keys to Understanding People in Organizations is as informed and informative a read as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking. . . Decoding the Workplace should be considered critically important reading for anyone working in a corporate environment." —Midwest Book Review
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What Are You Reading?

1/8/2018

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Picture
My annual blog on reading, modified from my previous January blogs about the importance of leaders reading

Each January I pose the question: What book are you reading now? My experience is the best leaders always have a book they are reading about which they have opinions, insights, and comments.
 
Lifelong learning is essential to grow as a leader. A habit of reading books is important to that growth. What role do books play in your life? In your learning? Making time to read books is important. I usually have several books in my study that I am working through. Technology helps. I read books on the Kindle app on my iPhone when I have short periods of downtime away from home. On long car trips I enjoy audio books. I have friends who like audio books best. 
 
My favorite books in 2017 were non-fiction and had lessons for work and life.  Brian Jay's George Lucas: A Life is worth another read. So many innovations from Lucas about which I was unaware. Interested in the question are we alone in the universe? Start here on Earth with Peter Godfrey-Smith's Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. And while we are discussing life on Earth, I highly recommend a book about life on and in us, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yon. I often asked my students what percent of the cells in their bodies were human. Few guessed only 10%. 

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders was easily the most creative work of fiction I read last year. Reminded me of the Spoon River Anthology, which incidentally has a character named John Ballard. On a very different note I found Soul Survivor by Bruce and Andrea Leininger compelling. Academics knowledgeable about reincarnation research recommended as one of the best documented cases in the U.S. Also recommended was I Saw a Light and Came Here: Children's Experiences of Reincarnation by Erlendur Haraldsson and James Matlock, another intriguing read. 

As we begin 2018, here are a few of the books on my reading list:
  • Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
  • Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life  . . . and Maybe the World by William McRaven
  • Lead Yourself First by Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin
  • A New History of Management by Stephen Cummings, Todd Bridgman, John Hassard, and Michael Rowlinson
  • Making It Up by Penelope Lively 
  • Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluger
  • Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Walls
  • Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air around Us by Sam Kean
  • A History of the World in 500 Walks by Sarah Baxter
  • Overload: Finding the Truth in Today's News by Bob Schieffer
  • Old Man's War by John Scalzi 
  • I’ll have what she’s having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy by Erin Carlson
  • Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
  • Unbelievable by Katy Tur
  • Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them”, Mark Twain. 

Or as the comedian Groucho Marx said, “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”   
 
What are you reading?
_______________________
Image, "Books", © John Ballard.
​
© John Ballard, PhD,  2018. All rights reserved.

Author of Decoding the Workplace, BEST CAREER BOOK Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2016.
 _________________________
"Decoding the Workplace: 50 Keys to Understanding People in Organizations is as informed and informative a read as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking. . . Decoding the Workplace should be considered critically important reading for anyone working in a corporate environment." —Midwest Book Review

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