Driving Culture Every Day is a Key to Business Success

Michael Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL, describes the leadership styles of Bill Walsh of the 1980s San Francisco 49ers and Bill Belichick of today’s New England Patriots. Both coach Bills, he says, embraced the same key approach: proactively focusing on organizational culture and relentlessly driving that culture every day to achieve success.

Both coaches focused on the process rather than the scoreboard, believing if the culture is properly managed, the scoreboard will take care of itself. Players learn to focus on the name on front of their jersey, not the name on the back.

What does this mean for leaders in business and other organizations? Start by taking a close look at your culture -- is it what you want or set out to achieve?  Does every staff member have a clear sense of their role and how it fits into the greater mission?  Does everyone understand and embrace the mission statement or do they see it as something that collects dust on the wall or simply gets lip service? Are there inconsistencies between leadership words and actions that undermine employee trust?  Are leaders so focused on the scoreboard (aka the bottom line) that they lose sight of strengthening processes that could improve it?

For further thought:   What specifically are you doing as a leader to drive the culture you want to achieve in your workplace?  How does your behavior in the work environment reinforce (or undermine) your mission or business goals? List three specific actions you could take to strengthen your workplace culture.

Failing to understand and embrace these concepts is a recipe for mediocrity, whether on the football field or in business.  Being the best requires us to continuously learn, assess, grow, and improve.

Dr. Douglass Teschner’s latest New Hampshire Business Review column, published on December 6, 2019, expands on these ideas You can read the full column here:  https://www.nhbr.com/lessons-from-2-great-coaches/.