Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of listening to a top-notch keynote speaker who sees life through a sports lens, inspired by his love for ice hockey.  Ross Bernstein came early to our meeting, only took a break when asked, stayed around through lunch and left graciously as our next speaker was scheduled.  He’s a class act, makes 120 key note speeches a year with a global reach and has written 50 books so far with more likely to come.

The first hour he talked to us about the variety of ways that winning coaches lead.  Ross has researched sports figures through thousands of interviews and has drawn some valuable conclusions.  See if any of these styles resonate for you.

1-Fear and intimidation-Vince Lombardi, professional football coach.  Attributes:  work ethic, discipline, he treated EVERYBODY like dogs

He said: “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”

2-Tough Love-Dan Gable, college wrestling coach who ran his program like a meritocracy.

3-Building trust-Pat Summitt, college basketball coach, demanded eye contact, wanted to be known as a great teacher.

4-Mental toughness-Bud Grant, professional football coach, leveraged the cold Minnesota winters and wouldn’t let his players wear gloves.

“You can only control what you can control.”

5-Develop talent-Tom Kelly, professional  baseball coach.  Drafting for the long haul, farm team to minors to majors and if you don’t perform, you’re sent back down until you get better.

6-Disrespect-Lane Kiffin, college football coach, “Great leaders don’t say stupid stuff.”  Famously used the words of opposing coach as a motivator for his team to “light a fire under their ass.”

7-Create “Buy in”-Kevin Kelly, high school football coach/math teacher, figured out punting stats were poor.  His team NEVER punts on fourth down.  They don’t have a punter.

8-Winning with No.  John Gagliardi, college football coach, He does not allow tackling in practice, has no playbook and does not require his players to participate in strength and conditioning workouts. There is no yelling, no tackling dummies and no whistles. His quarterbacks call most of the plays.  Highly unconventional…and he is the winningest coach in college football history.

9-Inspire greatness-Tony Dungy, Professional football coach. His players connected with him on a spiritual level.

He treated his coaches like men and didn’t burn them out.

A few takeaways:

•Great coaches recruit to their style.

•Great coaches focus on the outcome.

•Great coaches realize it takes a Team to win championships.

Have a blessed weekend!