New Coaches, New Leaders

I wrote a piece this past weekend on the challenges facing new NFL coach Jim Zorn as he tries to fit the players into his scheme and change the dynamics of the offense. Zorn is taking over for legendary coach, Joe Gibbs in Washington and will face many struggles as he attempts to change the structure of the organization and the offense. The Dallas Morning News had a great column about former Southern Methodist soccer coach, Schellas Hyndman. He was lured away from the school where he'd been incredibly successful for more than two decades, his teams challenging for a national championship every year to take over the FC Dallas. He explains in detail the challenges I was trying to present that face Zorn and all the new coaches/leaders in the NFL. Hyndman breaks them down into four specific categories:

The Formation stage: Players and coaches are typically comfortable in this stage, though it only lasts for a practice or two. Everyone buys into the theory of what is happening and what is expected.

The Storming stage: Every coach goes through this. It's when players start to question the new coach's strategy. You'll hear questions like "Why is he not playing me? Why has he changed the offense?" There are rumblings as the new coach puts his plan into place. The key is how quickly he can effectively move through this phase.

The Norming stage: This is the most difficult stage as players start to see where they fit in the new system. Their roles become clear. It's the hardest stage because veteran players might not accept their role. It's critical to work with your team's leaders, securing their buy-in so that the team can move forward to the next (and final) stage.

The Performing stage: This is what every coach strives for. It's "when the team is playing at 85 percent or higher to their ability." As Hyndman points out, some teams never get there. In fact, many don't make it out of the "Storming" phase.

These four stages are dead on and will occur in every NFL city where a new system of offense and defense has been installed. And this problem is real for all leaders taking over any company -- no matter what the industry, when trying to implement some type of change. Part of being able to maintain success in the NFL is being able to motivate players and coaches to accept change. Peter Drucker, the great business management leader, once said "By the time you catch up to change, the competition is ahead of you". And this applies to the NFL---as professional football is a "business" with the same problems of all companies striving for excellence.

At all historically successful university that had a dominance of winning football games their way, it's hard to get players/fans/alumni to accept change. It's hard to shift the emphasis, because everyone will always ask: "Why do we have to change? "We won National Championships the other way"? Until players/fans/alumni/ are willing to accept change, much like USC did when they hired head coach Pete Carroll and now possibly the University of Alabama with Nick Saban, then they will always be in the "REMEMBER WHEN" mode.

Following Hyndman steps will help you develop a culture for change. But the key will be the voice of the leader. The leader must have unbridled confidence in the eventual success the change will bring.

As Eric Shinseki, former Chief of Staff of the United States Army, once said, "If you don't like change, your going to like irrelevance even less." Don't become irrelevant.

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[WIpatriot]

How 90s.