Great Programs are Built on Strong Values

Building a successful culture that perpetuates based on our foundational core values will indeed be one that produces wins for everyone involved, but winning won’t be the sole motivation for the great people we attract to our team through this process. High standards, consistently exceeding expectations, and an atmosphere of genuine accountability will be just as important. While I’ve never followed college or professional sports all that closely, with one exception I’ll get to shortly, I have studied several legendary coaches; not just because of the results their teams achieved, but more to learn why they consistently attracted outstanding talent and how they were able to get those allstar athletes to form a cohesive team.

In the spring of 2001, I heard Lou Holtz speak. Coincidentally, that was part of the same event where I heard John Maxwell speak for the first time - just weeks after initially reading reading The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Holtz shared some hilarious stories, but the one that stood out most was about benching two Notre Dame players just before the team’s Orange Bowl appearance. These weren’t just any players; they were responsible for over fifty percent of the scoring throughout the season. He explained that it wasn’t his choice, it was theirs. He had curfew for team members the night before games. All season long, players were expected to be in by a given time or they’d sit out the first half of the game. Those two players chose to violate that curfew the night before their biggest game of the year. I won’t share his entire story here, but the team won the game, largely because Holtz had built a team about a set of core values rather than around any individual players. In recent lesson Cindy and I shared with a group, I quoted Holtz as saying, “I’ve coaching good players and I’ve coached bad players. I’m a better coach with good players.” As true as that may be, those good players only have a shot at reaching their full potential when foundational values are in place.

Another amazing coach I’ve studied is Joe Gibbs. Interestingly enough, I heard him speak at event with Maxwell one year after hearing Lou Holtz. Gibbs is the only person that I’m aware of to lead teams to championships in two different professional sports; the Washington Redskins in football and Tony Stewart’s Home Depot team in NASCAR. He shared some great insight in that 2002 session, but the most memorable lesson was from his book, Racing to Win. If you know anything about Tony Stewart, you know he developed quite the reputation for being a hothead. Hell, that’s why I like him! In the book, Gibbs shared how he finally had to address it. Tony was winning racing and racking up points, but his temper was not exemplifying the values that Gibbs and Home Depot were willing to build around. He sat Stewart down and explained the changes they expected, and the path he’d have if he chose not to make those changes. Their championship came after that conversation…

Yet another example is Mike Krzyzewski, also known as Coach K, longtime head coach at Duke. Long before the destruction of college sports we’ve seen unfold due to the NIL model, Coach K routinely attracted top-tier high school talent every year. While his teams consistently had winning records, I’m convinced this wasn’t the primary driver with just five over the course of 42 years and only two of those being back-to-back. Based on all I found through studying in his books and hearing from someone I knew who was close with him at the time, those who came to play for him did so because he earned a reputation for bringing out the best in each of them and building strong teams. And he worked those teams hard, all around a set of core values.

For one final sports analogy, let’s consider the Boston Red Sox, the only team I’ve ever followed closely over the years. As a kid, they were my absolute favorite team - in any sport. I mentioned earlier that everyone “wants to be part of a winning team” but that clearly wasn’t what drew me to the pre-2004 Red Sox. I opened part two of Leading With A Clear Purpose with a chapter titled “It Ain’t (Just) About the Pay, Purpose Matters!” The same holds true for values and accountability. What I loved about those Red Sox, even as perennial losers (86 years without winning a World Series), was the underdog spirit and their constant grit against the hated New York Yankees. That said, I remember exactly when I stopped following them closely. Although I had always respected Terry Francona as a manager, and loved him for taking the team to World Series wins in 2004 and 2007, he didn’t maintain accountability throughout the team through the second half of the 2011 season and I’ve paid little attention to them since. I distinctly remember them losing 20 games in the last month of that season and missing the playoffs, all while star pitchers John Lackey (who I never really cared for) and Josh Beckett was being accused of drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the dugout during games. They denied it but something was clearly amiss for a team with so much talent to drop off so drastically, so fast. It pushed me away, but it also cost the team a spot in the post season.

As with each of these examples, how our organizations are built really does depend on what we do as leaders to embed our core values. With high expectations and consistent accountability, we can attract great people and built strong teams. Without that though, even the solid team members we have can slip through our hands. It all rests on whether we’re willing to take responsibility for upholding those core organizational values - so we’ll pick up there next time.