#Madden January 13

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Most people that follow sports realize the legendary NFL Football Coach John MADDEN died December 29, 2021.

Achievements in his career included winning coach, acclaimed broadcaster, and synonymous with a video game that bears his name.

John Madden Leadership Lessons

Despite all the success John Madden had in those various careers he was at heart a coach/teacher. He was often asked to speak to corporate clients, and he would often offer up leadership gems.

Here are some of them:

1. Coaches/parents/teachers/leaders have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.
2. Lead with fun and enthusiasm. If you don’t demonstrate excitement for your vision and purpose, your team won’t either.
3. If a someone on the team you lead doesn’t work hard and does not achieve results, they can’t lead anything. Don’t give them a leadership role all they can do is talk.
4. There is always more than one way to do something.
5. He allowed players to come as they are as long as they walked shoulder to shoulder with everyone else on the team.

Be Yourself

Thirty years ago, I read a book that John Madden authored called “Hey Wait a Minute I Wrote a Book“. In that book I learned that he preferred to only play golf courses that didn’t require a tee time. He also shared his job as a golf caddy, his schooling and then the 1960 Cal Poly plane crash that killed 22 people, including many of Madden’s friends from his time there. That crash may have been the foundation of his fear of flying. That fear led to him creating the “Madden Cruiser” as a broadcaster.

The largest takeaway from that book was the man was very comfortable being himself. That is a leadership lesson we all need to keep in mind.