A first sergeant once told me, he used some of the top coaches in sports as role models in developing his own approach to leading Soldiers. I chuckled at first but since then I've taken a look at some of the men I follow in sports and the consistency in message and approach between leaders from our formations and those in the dugouts, behind the bench and on the sidelines is amazing.
An internal look really codified everything my first sergeant said that day. Previously I’d assisted a YMCA little league baseball team in North Carolina and later began coaching and refereeing ice hockey in Alaska. Particularly with hockey I tried to use approaches with my Pee Wee players that worked with my younger Soldiers; clearly articulate the standard and establish a competitive and cohesive atmosphere, make personal accountability a must and tie it to accountability to the team.
All powerful but to make it work you need leaders so it was important to establish subordinate leader teams and empower them, build constructively and instill confidence, and don’t be afraid to kick some butts along the way when needed. Above all I tried to remember that Soldiers and players have short-term memory and that can be a good thing.
That last note really hit home because when you have to discipline a Soldier/player it has to be in an effort to better the team and the individual. They key is to be decisive, follow through and then move on.
I had one of the most talented defensemen in Alaska’s Bush League. At 13 he was 6’0, 170-180 and skated with finesse and speed you’d never expect in a teenager. He started out figure skating at three and added hockey as he got a little older. He studied the game like a young pro, breaking down neutral and defensive zone plays. This was a fun-loving kid with more potential than I’d ever seen. His premium was on fun and at practice it could border on disruption. When it came to games he was dialed in but no one on the team was at his level nor had that ability.
I made a point at a practice early in the season to mention that I needed him sharp at practice and to save the chatter for later. During one of our first elements the coaches were breaking down a drill and our guy was off toward the back of the mass talking. I took the opportunity to toss him. I explained to my player that he’d not met the standard and he needed to go for this practice. I explained to him that the “A” on his sweater meant he had to set, uphold, and enforce the standards with his teammates.
I remember one of the parents watching came up to me and emphatically pointed out that I just dismissed our best player from the practice and asked what I was thinking. All I said was, “…if I can’t get my best player to be disciplined then none of the players will be disciplined and we’ll have a mob instead of a potential champion.”
I talked to the player’s mom and explained what I was after and that I expected to see him at the next practice. She laughed and made sure he was there on time and ready to go. He had a great practice…even started yapping at some of the other kids when they started to let down.
We leaned on our young leaders heavily in those early days. The team selected their captains and they picked well but while they initially found those letters on their sweaters to be a badge of honor, we quickly showed them the tremendous responsibility associated with being a leader.
With kids and Soldiers you have to make your point clearly and creatively. If the boys buggered a drill for lack of focus we kept the leaders after practice for extra skating, which usually consisted of several iterations of sprints between the lines. Believe me when I tell you the whole team took note and it made an impact in two ways. First was, the team definitely put some effort into their practices and the leaders began to lead to make sure everyone was doing their part properly. On the better days we’d give them extra scrimmage time or drop the sticks and gloves and play tag or something similar; they were kids after all.
The bottom line is that once we established those roles and responsibilities and once the standard was understood by everyone, we let the team leaders lead and dealt with individual issues individually. We didn’t win the state championship that year but we won our district and regional and both invitational tournaments we played and with only 13-15 kids on any given day. I was tremendously proud of them.
I’ve used a similar approach in the military by establishing subordinate leader teams and empowering them while also holding them accountable for the people they lead. By using this approach and having the brilliant luck of working with some great people, I’ve enjoyed almost two decades of service with high-caliber professional teams in some of the most difficult places you can put Soldiers.
The Pros
I’m a Michigan guy and Detroit fan so it makes sense that I derive a lot of my enthusiasm and technique from Detroit coaches. It’s a tough city and all of its professional teams have known some serious down times but it’s more than a hometown preference because these coaches come from outside and have brought winning back to the “D”.
Number one on my list of coaches to emulate has to be Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock and before you get upset for thinking I’ve just snubbed former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman know that I have nothing but admiration for arguably the greatest coach in the history of pro hockey…but I can’t figure him out any better than his players. What I did take from Bowman is that you have to know your people and the buttons to push to motivate or de-motivate them if they are ever going to reach their potential.
Coach Babcock is very direct, clear in his expectations and easy for me to relate to. I remember bits from his press conference after the Wings announced he’d been hired and he talked about effort, accountability, leadership, hard work, effort, more hard work, toughness and effort. In those first press engagements I knew I had a role model because the coach put it on himself and his players to work hard. He sent a message to veterans that nothing was given and much was expected. He articulated to the younger guys that they needed to emulate the veterans and learn and the coaches were going to grind just as hard in preparing them all. He’s done it consistently since taking the job. Coach Babcock knows how to get the most from his players, in some cases they’re castoffs from less talented franchises, and gives them an opportunity to be great within a role their suited for. And that’s one thing I take from Coach Babcock, match the round peg with the round hole.
With my Soldiers I found early that you have to give them challenges to help them broaden their tool kit and grow as professionals. The balance is leveraging what they are already good at while developing less polished areas. Take a guy like Red Wing forward Dan Cleary, who came into the league touted as one of the next great players. In only a couple of years he was playing for scraps and a chance to stay in the league. Then the wings brought him on board. The coaches didn't ask him to be the next Red Wing legend like Gordie Howe, they wanted him to be good at what he was good at; working the corners, charging the net, and going hard each shift in all three zones. The coaches and Cleary kept it simple and he has exemplified how pivotal a role player is to a championship-caliber team. Whether its gritty guys like Cleary or superstars like Detroit forwards Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk, the common denominator is they play for the team first.
Ditto that with baseball manager Jim Leyland and his Detroit Tigers. He’s proven that you can find balance between being beloved and respected. Leyland manages with the grit and candor I remember in many of the Sergeants Major I met at Fort Bragg when I was a private. You had not doubt these Vietnam vets would put a boot in your butt but for all their snarling, there was no doubt they wanted us to be successful, collectively.
You see that same tough love our senior enlisted have in them when you watch and listen to Jim Leyland. If a player is slumping, Leyland has the ability to know whether it’s a kick in the pants or some top cover that he needs. Same with our enlisted leaders; while they are generally the guys you don’t want to get sideways with, you also know that when they have your back they are actually standing right in the line of fire. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read stories in the Detroit News or Free Press and it was clear the reporters were digging into a guy, trying to get Jim Leyland to give them a critical quote and instead the guy just rips into the press and generally tosses them out of his office.
The thing I take from Jim Leyland is that a leader has to stand up for his people while still holding them accountable. The Tigers know their manager is going to step up on their behalf if they need that breathing room. He supports his players when their down while holding them accountable and sometimes even publicly. You have to respect that kind of candor and the irony is that as gruff as Jim Leyland may seem, there’s a soft side to the manager. Take a quote from a Detroit Free Press story from right after the Tigers clinched the American League Central title where the reporter asked Leyland what this meant to the city of Detroit.
"It's in tough times for the people in Detroit -- we know that," Leyland said. "Believe me, it's not something that we don't think about, because we do. I come from a big family. My dad was a factory worker. I know about worrying about getting laid off. I have an appreciation for that. During times like this, a sports team can uplift your spirits, and I hope that we've lifted up the spirits of our fans in Detroit because they deserve it."
The normally gruff, old-school tough leader got choked up and even broke down giving that quote. Despite those soft spots he’s shown at times like these, I’ve never mistaken his emotion for weakness. The truth is his passion for the game, his city and his players is a commendable strength.
These are qualities that you find in two of the newest coaches in the southern Michigan region, coaches Brady Hoke and Jim Schwartz. Like Leyland, they inherited losing teams and in Coach Schwartz’s case, they were perennially so. But also like Coach Babcock and Jim Leyland, they came in talking about the same things like personal accountability and hard work. I honestly haven’t seen enough to really draw as much from them yet but so far I like a lot of what I see.
University of Michigan Coach Brady Hoke has something to leverage similar to our military, legacy. To rebuild the Michigan program Coach Hoke has pointed to the fundamental traits that made the nation’s most successful program as the keys to future success; hard work, honor, doing the right thing, playing your but off for the guy next to you, and physical, mental and emotional strength to name a few. He’s passionate about the Michigan legacy and incorporates it into the player’s daily lives both on and off the field. Coach Hoke embraces the past and tries to incorporate the present into the Wolverine family.
That connection with a proud legacy continues to be tool leaders in units like the 82nd Airborne Division use to help shape the paratroopers of today. As a young private I learned the names Pike, Towle, York, Funk, and Deglopper; all Medal of Honor recipients. We were required to read about them and other great paratroopers and campaigns from the division’s history. Our “Big House” was remains Sicily drop zone where we jumped from perfectly good airplanes to hone our rapid reaction forced entry capability. Our leaders made it hard every day but we knew that those great troopers before us had it much harder in Italy, France, Grenada and Panama. As a young Soldier, there was not letting up because letting up would be letting them down. That 82nd Airborne standard was so ingrained that I take it with me on every new assignment since the first over 19 years ago. Like my Sergeants Airborne, Coach Hoke knows how to instill unfettered passion through historical connections but success will be building on that legacy.
Detroit Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz has to dig a lot deeper to find historical connections but like Leyland, he has had to take on a team on the ropes and rebuild it brick by brick. I’ve noted a lot the points coach Schwartz drives home are akin to what you hear from coach Babcock; personal accountability, trust, effort, etc. What really makes him stand apart from his peers in other cities is his close relationship with the front office. He and Lions General Manager Martin Mayhew are clearly on the same page and clearly have their individual, mutually supporting roles. This has led to the front office bringing in the right people to be able to achieve success through the on-field strategy. Not to take away from Red Wing General Manager Ken Holland and Coach Babcock, who continue to build on more than a decade of success, but I believe this relationship between the Lions’ leadership is the key factor to their resurgence in the NFL, and contains the key ingredients for a long run of success for the franchise.
As I’ve been promoted and found my role more directly tied to senior officers, I’ve learned that the relationship between the enlisted advisor and the officer is the linchpin for an organization. When you’re on the same page you have better training and mission execution. When you’re working from separate agendas you generally find discontent and confusion in the ranks. Your individual approach can and should be different based on your separate roles but the philosophy and means to the end state have to be synchronized. You have to keep the debates behind closed doors. Best part is that your Soldiers don’t have to choose between orders and tasks and they know without a doubt that there is a clear path for the organization.
While many read books by more famous coaches covering a broader array of professional sports, the four that I’ve mentions, particularly Jim Leyland and Coach Babcock, have proved to be incredible mentors as I develop my own ‘teams’. In most cases their methods reinforce the fundamentals we instill with our young Army leaders. One difference is their quotes have been far more interesting to read than the field manuals while another difference is seeing their teams execute the mission is more entertaining and less dangerous than what we ask our teams to do.
I could subscribe to the Zen-teaching of that Jackson guy from L.A. but I’m blue collar; my inner voice hums to a Motown beat and I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder so I’ll keep the guys who value grit over flash and put personal accountability at the top of the do’s list. I can only hope we keep these great men with our teams for a good while longer because I feel like I still have much to learn about being a good leader-coach.
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