How Leaders Attack Failure - Part One
How Leaders Attack Failure: A Series
Part One - College Football Coach Nick Saban
Human beings deal with failure everyday. And it sucks. Failure doesn’t make you feel good. On top of that, if you fail in front of others, or a big crowd, or an entire nation…, you feel a little worse because not only do you know in your head, that you weren’t able to get it done, but the people who witnessed your performance also know that you couldn’t get it done.
But in moving forward, how do we stop failure from taking a toll on us? How do we quickly regroup and keep ourselves focused on the greater mission at hand? Well, I set up GameChangers to help teach myself and all others about the moments in everyday life that can coach us to be better leaders, to teach us how to build tribes.
Today in Part 1 of this series, we look at legendary leader, Nick Saban - head football coach of the University of Alabama - winner of six national championships, and winner of 79% of his total 314 collegiate football games.
So how does he attack failure? Well first off, winning 79% of his 314 games is already the opposite of failure enough. But let’s look to his last biggest loss, the national championship game on January 7, 2019. His Alabama football team loses to Clemson University in a lopsided 44-16 - what was his approach to attack this failure?
For the purpose of this article, we’ll take a look at his immediate postgame press conference, the moment right after he gets mollywhopped on national television. How does he handle himself? How does he attack failure? Saban primarily does two distinct things to respond: 1) he maintains the credibility of his program, and 2) presents a purpose to move forward. Instead of succumbing to the impulsive emotion of the moment, he regroups and directs his emotion deliberately.
Maintain the credibility of the program
Let’s extrapolate for a second. Immediately after any failure: losing a game, a botched presentation, a failed product lunch, not hitting sales numbers for the month or quarter - in the immediate aftermath, we’re looking at harsh critics, crazy emotions, accsuations, confusion, playing the blame game, or even someone else exploiting the moment. We can never take lightly the range of emotion some people might feel. Painting this picture of a potential postgame locker room for Saban (or in another failure example), what’s the ideal way to respond? How can we attack the failure and maintain the credibility of our program?
Let’s look at Saban’s here directly:
Saban does not attribute blame to anyone, it is not about who is at fault. Instead, Saban maintains the dignity of the program by taking blame upon himself, specifically saying it was a “reflection on the job [he] did.” What does this do? It neutralizes the blame. All of a sudden, the blame doesn’t rest on any assistant coach, star player, offensive line, athletic staff member, etc. The leader of the ship says the blame is on him, and it negates any embarrassment for the team. The buck has stopped with the leader of the program, and his or her demeanor yields how the program recovers.
We know Saban is a great coach, we know he’s won six national championships and over 75% of his games. By taking the blame upon himself, he’s saving his team, he’s saving his coaching staff. No one has to feel the blunt of public opinion upon themselves that they individually screwed up. This is what a credible organizations and credible leaders do. They keep a clean front no matter what. Keep the composure, don’t play the blame game, maintain the respect of your troops and the spectators.
Present a purpose to move forward
In the face of a loss, emotions are running high, the blame game is going around, and your reputation as a leader is at stake. By keeping up the credibility of the program, a leader is actively driving the dialogue of the situation. This was kind of like damage control.
But now that the damage control is done, there is still work to be done. And Saban reminds us of how to move forward in this clip below.
Saban begins to explain how powerful this loss is for his team. But instead of using emotion to describe what a crushing defeat it was in front of a national audience, Saban talks about how there’s a glorious lesson in “learning how to lose.” He touches on the immense work that all players on the team have in front of them because of this loss: understand the mistakes, and rectify their process so that it never happens again. Instead of dwelling on the loss, Saban is showing what lessons his team can take away, so that they can move on. More importantly, he’s re-framing the loss itself. Instead of seeing the loss as a problem (they messed up), he sees it as a solution (this game will reveal our shortcomings). The team witnesses all this. And as such, there is a greater chance they maintain credibility and trust in their coach’s program.
We don’t take on new goals and ideas with the chance that if we fail, we’ll stop trying to achieve those goals. We take on new risks for the growth and the glory that come from it. When the glory comes short, it is imperative we stick to the growth. How did we grow? How did we not? What gap led to the loss? How do we fill that gap next time? These questions excite us, and more importantly they lead our emotions of loss from dejection to curiosity and enthusiasm. Even Churchill would say “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
This was Part 1 of How Leaders Attack Failure: A Series. Thank you for reading.
More information on Saban and his leadership style here.
Reflection on Nervous Breakdowns
“One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” -Bertrand Russell
I randomly found this quote today. And it left me a little speechless. I sat for a bit…thinking about it…and I went back to a really dark period in my life. I had just lost the Presidential election for a group I was very active in, back in college. I was so distraught and shocked at my loss that I wrote a paper for myself called “A New Crisis in My Mental History.” (Side note, A Crisis in my Mental History was originally an excerpt from John Stuart Mill’s autobiography). And I wrote this paper because I had never felt such sadness, grief, for losing that election. I showed the paper to my best friend, even read it to another. For what?
To show that I was sad? To wallow in my sadness? I look at the quote today…, If I’m approaching nervous breakdown, then it must be from taking my work terribly important. And that’s true. I was twenty years old at the time, I was working, going to school, very active in my Fraternity. But I had a warped sense of reality. My dedication to my friends and Fraternity had superseded school and all other priorities in my life. Sitting here five years later, and I have no idea how I could have let my grief from that ‘nervous breakdown’ change who I was, and lead me down a path that set me back a few years.
See, after I wrote that paper, I consumed myself in the affliction of losing that election. I told myself the story that I wasn’t good enough, that I had lost because I did A, B, or C. I wasn’t content with biting the bullet, and doing the good work after. I had to relive it and keep feeling sorry for myself. It led to pushing off school even more, even withdrawing at one point, failing to finish for a few more years, even engaging in substance abuse (alcoholism).
I write this today because nervous breakdowns happen to a lot of us. And to be honest, as a social media generation, who is spreading everything going on with us, we tend to make nervous breakdowns commonplace.
But what I want folks to know is that while I encourage failing, to build up resiliency and skill by learning what didn’t work, I don’t think we should condone nervous breakdowns on the reg. The emotions we feel are real, and the stories we tell us ourselves dictate our subconscious and implicit actions. The same way I sit here five years later, astonished and amused that I let losing a political election in college faze me for two years, we should all remember that in the grand scheme of things, the things we have nervous breakdowns about every week, 2 weeks, or even every month, usually don’t affect our ability to eat, sleep, live, enjoy time with our friends and family.
It’s cliche to say life is too short, and blah, blah, blah. The point is, our generation makes having mental breakdowns more commonplace than they should be. And all it means is that we are taking ourselves too seriously (taking our work “terribly important”). As things go wrong, let’s reject sadness, and instead look for new inspiration: open a new book, take a walk outside, take a course on Coursera/edX, listen to a new podcast, give our friend from a few years ago a call. We don’t need to worry about mental breakdowns, we just need to follow our goals, and get back up when we fall.
In Defense of Dave Kaval - A lesson in revamping the spirit and morale of the Oakland Athletics
We’re writing this response to media commentary that President Dave Kaval and the Oakland Athletics are swindling the A’s fans and contributing to the “worst relationship” between the ownership and fanbase. While not everything surrounding the Oakland A’s 2018 season is fine and dandy, and they still haven’t returned to their big brother status in Bay Area baseball, Dave Kaval’s leadership has ushered a new era in the franchise history - something we call at GameChangers - taking your organization from ‘shit to gold.’
Let’s be honest. This kind of shift, or desired shift in fanbase spirit and morale is not an easy feat. Let’s examine some of the neighboring franchises that saw a turnaround in fan excitement: Oakland Raiders in 2016, and San Francisco 49ers in 2011. The Oakland Raiders made the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, a leg injury away from at least the Divisional Round. What really happened is they went from 7-9 in 2015 to 12-4 in 2016. This rapid change in production on the field brought crazy excitement to the fanbase, and you saw it even more prominently in increased energy around their offseason and expectations in 2017.
Taking a look at Jim Harbaugh (Turnaround genius at USD & Stanford), the 49ers were 6-10 in 2010 and then went 13-3 in 2011. Harbaugh revamped the spirit and morale of an organization that was in limbo since the days of Mariucci and Jeff Garcia.
What does this mean? It means that fanbases respond with insane optimism if the team’s on-field production has stepped it up. How about the Warriors? 2015’s 21-0 record start, not just championship run, is what evolved the fervor of the fanbase.
But if a team does not have a sudden increase of the on-field product, how do you bring about continued excitement? How do you create a ‘renaissance of human spirit’ surrounding your fanbase? You do what Dave Kaval has done from the beginning.
A new rallying cry (Buy-In-Concept) for the Oakland A’s under Dave Kaval’s leadership
To put in perspective, Dave Kaval became President of the Oakland A’s in November 2016. As soon as he started, community office hours and a new rallying slogan #RootedInOakland took the East Bay by storm. A team finally dedicating themselves to the East Bay. Not only that, the first A’s ownership group since the Haas family welcoming input from the fans and encouraging communication between the two chief stakeholders.
Skeptics still think a move out of Oakland is on the table. But we shouldn’t liken the A’s to the Raiders in this instance. The Raiders never branded themselves as ‘RootedInOakland’. They had 1 foot inside Oakland and 1 outside - whether in LA, San Antonio or Las Vegas - the entire time Libby Schaaf started discussing an Oakland option in the media.
The reason why we should support the Kaval’s efforts with the A’s is because while the stadium has not moved in the direction we’d ideally hoped for, and the A’s are still 2-3, what Dave Kaval has done from the beginning is revamp the spirit and morale of the Oakland A’s organization.
At GameChangers, we prescribe pride - unity - change in bringing this legacy shift. The 3 dominant tools build this initial pride is (1) the Buy-In Concept, (2) Heritage & Tradition, and (3) Rivalry.
49ers’ Buy-In Concept under Coach Jim Harbaugh
The first of these is the Buy-In Concept. It usually is a rallying cry or a slogan to entice an organization or team’s support: the buy-in. You can see this in other successful franchises. The 2016 Raiders called it winning any game “By Any Means,” Kerr’s Warriors exemplify the ideal of joy while playing the game, Harbaugh’s 49ers had it “better than” everyone else, and Kaval successfully implemented and is still using “Rooted In Oakland.”
The Buy-In Concept contains a vision, a standard, anything that the team and the organization can rally around and find excitement in regarding the state of their organization. You see this in business/politics too: former CEO of Ford Alan Mulally stuck to “One Ford” after unloading the Range Rover and Jaguar brands to focus on exclusive Ford products, President Obama used “Change” as his buy-in concept. The Buy-In concept is a stable leadership tool, and used in turnaround cultures all over society.
The second is Heritage & Tradition of the organization. Recalling former traditions, current traditions, and stories of earlier times only seeks to create pride with the fanbase. Stories of world series wins their parents attended, stories from when they were younger, fan favorites, etc. These are all pieces of cherished history and team lore that help create pride in a fanbase.
What are examples of producing pride in an organization with their heritage and tradition? Bo Schembechler (legendary college football coach of Michigan) talked about upholding the history of any organization your leading in his book Bo’s Lasting Lessons. Jon Gruden has been all about the Raiders Mystique ever since he got back into the coach’s seat. How many Raiders fans have watched the Raiders Mystique youtube video or listened to the Autumn Wind since he’s been back? Pride oozes when you respect the heritage and tradition of an organization.
Kaval has helped the A’s in this way too. His first official baseball game as President the team named the field at the Coliseum, “Rickey Henderson Field.” Rickey himself came out and threw the first pitch. You’ll notice a lot of teams start to bring around their older stars when they are looking to shift momentum in a winning direction (Raiders / Gruden press conference). Kaval didn’t stop there. C-Gate was renamed “Catfish Hunter Gate.” And why not? The A’s are one of the few teams to have a three-peat and let’s take some pride in that heritage of our organization. Kaval renamed D-gate after hometown hero (from Fremont) Dennis Eckersley. Actions like this surround the fanbase with positive energy of the successful times of the past. A kid asks who is Catfish Hunter? 3 time World Series champion, 1974 AL ERA leader, 1974 Wins leader, 1974 Cy Young winner. That means a lot to a fan that was there back then, and it means a lot to a younger fan because it’s proof that what he/she believes in has truth.
Building new traditions is a good way to build pride as well. And that’s why you create something like the TreeHouse. The Coliseum (experiencing 4 World Series titles and 2 Super Bowls) always gets a lot of heat for being old and not modern enough. Well, the TreeHouse builds upon those deficiencies! Now you can go to the A’s ballpark and hang out in a bar-like setting. This place will soon be emblematic of the Coliseum experience, similar to the Wrigley Rooftops. Why make a TreeHouse? Why spend money on something like this? Because it builds fan experience! It gives the organization and fanbase something to believe it, it brings them a service they can feel pride in. I’m excited to go to the next ballgame just so I can hang out at the TreeHouse!
Lastly - Rivalry. Rivalry is huge because it takes the pride you’ve built up and it tests it against an opponent. Rivalry is so important some leaders embrace it within their buy-in concepts. Jim Harbaugh’s buy-in concept: “Who’s Got it Better Than Us? NOBODY!” It directly pitted the 49ers against other teams and rallied his team/fanbase to stick with them against anyone else. We did this at American High School too. Our rivals were a lot better than us in traditional athletics, but it didn’t stop us from creating Battle of the Boulevard (Fremont Blvd) and making a rival out of our neighbor, and pulling out whatever we could that would make us better than them.
Why wouldn’t any team that wants to shift team spirit do this? The A’s have to pit the fanbase and team against the team across the Bay. This isn’t elementary school, it’s the Major Leagues with huge organizations. Not only has the team across the bay won a few titles over the past 10 years, but it’s also got a huge foothold over the media market (owns half of NBC Sports Bay Area - vertical monopoly maybe)? The A’s and Dave Kaval will do anything it takes to bring out their forces of fans against the rival. There’s even more history with the Giants rivalry (1989 World Series). How many Bay Area baseball fans in the past 40 years were A’s fans well before the Moneyball A’s tragedies/Giants 2010 success? There’s only so many baseball fans in the Bay Area. Any organization in the A’s position would hype up this rivalry more than ever before. It’s a leadership tactic to build up the energy of this organization.
Keep the giants-fans surcharge at parking, the hat replacement program, and all the A’s advertising space in San Francisco. Just because the A’s rolled over with bad ownership tactics over the past 20 years and let SFG take over the market doesn’t mean the A’s can’t pull out their war chest of illustrious spirit, history, and tradition. Dave Kaval’s efforts are an exemplary course in GameChanger leadership. Anyone who ridicules these efforts doesn’t understand turnaround strategies of organizational leadership.
"Unity is Our Strength" - GameChanger Lily Mei (Mayor of Fremont)
Today, I was very fortunate (thanks KK at Fremont Chamber of Commerce!!) to have attended the State of the City Address for my hometown Fremont, CA. Mayor Lily Mei (elected in 2016) spoke about all the awesome things happening in Fremont: A 62% reduction in property crimes since 2011, the emerging biotech firms and code academies moving to the city, the 600 new affordable housing units being built this year, the startup incubators helping out innovative small businesses, and even Facebook and Tesla leasing even more space in the North side of Fremont (#EagleNation).
Mayor Lily Mei of Fremont (right) and Robby Gill (left)
The most intriguing and insightful part of the speech was one of Mayor Mei's closing statements: "Unity is Our Strength." I paused for a second thinking about this. As a GameChanger or more importantly a leader, unity is overstated time and time again because it has a positive connotation and what other kind of organization would you want? An un-united organization? You got to have unity.
But if we think about this for just a second more, what does unity mean that is so powerful for a leader - more importantly a GameChanger? At GameChangers, we're all about helping small groups, organizations, businesses, and schools create positive culture change. We want to help reduce cyber-bullying by including all the students, we want to replace the management of the 90s with the leadership and influence of 2018 and on. Unity - is the 2nd stage of the GameChanger GamePlan. When you have a school, business, or any organization where the team and the people aren't as productive or aren't motivated to do well, you need a GamePlan to change things for the better.
We start with Pride, because pride in an organization leads to a unifying bond between the group. (more on this later). Through pride and similar tools, Unity is created. And unity is what drives change. If you can create unity, you can bring the whole squad, the whole team, the whole group together onto the same page.
At the end of the day, a leader is nothing without his/her team. Whatever you can do to get your team together, united on a common goal and mission, will help you achieve your goals as a GameChanger.
Thank you Mayor Mei for the inspiration - GameChangers supports your Mayorship and good luck with taking Fremont to the next level utilizing our unity as strength.
#MaverickMonday - Bill Coibion, Shoulder to Shoulder
MAVERICK: Someone who bucks the current trend to stand up for a greater belief or cause. They are our living, breathing GameChangers
I had the pleasure this morning of meeting with a great mentor of mine, Bill Coibion. Bill is our #MaverickMonday for his impressive work with Shoulder to Shoulder. If you didn't know, Shoulder to Shoulder is an amazing non-profit based out of the inner-city area of North Sacramento. Bill founded this organization with the primary mission of eliminating and mitigating the effects of fatherlessness in inner-city areas.
Shoulder to Shoulder connects male mentors to youth boys in impoverished areas that lack a father figure in the home. The program sets up mentors (ages 25 and above) with younger boys ages from 9 to 17 for weekly 2-hour meetings. The goal is to create a beneficial relationship between mentor and mentee so that the mentee can move beyond the struggles of fatherlessness and achieve excellence in their sphere. The boys work on character development and life-skills training. Shoulder to Shoulder also works closely as a partnership with Moms Helping Moms, to assist grandmothers and mothers who are usually the sole guardians of the boys in the program.
Bill is a selfless leader dedicated to this cause. We talk about bringing spirited success and high morale to any organization you're a part of, yet Bill has done that for an organization he created himself. One of the focal points of being a leader is finding your purpose, then doing the necessary work to achieve that purpose. This organization is dead-set on its goal - and for anyone looking to achieve excellence, Bill's work with Shoulder to Shoulder is a prime example of that.
There are #Mavericks everywhere you look. They don't have to be Fortune 500 CEOs or politicians, etc. Due to Bill's #GameChanger ability, over 250 fatherless boys have received mentorship in the Sacramento area since 2007. Today we salute Bill and his mission, thank you for showing us what true purpose and dedication to a cause looks like.
"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." -Mark Twin
Visit the site! http://www.teamsts.org
#MaverickMonday - Jeff Bezos, CEO
MAVERICK: Someone who bucks the current trend to stand up for a greater belief or cause. They are our living, breathing GameChangers
Jeff Bezos defines the 2016 business-minded #GameChanger. After founding Amazon.com in 1994, his relentless work ethic and incomparable courage has grown Amazon into a $107 BILLION business!
Bezos does not hold back in his quest to grow his business and brand. That relentless attitude is a huge factor in being a #GameChanger. Why? Because to make that step into being a leader, you need to have courage. That courage gives you the strength to know that while you're being different from the pack, you're out there PURSUING YOUR DREAMS.
You might've heard about SpaceX with Elon Musk, trying to get people to Mars, or Virgin Galactic with Richard Branson, trying to drive space tourism. Both of those were founded in 2002 and 2002, respectively, while Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos' brainchild) had been working on their own secret space mission SINCE 2000! 2 years may not seem like a long time, but when you're planning on building billion-dollar equipment to pursue an industry that is not being pursued by anyone except the richest government in the world, you've got to have some audacity. For being the first player in the game, that takes some serious guts! (Side note: Most of Blue Origin's plans are being kept classified, but I wouldn't be surprised if reports came out in the next couple of years of Bezos' progress surpassing Musk's and Branson's.)
Have you ever bought anything off Amazon.com? Or better yet, have you ever been to any website containing 'amazon' in the URL? Bezos has grown his massively successful e-commerce business from general retail to: AMAZON FRESH (people can get vegetables, fruits, and common pantry items mailed to them), E-BOOKS aka KINDLE (save those 15 pounds of books you're carrying around), AMAZON VIDEO (move over Netflix/Hulu/HBO, Bezos can take you on too), AMAZON PRIME (no one ever heard of reliable, free, 2-day shipping before Amazon), or AMAZON DASH & AMAZON ECHO (look those up yourself if you're really interested).
Think about how many times we've stopped pursuing our goals midway because we were afraid of the outcome. We can learn from Jeff Bezos in this regard. Not only has he seen his projects through until the end, but he has inspired over 230,000 employees to see through his vision too... And let's be honest, there is always push back. You'll never be able to convince everyone of your vision on the first go around. But it takes some passion, resiliency, and courage. To be honest, I thought sending fruit and veggies through home delivery would be weird, but I was surprised to know my boss in fact uses that service. Had Jeff Bezos and Amazon been too nervous and not courageous enough to see that goal through, they would have never found people who need that service (like my boss)! The possibility is there, everyone! Just find that courage - believe hard enough.
As we talk about in our #GameChanger seminar, Transitioning from Follower to Leader, Jeff Bezos has exemplified the necessary leadership ideal of courage, by being relentless in the pursuit of his goals and not worrying about what the status quo had to say. In any part of his career he did not let up moving into a different industry or market. He's changed the status quo and he's changed the game. Rightfully so, he is today's #MaverickMonday and he is a #GameChanger.
#MaverickMonday - Coach Jim Harbaugh
MAVERICK: Someone who bucks the current trend to stand up for a greater belief or cause. They are our living, breathing GameChangers
No other professional sports coach exemplifies being a GameChanger like Jim Harbaugh. Just look at track record of success.
Stanford University: Before 1-11, After 4-8
San Francisco 49ers: Before 6-10, After 13-3
University of Michigan: Before 5-7, After 10-3
How can we learn from him? His most famous quote: "ATTACK THIS DAY WITH AN ENTHUSIASM UNKNOWN TO MANKIND!"