I've posted about legendary Hall of Fame college football coach Nick Saban on numerous occasions in the past (see my most recent post "All Things Must Pass" following his announcement that he was retiring from coaching in January, 2024). It's not often that you have the opportunity to meet and/or listen to a legend, but thanks to the Becker's Hospital Review 15th Annual Meeting held in Chicago this past week, I got to do both (full disclosure - I briefly shook his hand, introduced myself, and had our picture taken during a welcome line).
Coach Saban spoke at the conference about leadership in general. There were several things that stood out to me. First, we, as Americans, are definitely looking for a hero. As soon as Coach walked onto the stage, a crowd of meeting attendees in the front row gave him a standing ovation. I guess there were a lot of Alabama Crimson Tide fans at the conference.
Second, he was introduced as the winningest coach of all-time. Technically, that's not true (he's actually tied for 15th with current LSU head coach Brian Kelly for all-time wins). His teams at LSU (2003) and Alabama (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, and 2020) have won seven college football national championships, eclipsing the previous record of six championships by another Alabama football coach, Paul "Bear" Bryant.
Third, right before he walked onto the stage, the conference organizers played a short video highlighting Coach Saban's career and everything that he has accomplished. The video suggested that Coach Saban is one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and I wouldn't argue that point. As soon as he sat down, though, Coach Saban said, "Did you all see that video? It wasn't always that way." He then talked about how unsuccessful he was at Alabama during his first year as head coach. The team ended the season with a win-loss record of 6-6 (before beating the University of Colorado in the 2007 Independence Bowl), including a humiliating loss to University of Louisiana-Monroe by a score of 21-14 despite being 25 point underdogs. He used that lesson to briefly talk about the need for humility, as well as the importance of learning from failures.
Lastly, and perhaps most relevant to the subject of leadership, Coach Saban used the word "we" an awful lot. I don't think I ever heard him use the word "I" once. That's technically wrong though, he did mention the old cliché "There's no I in Team with the response that there is an "I" in the word "Win" (before talking about leadership, at least in football, as an act of connecting with and inspiring individuals as opposed to groups).
When Coach Saban talked about winning national championships - it was always "we won". When he talked about the first time he walked on the field as the University of Alabama football coach, it was "we" again. I was impressed by his subtle reference to the point that leadership is about putting the needs of others before your own. Leadership is about giving credit to the team for every positive thing that happens, but accepting personal responsibility for the negative things that inevitably happen. Leadership is about empowering others. Leadership is about being a servant to your organization.
Coach Saban made so many great statements about leadership, and I was taking notes! I am sure some of his points will find their way into future posts. For now, at least, I wanted to end today's post with a video from a post-game interview while he was still coaching at Alabama. Here, Coach Saban is talking about five choices that we all have in life. "We can be bad at what we do. We can be average at what we do. We can be good at what we do, which is probably God's expectation for whatever he gave us. Or we can be excellent. Or we can be elite."
While he didn't mention these choices specifically during his speech at Becker's, the themes that he did discuss were fairly consistent. He suggested that the human condition is to be average (I think his exact quote was "The human condition is not to be a champion"). The normal human condition is to do what is enough and sufficient to get by and survive. "All of us, at one time or another during school, got an A on our first exam. We then took the next few weeks off, did the minimum we needed to do to get by, and then got a C on the next exam to end up with a B average. That's not being a champion."
In the video (and at the conference), Coach Saban asks, "Do you want to be a champion?" If the answer to that question is "yes", then you have to work for it.
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