Sideline C.E.O. Leadership Principles from Championship Coaches. Marty Smith.
Author, ESPN Reporter, and Television personality Marty Smith has put together a book taking on the topic of leadership and all that goes into it and with it. Smith uses his vast and numerous contacts of championship caliber coaches to capture what it takes and means to be a leader particularly from a coaching perspective.
At least 20 well known coaching luminaries contribute to the essence of this book including Nick Saban, Tom Izzo, Kirby Smart, Roy Williams, Urban Meyer and John Calipari among others. Smith breaks it down into several fascinating chapters such as leadership defined in the first section. In addition, readers will gain insight from other sections addressing topics such as trust, self-evaluation, culture, crisis management and evolution. The prose consists of quotes from selected coaches for each chapter almost as if they were in the same room together commenting on the current chapter subject.
What does it take to be a leader? It is an ages old question with no one truly direct answer. What is interesting is that Smith solicited input from several coaches that either wrote books about the topic (Meyer, Smart) or others that contributed to literature expressing their viewpoints (Saban, Doc Rivers, etc.) Of course, just like in the art of coaching, not all contributors had the same definition of leadership. However, the author seems to capture a wide, insightful variety of experiences and philosophies about the book’s principles. One wonders if Smith questioned some of the answers or asked for further clarification, though.
Perhaps the most interesting chapter was the discussion about crisis management. Calipari asserts the only way to bring about change in an organization is through a crisis. In this chapter the coaches seemed to open in a way that made them vulnerable. Many of the stories shared were challenging and even heart breaking in some cases. It was easy enough to get the sense that this is one of the duties that a coach may not really be able to prepare or train but it is inevitable in the line of duty at some point in their careers. There also seemed to be a sense that while they did not enjoy going through the crisis it made them stronger if not better coaches or better at their job.
Another attention-grabbing topic was the discussion of culture. Urban Meyer shared an example of how one part of the culture changed at Ohio State. Through his personal experiences in helping his daughter choose the right school, it occurred to him those coaches and their universities should be able to offer more to the prospective student athlete at least in terms of preparing them for life after college. The reasons were two-fold, one that it made the school more competitive but that it also enabled the coach to live up to the promise of taking care of somebody else’s son or daughter. So, after careful consideration, a new plan was developed at OSU to help student athletes better prepare for a life beyond athletics since the majority will never play for pay. This was one poignant example of establishing a culture at an institution.
Another intriguing leadership principle was the discussion of both self-evaluation and evolution. Each concept was addressed in separate chapters, but the ideas are intertwined. Through honest self-scrutiny of performance, coaches and leaders can look for weaknesses and ways to improve for growth. Most coaches seemed to agree on the importance of periodic, honest, rigorous self-evaluation as well as the accompanying adjustments as an essential, although not always easy, part of the job and role of leaders. One of the many interesting axioms captured by Smith noted how success (such as winning a championship) is momentary, the process (the job of being a leader or otherwise) itself is always ongoing. Of course, through self-evaluation, leaders can evolve into better leaders. Even without the self-evaluation, many contributors quoted in this book assert a need to change with the times. For example, coaches know that today they need to follow up on directives with not only what to do but why they should as well. This was likely not as necessary in past generations.
The author collected a fair number of sagacious comments from the twenty coaches polled. He notes that was an idea rolling in his head for more than five years by the time he began piecing this together. Personally, the book picked up a level of interest when reaching the chapter espousing the importance of culture. It is also worth noting how Smith included a “sideline summary” of bullet points denoting the important takes from each leadership principle. Of course, it might not be considered a true book about leadership if it did not include some commentary of one of the most successful coaches of all time. Thus, the author even arranged a compelling last chapter connecting the relationship between former LSU head basketball coach Dale Brown and legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. Although Wooden’s principles are a bit on the simplistic side, it made for a nice way to end this manuscript. The book contains about two hundred and thirty pages, is an easy read and nobly takes on the plethora of challenges every sideline C.E.O. likely endures.
· You might like this book if you enjoy reading about coaches and their teaching and working philosophies.
· You might like this book if you want to learn more about the topic of coaching and the role of leadership.
· You might like this book if you seek insight from championship college or professional football and basketball coaches.
· You might like this book if you are new or veteran coach or leader looking for additional insight into deploying new insight into your coaching, teaching and leadership practices.
Read more about the author on X: https://x.com/MartySmithESPN
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