Nothing prepared me for the feelings I felt after they won on Sunday.
For several years, on one of my other blogs, I have written articles called "Job Search Lessons from The Super Bowl" to call attention to things people can do to apply winning formulas to their job search. This arrticle is designed to call attention to a number of lessons that can be derived from both the Giants and the Patriots and how they go about their business.
Both Coach Belichick and Coach Coughlin are former assistants of former Giants, Patriots and Cowboys head coach, Bill Parcells. Coach Parcells ran a tight ship with a simple philosophy--you are what your record says you are. If you were 8-8 and had injuries to key players, you are an 8-8 team.
He hated "talkers"--players who talked to the press and criticized him behind the scenes. Victory came on the field, not in the newspapers.
He admired "warriors"--players like Lawrence Taylor on the Giants and Brian Cox with the Jets and Tedy Bruschi on the Pats.
With the exception of the head coach, general manager and owner, the management of this team bears little resemblance to the one that won the first Super Bowl for the franchise seven years ago. Assistant coaches have come and gone (Romeo Crennel taking over in Cleveland; Charlie Weis at Notre Dame). Young protegies like Eric Mangini have taken over the head coaching job with The Jets.
Yet quality people have remained in place to maintain the winning systems that have helped Coach Belichick succeed year after year. Player leaders, coaches who rose through the ranks to assume responsibility for the offense (Josh McDaniels) and defense (Dean Pees). Promotion from within comes from stability and a commitment to success.
That success, also allows the team to attract great talent, maintain a wage structure and systems that have helped to perpetuate the success of the team.
In contrast, Coach Coughlin took over a team in disarray. A year after a Super Bowl loss, the team collapsed in total failure. He implemented a team structure, including a requirement for players to arrive early for meetings. Arriving on time was considered late. You had to be there at the early time. He defined roles rigidly, probably little different than Coach Belichick but received tons of opposition from the players and criticism in the media.
The rebellion against the Coach reached a crescendo after last season when his team jumped out to a 6-2 start only to finish 8-8. His star running back, Tiki Barber, announced his retirement midseason and made it clear that he didn't want to play for Coach Coughlin.
With the press cry rising for him to be fired, Coach Coughlin met with the owners after the season and was asked what he will do differently. He committed to being a better communicator with his team, forming a leadership group of players to help him get his ideas out to the team better. He also agreed to hire a new defensive coordinator to implement a new philosophy on defense.
“I made up my mind to do a better job communicating with the players,” Coughlin said. “We formulated a leadership council and that council represented the team in various aspects. And they did a very good job communicating to the rest of the players what we discussed in these meetings."
When his defensive star, Michael Strahan, held out of training camp, hoping to negotiate a new contract and deciding whether to retire, the Coach chose not to criticize him.
When the previous General Manager retired at the end of last season, an internal candidate who understood the exsting systems and philosophies was promoted to the job.
And the etam continued to struggle until Coach Coughlin made a key decision--despite having clinched another appearance in the playoffs the week before and with nothing to play for that week, with the media all suggesting that he hold out his key players and concede defeat to New England, an undefeated opponent trying to become the second team in league history to finish undefeated, Coach Coughlin decided his team would play to win.
After a predictable opening running play, his maligned quarterback, Eli Manning, faked another handoff and passed 30 yards down field to his receiver Plaxico Burress for a big gain. The team scored, played aggressively and were it not for a few plays in the third quarter, might have won, only losing 38-35.
Other teams were favored in each of their playoff games but the Giants played hard in Tampa in hot weather, against Dallas, a team that had pounded them in two regular season games, in Green Bay in conditions that had wind chill down to 24 below zero, before fighting back from a four point deficit to score a touchdown with 35 second remaining to win the Super Bowl.
So let's disect a few of these stories.
Each coach arrived as a disciple of a previous winning coach.
Each coach implemented systems that had worked before and attempted to identify players who could succeed within that system.
Despite turnover in his staff, Coach Belichick promoted people who supported his philosophy; Coach Coughlin, facing mutiny, made changes to his management style to involve more people.
The team philosophy was maintained by promoting a GM who understood the team's systems.
Finally, the Coach made a difficult decision, subject to second guessing that, in the last week of the season, with nothing concrete to gain by winning but pride, to try to defeat the team that was judged to be unbeatable and, by coming close, brought his team together as a team.
Your corporate needs may be different than those of these two organizations, but I believe that these factors can play well into helping organizations succeed. They speak to immediate success and long term success (having promotable people and staff leadership in place) that few organizations commit to these days.
I hope you take some time to reflect upon the management style of these two organizations and adopt some of their best practices.
Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2008 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a practicing psychotherapist and is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues.
To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezines, Head Hunt Your Next Job and/or Natural Selection (his free recruiting ezine), or to find out about his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com.
If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff or locating consultants, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).
