Management Lessons from Bill Belichick
Watch Bill Belichick pace the sidelines of the upcoming Super Bowl championship game, and you might wonder what there is to learn from a guy known for his "hoodie" sweatshirt with cutoff sleeves. Listen to the coach of the New England Patriots speak to the media, with his taciturn answers for sports reporters' questions, and you might want to reach out and call a PR maven to help him.
Bill Belichick
But pay attention, even if you hate sports in general or loathe football in particular. If you take the time, you will find management gold nuggets in Belichick's approach that will help your work, no matter your style: tactical minder of details, manager and motivator of people from different backgrounds, corporate strategist. Even though professional sports is a business, business is not a sport; there are differences in the way we do things (maybe you don't have weekly tests, maybe they are daily or monthly; and you probably don't have press conferences after you finish a project). But there's something here for everyone.
Lesson No. 1: Immaculate Delegation.
Preparation is a given in any field, and football gurus love to discuss and dissect the pre-game work that goes into every week's match. And this point is certainly about identifying your organization's relative strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition--something that Belichick does with regular superiority. But he takes the effort to a higher level.
What Belichick does is to dissect situations so that every member of his team knows what they are supposed to do and when. And he explains that clearly and simply, so they understand their responsibilities and how they fit into the bigger picture. If you watch this laudatory video from NFL Networks, you will also see Belichick practicing these concepts, changing situations for his players so that they be prepared to adapt and perform when circumstances change.
This approach puts the players in a position to succeed. As a byproduct, Belichick uses this approach to emphasize teamwork and esprit de corps: no star employee can do the job alone. It takes a commitment from everyone to win.
Lesson No. 2: No Shortage of Manager Feedback.
On Jan. 13, the Patriots played the Jacksonville Jaguars in a playoff game. Jacksonville was very good. They were scoring points. Belichick met his defensive players on the bench.
"Do your job," the coach said in microphone range. "We talked about this all week. Everybody do your job!"
Belichick wasn't smiling. And notably, he wasn't using a clipboard to make his point visually. He was bringing his employees' minds back to their job responsibilities. No PowerPoint slides. Human connection, a blatant reminder about individual responsibility and each individual's accountability to the organization.
The employees noticed. The defense stiffened in the second half and the Patriots won the game. The project was a success.
Lesson No. 3: A Clear Focus on the Task at Hand, and Only the Task at Hand.
The Patriots have won every game they have played so far this year. But even in past seasons when they have not, the message from Belichick and his players is the same: we tackle our jobs one project at a time.
This is the mindset that earns Belichick his reputation for being a sourpuss on
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