Читать книгу You Win in the Locker Room First - Gordon Jon - Страница 9

Mike Smith

Professional athletics is probably the most competitive industry in the world. The NFL is designed for parity in many ways, with a hard salary cap, free agency, and the draft system. During my seven years in Atlanta, 22 percent of all games played in the NFL were decided by three or fewer points and 45 percent of the games were decided by seven or fewer points. When almost half the games come down to the final possession, it makes the margin for error very small. I guess that is why the game is so popular and the phrase “on any given Sunday” is so true.

With the competition so heated, everyone is looking for an edge. Teams spend millions of dollars every year trying to gain an advantage and be better than the rest of the league. They will spend money on athletic performance, analytics, coordinators who offer new offensive and defensive schemes, and so on. All of those have merit and you have to be doing everything possible to improve your organization. When you are dealing with the best athletes and coaches in the world, there is a fine line between winning and losing. You have to be well prepared both physically and mentally to go out and compete each week. You must have a great game plan, and it's essential for coaches to call the right plays and for players to execute effectively. Strategy is important. Execution is imperative. However, the most overlooked aspect in team sports, and what most coaches and leaders fail to grasp, is the fact that it is your culture that will determine whether your strategy works and is sustainable. It is the culture you create that is going to determine whether your players perform and execute.

Every week you will face very difficult circumstances that are completely out of your control. There are going to be injuries that effect match-ups, the ball is not going to bounce your way, and there will be mistakes made both by players and coaches. The strategies and game plans are going to change from week to week. In the face of all this, it is your culture that will be the driving force to create the resiliency, toughness, passion, and attitude to overcome the obstacles in your way. The wildcat came and went. The spread option was hot for a year or two. Certain plays work for a while until opposing teams figure them out. X's and O's are important but culture is the rock that your organization must be built upon – and if you do it the right way, you'll have sustained success, as we did for five years. The last two years are another story, however, and later on I'm going to share what we learned from that.