John Maxwell Meets Pete Carroll

During the dark days of USC football in the 90s, we had a string of knucklehead coaches. Ted Tollner, John Robinson’s second stint, and to borrow from Harry Potter, “he-who-must-not-be-named” (Paul Hackett) all held the reigns of the USC football program. Our talent was always amazing but we could never even sniff a Pac10 championship, much less a national championship because something was missing. It was the team’s coach.

It was leadership.

In Pete Carroll’s first season, the team started off 1-5. He then got everyone focused and the team finished 5-1 for a six and six record. In 2002, the team finished #4 in the nation. In 2003 and 2004 they won national championships. They have finished no lower than fourth every year since 2002.

Last year in Urban Myer’s second season as coach, Florida won the national championship.

John Maxwell has written a number of books on leadership. One of my favorite books is “The 17 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.” He comments “People don’t buy into a vision until they buy in to the leader. Once they believe in the leader, they will believe in the vision.”

People have to believe that tomorrow is going to be better than today or why bother? In IT, we often are in reactive mode because we are responding to the demands of the business and the marketplace. Leaders are required to help guide people through the dark days and evenings by offering them a hope that it will get better.

IT is a great career but it is filled with frustrations and challenges. Leaders have to make the right investments in people, processes, and technology to ensure that their teams win in the workplace. Leaders get the right players playing the right positions and then develop a game plan to use the talent on the field.

Pete Carroll, Urban Myers, Jim Tressell, and Bob Stoops are all premier college coaches because they practice John Maxwell’s lesson on being the leader that people want to follow.