If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win.
Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything.
If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.
Think of only three things: your God, your family and the Green Bay Packers-in that order.
“Lombardi” is the name of a new Broadway show presented in association with the National Football League. Vincent (Vince) Lombardi (1913-1970) was a football coach whose style earned him winning seasons, player loyalty, and fan support. His team, the Green Bay Packers, won Super Bowl I and II; the Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor. Forty years after his death, Lombardi quotes like those above are some of the most searched on Google.
When the show was in previews, I went to see “Lombardi” at the Circle in the Square theatre. While waiting for the show to begin, I began chatting with the woman next to me. She and her husband were on a vacation from Florida and were taking in as many Broadway shows as they could. She asked me, “Why did you come to see this show?” “There were two reasons,” I replied.
“I come from a football family,” was my first answer. One of my brothers was All City Quarterback for the City of Los Angeles when he was a senior at Fremont High School. He had the potential to be on the varsity team at the University of Southern California and go on to become a professional player. Instead, he enlisted in the Navy. There are pictures of all five of my older brothers outfitted in football uniforms and in position to play. My father watched college football on TV and once or twice took his daughters to see L.A. Rams games.
The interest in football was inherited by many of my eleven nieces and nephews. One niece, Tomi Sue, is a San Francisco 49er season ticket holder and my nephew Kim travels from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh to be at the Steelers game on opening day. During my trips to New Orleans to volunteer, I planned my schedule so that I could watch the Saints play the 49ers in the Superdome; Tomi Sue flew in for the games.
The second reason I was at “Lombardi” was that I wanted to glean some inspirational words from the legendary coach that I could use to motivate management students My neighbor in the front row looked surprised at this response. But I was serious. Coach Lombardi was known for his ability to ignite a team and bring out the best in his players. Tapping into sports-based strategies and attitudes was a way for me to level the workplace playing field for my clients and my students.
For example, a few years ago, I was hired as an executive coach for a “two-strike” vice president of operations on Wall Street. An older and stubborn client on the verge of being fired, he blamed others and didn’t see the need for him to change his behavior. The way he finally came around to trust me and be open to growing in new ways was using football as a platform. My client was a long-time devoted fan of the New York Giants so I gave him a sports-based article to read entitled “The Tough Work of Turning Around a Team” by Bill Parcells, published in the Harvard Business Review (November-December 2000). My client, a talker not a reader, liked the article written by the former head coach of the Giants, New England Patriots, and Jets; liked it so much that we used sports language to address many issues. Those conversations helped him keep his job.
Coach Lombardi was played flawlessly by Dan Lauria, “best known as the gruff Dad on the Emmy Award-winning ABC series ‘The Wonder Years’ according to Playbill. Lauria brought a legend to life, a legend whose life wasn’t flawless but who tried his best to win and to bring out the best in each of his players, even if it took challenging and pushing them harder than they wanted to be pushed.
Lombardi Award
During an event at an organization where I had been doing long-term consulting and coaching, I was given what they called the “Vince Lombardi Award”. That’s how I was categorized: a coach who helped to guide employees to more effective behaviors and more cohesive team work. My takeaways from watching “Lombardi” that I could use to inspire my students can be summarized into three areas: relationships, challenges, and style.
Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr and other Lombardi players knew that once it was game day, Lombardi was useless on the field. Lombardi had established relationships of trust with his players. Before a game, Lombardi coached and prepared his players as best he could. During a game, it was then up to each individual to execute a winning performance. Students have questioned me about the written assignments that are part of the “Organizational Behavior” curriculum, wondering why writing is so important. My reply is that being able to write well is an important workplace skill to master. The ability to critically describe a topic, know how to research and find relevant information, then string together words into coherent units is a definite plus when aiming to climb the corporate ladder. I’m preparing my students to find and keep a job in their career field; providing them the tools they will need to realize their potential.
A major challenge for each college graduate is that the workplace is getting more and more competitive. Being at the top of your game is crucial playing sports or navigating to keep your job or advance in your career. Students, I often find, lack the ability to think strategically, to understand the impact of their behaviors on the company, and to face head on the challenges that arise. Many shrink into emotions instead of moving forward with commitment and wise decision-making. Understanding the big picture—including the competition—is a smart move.
Lombardi demonstrated what he learned growing up, “freedom through discipline.” Coach Lombardi was a disciplinarian who truly cared for his players’ well being and football excellence. My style of teaching and transferring knowledge has been consistent throughout my career: tough and caring. Specifically, my style is to push my students out of their comfort zones, to risk new behaviors, to look at a situation with a 360° or more perspective, etc. When students try to negotiate requests for easier assignments or more time to turn in a paper, I am often firm in my response. It’s my job as their “classroom coach” to prepare them not just to understand workplace behaviors but to acquire the nuances of the knowledge it will take to be an effective manager and leader.
My students are working to be leaders and are being prepared to go on from classrooms to larger playing fields, ones that they will navigate on their own—or with the help of a tough but caring coach like Vince Lombardi!
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