No one is going to question first year University of Florida’s Head Football Coach Will Muschamp’s passion. He has garnered quite a reputation at both Auburn and Texas as a highly intense and emotional coach. Everyone in the inner cirle of college football was familiar with Muschamp as a rising star in the coaching world. The question arises, Will that intensity and passion serve him well as the absolute leader or will that intensity soon wear thin on players, assistant coaches , the administration and the media? Two leadership concepts come to focus:
1. Leaders have to be themselves. Trying to be someone you are not almost always fails. Followers quickly recognize any contrived or unreal behavior. As soon as a leader is labeled as a phony , the ability for the organization to succeed is greatly diminished and the leader has basically “lost his team”.
2. A leader who cannot control his emotions on a regular basis will lose respect and ongoing outburst will have the same effect as spanking a child. On occasion the spanking will get the child’s attention and have a positive result. After a while the child will just accept that spanking and no impression whatsoever is made. Leaders need to save those intense demonstrations so the strength of the reaction makes a definite impression
It will be interesting to see as Coach Muschamp’s career moves forward how he will balance being his own passionate and emotional self with creating a balance so his wide constituent base will not tire of his outbursts and lack of control. He has already appeared to making an adjustment by making public his intent to modify sideline behavior by eliminating profanity from his vocabulary and speech pattern. I believe he will figure out how to deal with these two necessary leadership concepts. What are your thoughts about the following link?
Doc,
ReplyDeleteIt's always a learning process when going from an assistant to a head coach. As an assistant, one is responsible for overseeing a much smaller contingent of student-athletes. This allows a coach to become much closer to his athletes and get to know them as individuals (what buttons to push, which way to chide an athlete, etc) much more so than a head coach might be able to (especially in a sport like football with over 85 athletes on each squad).
As much individual influence as an assistant coach might have, the team takes its' personality and directive from the head coach. A head coach who is passionate for teaching and having his athletes grow as people will command the respect of the team without having to go into tirades (which isn't to say those types of moments aren't effective at times because they can be a very effective tool if used properly and at the right times). Head coaches who tend to be overly emotional and panic during every time of which a struggle may occur will find his/her team panicking as well.
Scott A. Sorenson
Minnesota-Crookston
Kind of reminds me of a very passionate coach and strong leader I knew 30 years ago in a high school in Cincinnati!
ReplyDeleteChip Kelly is riding that same situation right now as well. Interesting thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI meant Brian Kelly.
ReplyDelete