Michael Lombardi

New England Patriots

“The Difference Between Good Coaches & Bad Coaches”

-Because the season is so busy, you need to find avenues of time spent to study the league because you need to continually grow. The league will pass you by if you don’t. Time is the challenge, you must spend time studying the league.

4 Elements of Leadership 1. Management of attention (having a plan) 2. Management of meaning (ability to communicate that plan) 3. Management of trust (players trust you to be consistent) 4. Management of self (hardest; self-critical)

-Coaching is leadership. It isn’t a separate issue or a vocation. Being a coach is about being a good leader

-The system is a by-product of the management of attention. The system gets their attention, it’s their ability to explain the system to them. You must have a belief or a system of what you want to do.

-If the head coach doesn’t come in with a philosophy or a system (of what you want to become as a team, a leader, as a head coach), you end up with a bunch of independent contractors. If the head coach doesn’t come in within a philosophy or an understanding and he has to sub-contract all that out, it will be very hard for him to sustain leadership over a long period of time.

-We are in an industry of specialization. The best NFL head coaches have had an involvement in all areas of a football team.

-There’s a difference between change and modify. The successful teams in the NFL have adapted to the rest of the league and are able to modify their play. Other teams change completely every two years and they sit there wondering when they’re gonna catch up.

-You want to have a philosophy that transcends time and understands what we’re trying to accomplish. 10,000 seat view where people can understand how your standards and beliefs fit together.

-If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevancy even less”

-Change within what fits into your philosophy (Jim Collins’ philosophy from Good to Great: preserve the core/stimulate progress)

-Best teams can play different styles and win. “What’s it going to take for us to win the game? How are we going to have to play it?”

-Being a part of success is more important being personally indispensable. We all play a part in helping build the organization.

-Do your job. Your job is defined (one of Belichick’s strengths), now do it

-Technology: more at your fingertips, but requires you to understand what is urgent and what is important within that information. Ability to filter that information.

-Being critically honest with yourself. Mistakes you make, if you don’t correct them—they’ll come back and beat you again.

-Reading Pete Carroll’s book, you see the role self-analysis played in his transformation from unsuccessful head coach in New England to winning two national championships at USC (before heading back to the NFL and winning a super bowl with the Seahawks).

-Coaching ISN’T criticism. I’m coaching you, not criticizing you. Break down that barrier where they’ll take that information in knowing your goals and objectives are pure for their own success.

-“Guide your life with principles not ambition” – Bobby Kennedy

-When in a Leadership position, you must be constantly reminding yourself of your principles.

-Leadership can be developed. There’s elements that can be taught. Not everyone can be a great leader, but everyone can develop a set of leadership skills that will enable them to partake in leadership responsibilities.

-Biggest thing Lombardi has picked up from the book “Wright Brothers” by David McCullough that he is currently reading is that their willingness to fail allowed them to succeed.

-Live a life about a process not a result

On Scouting: -You have to draft players that fit within your system and then develop the skills from the system. One of coach Walsh’s biggest strengths: able to set a system in place, drafted players that fit and then developed those skills within the system.

-Scout inside-out and then outside-in. Focus on what you need and what you want and then search for players that fit that needs and wants

-“FBI doesn’t start searching for serial killers by opening the phone book” (they have a profile of everything you’re looking for that might lead them to what they’re looking for)

-Scouting isn’t about finding players, it’s about eliminating players. You have standards and requirements, search for players who fit the criteria and eliminate the ones that don’t. It doesn’t mean they can’t go on to be great players, they just don’t fit what you do.

-Character evaluation is more difficult than film evaluation. Very challenging. Object of scouting: know more about the player before you get him than after you get him.

-When you get a player wrong, go back and look at “what’d we miss? Why?”

Avoiding Group-Think:

-If we’re all thinking alike, no one is thinking. Avoid group-think, that’s the challenge. Stay on the cutting-edge, be curious about what’s going on in the league and you need to modify what you’re doing and find different ways to solve problems. Divergency in thought

On Bill Belichick/Bill Walsh:

-Belichick is adaptable to change—he is always studying the league and adjusting what the Patriots do to adapt to those changes.

-Bill’s success as a coach starts with his leadership ability.

-Common themes between Walsh/Belichick: both are true head coaches and have a well- rounded philosophy (all 3 phases of the game—offense, defense and kicking) and led coaches to adhere to those philosophies. Both also had a detailed plan of how to build organizations