People seem to either love or hate the Seahawks. Regardless of your thoughts about the team, their coach Peter Carroll’s approach to leadership is unique in the NFL. I just read a really insightful article about the Carroll’s leadership style: Pete Carroll’s road to redemption leads Seahawks back to SuperBowl, shot at history. A couple items stood out to me and are relevant for all leaders:
- While his leadership philosophy never changed, over time Carroll learned to articulate them it better. Often leaders can have great leadership philosophies, but if they can’t articulate it and enroll others in their vision, they fall flat. “He decided what mattered most to him. He clarified his vision. In the years between missing the playoffs with the Patriots and taking over in Seattle, Carroll had discovered what, exactly, he meant by ‘his way.’”
- If your leadership approach or strategic vision is not aligned with other critical stakeholders, your chance of being successful drops dramatically. Carroll realized that when he was the coach for New England and New York, he had been unsuccessful in part because he was undermined by others who did not understand or support his approach – the owners and the front offices. After taking time off from the NFL, he came to terms with his role in his lack of success as a NFL coach: “He had never clearly explained his plan, mainly because he had never articulated it to himself. He recognized the difference between broad concepts and a clear plan.”
- Carroll also learned to be uncompromising with regard to certain principles that were non-negotiable: the value of competition, the players would play for one another, prioritize practice, and that all coaches would be purposeful in their language.
The last point about language is fascinating to me and is something that we don’t often consider. Carroll sums it up nicely in his statement about accepting the coaching position for the Seahawks in 2009:
“We needed our own language and our own control and our own decision-making process. I think it’s made all the difference in the world for us – not to talk about what was, but just what it is now. It’s what every coach needs, I think, to be at his best. The format and the structure that is generally accepted in the league is not that. We’ve set out to kind of show that this is the way organizations can be run.”
Inciting Leaders 