Years ago I read What It Takes To Be #1, a book about Vince Lombardi written by possibly the closest person to him: his son, and while it may not be a long book it left a lasting impression on me. The book does an excellent job outlining Lombardi’s beliefs, habits, and character, but what I found most interesting is his leadership model. There are thousands of books out there on leadership, and once distilled they all boil down to “leading by example”, but Lombardi’s position on leadership is less about the façade and more about knowing your strengths and focusing on making yourself into a leader – from the inside out.
His leadership model seemed fool-proof and introduced me to a “recipe” that I still apply and find successful and motivating today. If you haven’t read his book in it’s entirety I highly recommend that you do, but for the sake of brevity and relevancy I have included his most famous speech at the bottom of this blog. As we are all busy, and the last thing I want to do is prevent you from getting your work done, I have decided to write this as a blog series – and hopefully you will find that format more convenient and easily digestible. The core of this series is Vince Lombardi’s leadership model, and more specifically what I believe to be the two major components of it: character and integrity.
In addition to being one of the most successful coaches in American football, Vince Lombardi was also an effective leader, productive manager and overall inspiration to people in both sports and business. His successes were not just coincidental – he was concise, consistent, effective, intentional, and inspiring, but above all he made decisions and became a legend by the strength of his character and on the weight of his word. He was able to inspire people and instill in them the belief that he could help them get to where they needed to go. He conveyed trustworthiness and confidence in every action, and whether because of his experience or sheer determination, he never let those who followed him down. His formula for success is still highly applicable, useful, and popular amongst successful business people – even now, 40 years after his achievements were made famous – and this is because it is timeless and without limits or boundaries as far as practical application goes.
Just a few pages into the book, in true Lombardi fashion, the reader is forced to face the million dollar question: “What kind of leader are you capable of becoming?” It’s a direct challenge, asking the reader to immediately determine how effective they can and want to become as a leader. This question is almost counterintuitively poignant, I mean of course we want to be great leaders – that’s why we’re reading your book Vince…Duh. But the crux of this question isn’t do you want to be a leader, it’s about your capabilities. He’s asking us to look inside and determine how much we able to give and what we are willing to do, and if you can determine the answer to both of those then you will know your capabilities. You must look within, and I mean really look and dig, if you are going to answer that question properly.
Vince Lombardi challenges his readers to ask themselves difficult questions, and to take a good hard look at themselves to determine what they are made of. This book isn’t about talking you into your own destiny- he’s not saying everyone is capable of being a great leader. He’s saying that if you have the will power, determination, passion, effectiveness, character, integrity, and the inspiration, then his model will help you harness your abilities, and apply them so that you can be as effective as possible – as quickly as possible.
Another big takeaway for me was in his acknowledgment that “ultimate victory can never be completely won” because “a truly successful person makes a personal commitment to excellence and victory”, but the achiever always strives for more – there is no end, no top of the mountain, you must keep climbing. There is an insatiable hunger to always be better, to shatter limits and expectations, to break standards and records, and a passion to never settle or rest. He teaches that a leader is not born, but rather cultivated.
Part of being a great leader is being able to rally people around you, and Vince did this by appealing to people’s hearts- by showing his passion, speaking with emotion, standing for something, and by communicating in the most effective yet personal way possible. Vince Lombardi said what he was going to do, and then he went and did it. Plain and simple. He didn’t make excuses, he didn’t under-perform, and he expected nothing less from those around him. He wasn’t necessarily always the easiest person to get along with (his son attests to this in the book), but sometimes being the leader is a lonely role to fill. You’re not always everyone’s champion- sometimes you are the hard truth, sometimes you are the nagging parent, sometimes you are the disciplinarian, sometimes you are the motivator, instructor, dictator, and the bottom line all rolled into one! The inability to function alone, and to withstand the pressures of having to play so many roles, is one of the reasons why not everyone has what it takes to be a great leader. What everyone does have is the ability inside of them to be honest about what they are capable of and what they want to achieve. Furthermore, everyone has the ability to make achievements within them and to develop as not just leaders, but into better people.
This blog series is about being able to be up front and honest with yourselves, to be able to communicate your abilities in the most honest way possible, owning up and delivering when you give your word, and honing and expanding on your character and integrity in business – because that’s what makes a truly great leader.
I will be including some direct excerpts, as I have above, from the introduction as well as the body of the book in hopes that, as Vince Lombardi Jr states at the conclusion of the introduction:
“This book helps you become the leader you aspire to be and makes your victories come sooner and your successes more meaningful and enduring.”
Thanks Team- I hope you all find motivation in this blog series.
Here’s the speech – A Must Read In My Humble Opinion!
What It Takes to be Number One
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he’s got to play from the ground up – from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That’s O.K. You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.
Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization – an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win – to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.
It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there – to compete. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules – but to win.
And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.
I don’t say these things because I believe in the ‘brute’ nature of men or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour — his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear — is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”
– Coach Vincent T. Lombardi
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