12 Lessons in Business Leadership by Kevin Daum

Author:Kevin Daum
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510753747
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2020-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE FIELD:

• Building trust requires treating people with respect. Demonstrate that respect with your words and your actions.

• Great leaders recognize that nothing gets done without a team effort. Even seemingly unimportant teammates play a role in the team’s success, and they should be treated accordingly.

THE TEAMWORK OF INFORMATION

If you pay attention to pop culture in the US, you probably know who Tom Brady is. He’s one of the most famous men on the planet. He’s won six Super Bowls. He’s been on People’s Sexiest Men Alive list and named GQ’s Man of the Year. He wrote a New York Times bestseller. He’s a regular attendee of the Met Ball. He’s married to an actual supermodel who’s both more famous worldwide and far wealthier than he is.

Of course, if you play in the NFL, you know exactly who Tom Brady is—not because of his celebrity, but because of his performance on the field. You’ve watched him pick apart defenses and win championships. He’s been playing in the NFL so long, he may even have been your childhood hero. He’s a superstar of the highest order. Brady does not need to introduce himself to anyone in any NFL locker room—and yet he does. Rookies, journeymen, and established stars all tell the same story: Brady knew exactly who they were, sight unseen, and made a point of greeting them and introducing himself. There was no hint of pretense or ego, just a genuine smile and a welcoming handshake.

How could it be that such a huge superstar has such a lowkey demeanor? Brady grew up in upper middle class California and was educated at elite schools, but gets along perfectly well with teammates from inner cities and rural towns who attended the school of hard knocks. Brady is in his forties, a veteran player and family man with a luxurious lifestyle, but still connects on and off the field with teammates half his age. One of the keys to this cohesion is Brady’s ability to communicate trust.

If you think about Patriots rosters over the past 20 years, it’s no surprise that their leader trusted his teammates. Brady and Belichick regularly made household names of players without any history of top-tier performance.3 Players such as Danny Woodhead, Julian Edelman, LeGarrette Blount, Dion Lewis, and many more were nobodies until they played for New England, where their careers exploded. It’s hard to make such a leap in performance if you don’t feel trusted by the team leader. The Pats were often able to handle “locker room problem” players4 like Randy Moss. The Patriots even managed huge personalities like Rob Gronkowski. Belichick isn’t known as a laissez-faire coach, but Belichick and Brady trusted Gronkowski to be serious when necessary, and to use his exuberance for the good of the team.

It’s been said that Tom Brady treats every teammate with respect. He immediately makes every teammate feel part of the organization, a subtle but meaningful display of trust in the new player. It’s a feeling Brady cultivates from the very day a new player arrives at the practice facility.

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