The Lombardi Rules by Vince Lombardi Jr

Author:Vince Lombardi, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2003-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

Be approachable

Strike the balance

As you climb the ranks of the organizational hierarchy, the demands that the organization places upon you change in many ways—some obvious, some subtle. New titles, of course, bring new responsibilities. This is an obvious change. But new titles also bring, among other things, a change in the relationship between the leader and the led.

When Lombardi was an assistant coach with the Giants, he played golf with the players during the day and cards with them at night. Sometimes he had players over to the house for dinner. In Green Bay, however, as a head coach, Lombardi kept his distance from the players. Now he played golf and cards with friends from the local business community. He rarely socialized with his assistants. He was the leader.

This was a turn of events that Lombardi wasn’t particularly happy about. One of the things he liked best about football was the close association with the players—the camaraderie. As an assistant, he was able to enjoy that easy relationship to the fullest. Not so, as head coach.

An interesting paradox emerged in the later stages of Lombardi’s career. He didn’t like the loneliness that came with leadership, but he took it to be an inevitable aspect of his job. At the same time, however, he was still intimately involved in the lives of several dozen young men. He may have been “distant,” but he was still in contact. The head coach had many opportunities to stay in touch with his players.

This changed for the worse when he stepped down as Green Bay’s head coach. Now he was a “leader”—in the sense of being a general manager—without the benefit of a coach’s link to the lives of his players. It was a painful and abrupt transition, which he likened to losing a family. Eventually, his desire to recreate what he had lost led him to accept the Redskins’ offer of the head coaching position.

Here are three things to consider as you strive to maintain a balance in your own organization:

Be as close as you can: Lombardi knew that a good leader feels deeply for his people and that he needs to let them know that he cares. This is an important way of building the mutual respect that every successful team requires.

Get ready to be lonely: When your position changes, some relationships will, too. Part of being a good leader is accepting the distance that this brings.

Familiarity breeds contempt: If you are too close to those under your command, your ability to lead may suffer.

“The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.”

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