Sports Illustrated Monday Morning Quarterback: A fully caffeinated guide to everything you need to know about the NFL

Yesterday I posted the first six leadership lessons from the final chapter of Peter King’s great book Monday Morning Quarterback.  As promised, the following is Part 2 which contains six additional leadership lessons I gleaned from that chapter.

  1. There are Perks to Leadership and There is a Price to Leadership – “I’m 26 years old, I just threw 38 TD passes in one year, and I’m the NFL MVP.  People look at me and say, ‘I’d love to be that guy.’ But if they knew what it took to be that guy, they wouldn’t love to be him, I guarantee you that.  I’m entering a treatment center tomorrow.  Would they love that?” – Brett Favre to Peter King.  Leaders, what price are you willing to pay?
  2. Perspective – “In my life, I’ve chopped cotton, picked watermelons, built fences, worked on an assembly line, worked in an oil field, built scaffolding.  You know what?  Those jobs are harder than football.  So I’ll never take it easy in football.”  - Hall of Fame Minnesota Vikings DT John Randle
  3. Relevance – “You know what the highest-rated TV show on Saturday night is?  Whatever you bring home from Blockbuster.” – NBC President Dick Ebersol on why he televised the XFL.  What strikes me about his statement is how Blockbuster has not changed after all these years and is now facing financial challenges.  You may not like change but you’ll like irrelevance even less.
  4. Personal Growth – “You go into a game, a game we really needed, and you do what you have to do to win.  It’s all I know.  I’ve been playing that way since I was at Virginia Tech and before, since I was a kid in the backyard.  That’s me.” – Then Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick.  Vick stayed true to his childhood roots both on, and unfortunately unlike John Randall, off the field as well. 
  5. A Father’s Influence – “Some of my best memories are fishing with my dad, and I want to make sure I do that as often as I can before my life changes for good.” – Wisconsin tackle Joe Thomas on why he would be absent from the NFL Draft.  Read The Greatest Leadership Role for more information on the influence and impact of a father.
  6. Return On Investment – “If I’m going to have confidence in (rookie WR Anthony) Gonzalez during the season, and I plan to, I need to put him in every position he’s going to be in when it counts.  And I need (rookie tackle Tony) Ugoh to make the adjustments he’s going to have to make during the game.” – Indianapolis QB Peyton Manning.  I know Preparation was mentioned in the previous post but Manning is unquestionably the most prepared athlete I’ve ever seen.  If you go to my categories section under Increasing Capacity, you will find 11 posts dedicated to Peyton’s leadership skills.

Leaders, are you paying the price necessary to increase your influence?  Do you have perspective, relevance, and a personal growth strategy?  Do you understand the impact your upbringing has on your life?  And finally, do you prepare or repair?

If you answer these questions correctly, you are definitely on the road to becoming the leader God meant for you to be!

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