If you could change the world, what is the first thing you would do?
Great leaders want to change the world. At minimum, they want to change someone’s world and impact as many lives as possible. By the time you are done reading this post, you will discover 14 Practices Of Highly Successful Leaders who do just that, they change the world. And so can you.
My favorite sports writer is Peter King of Sports Illustrated. In the February 11th edition, he described how young quarterbacks Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and Colin Kaepernick are changing the NFL. As I read his article, I discovered principles that are not only changing a game, but could change the world as well.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Are Humble – They check their egos at the door. Traditionally, high school and college programs have mimicked the NFL game. Today, pro coaches are studying best practices of college programs and even high school programs like Highland Park (Tx) and head coach Randy Allen.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Adapt Their Systems To Their Talent – Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll says, “We’re not trying to adapt quarterbacks to our system anymore. We’re adapting our systems to the strengths of the quarterbacks we draft.”
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Are Ridiculed – When former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson started using smaller, faster lineman on defense he was ridiculed…until he won two Super Bowls.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Have Margin To Prepare – The faster pace of NFL offenses is creating easy scoring opportunities. This is because the defense cannot substitute liberally and gets exhausted. Once exhaustion sets in, the defense cannot get ready and makes poor decisions.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Remain Calm – NFL teams are willing to implement new ideas but this requires calm personnel with “field presence” like Russell Wilson.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Were Often Desperate – The invention of the pistol offense by Nevada head coach Chris Ault was out of sheer desperation for any innovation that would help his team win.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World First Make Small Changes – Small changes compounded over time make a huge impact. Ault moved the quarterback from the shotgun position (8 yards behind the line of scrimmage) to 4 yards behind the line. Because of rush angles and the ability to better utilize the running back, defenses had no answer for this minor adjustment. In essence, just 4 yards changed the game.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Have Many Options – One of the things leaders should strive for is the acquisition of options. Options provide you opportunity. In the pistol offense, the success of a quarterback is his ability to run, hand to running back, or throw on every play. Therefore…
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Are Unselfish – Nothing is as attractive in a leader’s life as generosity. The quarterback’s success is determined by how well he gets the ball out of his hands, not how well he does with the ball in his hands.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Make Hard Decisions – Great change requires the courage needed to make hard decisions. 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh replaced successful starting quarterback Alex Smith with the dynamic Kaepernick in mid-season. The rest is history.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Lead By Example – King noted Seahawks G.M. John Schneider saw in Wilson “a combination of charisma, intelligence, and leadership by example.”
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Are Self-Confident – If you don’t strongly believe in your idea, no one else will.
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Make Adjustments – Carroll explained that “the greatest athletes of all-time have always been able to adjust.”
- Highly Successful Leaders Who Change The World Think Unconventionally – If they did things like everyone else, they would get the same results as everyone else. Conventional thinking does not change the world.
Be Humble, Adapt Your System, Endure Ridicule, Have Margin, Remain Calm, Embrace Desperation, Make Small Changes, Get Options, Be Unselfish, Make Hard Decisions, Lead By Example, Have Self-Confidence, Make Adjustments, and Think Unconventionally. If you do these 14 things, you may actually change the world.
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