In his book The 17 Indisputable Laws Of Teamwork, John Maxwell teaches The Law Of The Edge which says when two evenly teams compete, the difference is always leadership. Today in college football, there will be six match-ups between teams ranked in the Top 20. The difference in these games will be leadership.
As I watched ESPN College Gameday this morning and their preview of the games, I gleaned the following 20 Things Which Separate Great Leaders From Average Leaders:
- Great Leaders Limit Mistakes – “What decides every game? Turnovers.” – Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio
- Great Leaders Sense And Then Seize Opportunity – “Every time you get out there all you have is an opportunity. And that’s all we want is an opportunity to show who we are.” – Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty
- Great Leaders’ Teams Play To Their Strengths – “We play to the strength of our players.” – Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder. Coach Snyder has won 67% of his games at Kansas State. All other coaches in the college’s history have a 38% winning percentage.
- Great Leaders Are Resourceful – “Our guys when the game is on the line they really believe they’re going to win the game. And they’ve shown time and time again they can win in different ways.” – Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn
- Great Leaders Are Often Unappreciated – “Nick Marshall does not get the recognition nationally he deserves. All he does is win.” – Kirk Herbstreit
- Great Leaders Surround Themselves With Great Talent – “Anytime you face a good quarterback…the surrounding cast of Michigan State is very good.” – Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer
- Great Leaders Anticipate And Handle Pressure Well – “He (Connor Cook) needed to start anticipating the pressure…working through the chaos.” – George Whitfield
- Great Leaders Never Have To Recover From A Good Start – “We have to get out of the blocks quicker.” – Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher
- Great Leaders Are A Picture Of The Desired Destination Of Where You Want Your Team To Arrive – “When your quarterback is tough you have a tough team.” – Coach Fisher
- Great Leaders Value Preparation – “It’s about the preparation to achieve whatever that goal is going to be and to not lose sight of your preparation and focus.” – Coach Snyder
- Great Leaders Develop Options – “The difference between TCU and Baylor and Texas Tech in the past is they have something to fall back on.” – Herbstreit
- Great Leaders Are Disciplined – “Discipline and being able to execute with discipline is very, very important and what it comes down to is eye control.” – Alabama head coach Nick Saban
- Great Leaders Embrace Challenge – “Playing on the road like this is a challenge, not a threat. The challenge is to stay focused on the things you need to do to execute and do your job.” – Coach Saban
- Great Leaders Consistently Make Good Decisions – “Make good decisions play-in and play-out.” – Coach Saban
- Great Leaders Are Poised – “Play with poise.” – Coach Saban
- Great Leaders Make Things Simple, Not Complicated – “I think (LSU defensive coordinator) John Chavis is one of the greatest football minds in college football today. He simplified things for that defense.” – Desmond Howard
- Great Leaders Are Confident, Not Cocky – “What’s going to win this game (Alabama-LSU)? Confidence.” – Lee Corso
- Great Leaders Have A Healthy Sense Of Paranoia – “We know who we’re playing. Arizona State is a very good football team. We’ll have to play well or we’ll get beat.” – Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly
- Great Leaders Do Not Celebrate Past Success. Today Is What Matters. – “Over the years, we’ve played in a ton of big games. This is the biggest one this week and this is the only one that matters.” – Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich
- Great Leaders Are Rarely Surprised – “They (Georgia Bulldogs) thought they practiced well for Florida. The team just didn’t show up.” – Chris Fowler. “No explanation for what happened to Georgia last week.” – Herbstreit
What one thing from this list can you improve in as a leader today?
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