The following is the second part of our study of the leadership behaviors of Apex Leaders, people who are the best at what they do. You can read Part 1 by clicking HERE. Because of their experience and resources, there are many things Apex Leaders can often do which you and I many times cannot.
However, we can always think like they think, evaluate like they evaluate, and problem solve like they problem solve.
Over the last several weeks I have been capturing the leadership thoughts of college football’s best coaches – Apex Leaders like Urban Meyer, Nick Saban and others.
The following are 26 Things Apex Leaders Are Thinking And Saying we can apply to our leadership. All comments are from ESPN’s College Gameday unless otherwise noted:
September 7th
- Apex Leaders Assign Tasks Based On Skill, Not Fairness Or Equal Opportunity – “When you have good players play them.” – Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer
October 17th
- Apex Leaders Perform Their Best When You Need Them The Most – “You’ve got to be prepared to play your best game at the best moments.” – – Michigan State Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio
- Apex Leaders Handle Adversity Well – “You’ve got to be able to handle adversity.” – Coach Dantonio
- Apex Leaders Are Relentless – “You have to be relentless.” – Coach Dantonio
- Apex Leaders Have A Clearly Defined Philosophy Of Leadership – “My philosophy is to score as many points as you can.” – Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer
- Apex Leaders Are Highly Efficient – “Be efficient but most importantly, get your best players on the field.” – Coach Meyer
- Apex Leaders Constantly Evaluate Everything – “Our red zone inefficiency led me to reevaluate it (changing starting quarterbacks).” – Coach Meyer
- Apex Leaders Still Need A Great Team Around Them To Be Successful – “When I went to Florida in ’90, I inherited a great defense…He (Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh) inherited a lot of good players.” – Coach Meyer
November 7th
- Apex Leaders Have Respect From Leaders Because They First Respect Other Leaders – “If there were an answer from an X’s and O’s standpoint (against Trevone Boykin) we would have assumed someone would have found it in 20 games they have played against TCU.” – Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy on SportsCenter
- Apex Leaders Make Great Things Happen. It’s Who They Are. It’s What They Do. – “He’s (Boykin) going to make some plays. He’s gotten to the level where he’s a great player at this level. Great players make great plays.” – Coach Gundy on SportsCenter
- Apex Leaders Have Great Belief In Their Teams – “I believe in our team but we’ve got a long way to go.” – Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney on SportsCenter
- Apex Leaders Have Consistent Success – “We have established ourselves as one of the most consistent programs in all of college football not just on the field but off the field.” – Coach Swinney on SportsCenter
- Apex Leaders Build Teams Who Do Many Things Well – “The biggest challenge is they (FSU) have great balance offensively.” – Coach Swinney on SportsCenter
- Apex Leaders Focus On Today With An Eye On Tomorrow – “Every game is a season of its own. Every game is a championship game for us…These four quarters are all that matters.” – Coach Swinney on SportsCenter
- Apex Leaders Stay Ready – “We’ll be ready.”- Coach Swinney on SportsCenter
- Apex Leaders Never Declare Victory Prematurely – “It’s so irrelevant.” – Coach Swinney on being ranked #1 on November 7th
- Apex Leaders Know The More Leaders They Have On Their Team The More Successful They Will Be – “We have very good leaders on this team. It’s kind of a next man up mentality.” – Coach Meyer
- Apex Leaders Are Often Products Of Those Around Them – “A quarterback, he’s the product of those around him.” – Coach Meyer
- Apex Leaders Eliminate Distractions – “The most important thing your team needs to do in big games is to be able to stay focused on executing on the field and not get involved in all the hype outside the game.” – Coach Saban
- Apex Leaders Do Their JobWhile Under Pressure. – “Win your individual battle. Win the one on one battles. Execute and do your job together as a group gives you the best chance to be successful in a game like this.” – Coach Saban
- Apex Leaders Build Teams With Great Depth – “What makes our front seven better than groups we’ve had before is our diversity.” – Coach Saban
- Apex Leaders Cause Positive Changes To Happen – “We’ve affected most quarterbacks we’ve played which is key to getting off the field on third downs.” – Coach Saban
- Apex Leaders Make Decisions Early And Then Manage Those Decisions – “How did you plan the game? A lot of these decisions get determined on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on what you’re going to do in these situations.” – Coach Saban
- Apex Leaders Make Sound Decisions In The Midst Of Chaos – “When I was a coordinator it was disruptive when everybody was making suggestions when you were trying to make calls.” – Coach Saban
- Apex Leaders Eliminate Needless Mistakes – “When you have five turnovers in a game it’s going to be hard to beat anybody.” – Coach Saban
- Apex Leaders First Lead By Example – “You first lead by example and then you lead by all the rest of the things. Everybody understands Trevone is all in.” – TCU head coach Gary Patterson TCU
- Apex Leaders Never Have To Recover From A Good Start – “You want to keep things consistent on 1st and 2nd down. That’s mean staying ahead of it. Be precise, consistent on 1st and 2nd down.” – Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly
Which one of these practices you can implement TODAY to become a better leader?
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