We have all met countless young leaders with incredible potential. However, only a small percentage of those actually achieved their full potential. So the questions become why and what can young leaders do to ensure they do not waste their talent and maximize their influence?
In 1978, a 26-year-old football coach named Bill Belichick was in the early stages of his career. Then-head coach Red Miller hired him to work in an entry-level position on legendary defensive coordinator Joe Collier’s staff. Recently, Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com wrote an insightful article on this one year of Belichick’s coaching career. You can read the full article by clicking HERE.
8 Super Bowl championships later (6 as a head coach with the New England Patriots, 2 as an assistant coach with the New York Giants), it is helpful to see how this year aided in his development.
The following are 13 Things Young Leaders Can Do To Reach Their Potential: Lessons From A 26-Year-Old Bill Belichick:
- To Realize Your Potential You Must See The Value Of Entry-Level Jobs – To many of today’s young leaders are impatient and demand immediate results. However, Belichick embraced the process. Collier assigned Belichick multiple entry-level jobs such as breaking down film among other things. These fundamental activities allowed Belichick to develop a well-rounded understanding of the game and coaching in general.
- To Realize Your Potential Prioritize Personal Growth – From his first day with the Broncos, Belichick never missed an opportunity to learn. He kept a notepad with him and recorded lessons from every moment, conversation, interaction, and practice.
- To Realize Your Potential Do Something You Are Passionate About – It was clear to everyone that Belichick was focused on making a career out of coaching and was preparing to do so.
- To Realize Your Potential Do Your Job – Broncos All-Pro cornerback Louis Wright said, “He wasn’t about chatting people up. Some guys want to interact with the players, be a part of the players’ conversations and all of that. He was all ‘Just do your job’ about his job. And I loved that. He wasn’t just looking around at practice, talking to whoever was closest to him.”
- To Realize Your Potential Carry A Notebook And Constantly Write Things Down – Wright continued, “Every time I saw Bill Belichick that year he was writing something down in a notebook I always saw in his hands. And I mean every time. He was always taking notes, writing, always writing.”
- To Realize Your Potential Do Not Waste Time – Wright concluded, “That man wasted no time.”
- To Realize Your Potential Work Very Hard – Fellow assistant coach John Beake said, “He was a serious worker. He did coaching things, he did film breakdown, he worked with the defense, special teams.”
- To Realize Your Potential Be Willing To Pay The Price Of Long Hours – Beake added, “And I’m not sure I ever went in at any hour when he wasn’t there. The building would be empty and he would be there.”
- To Realize Your Potential Take Your Career Seriously – Beake concluded, “A serious young man who was a student of everything he was doing and I think everything centered around learning whatever he could from Joe Collier and those defensive coaches.”
- To Realize Your Potential Be Disciplined And Take Pride In Your Work – Belichick said, “I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back on it, having an appreciation for how Joe [Collier], and Richie [McCabe] and the rest of the coaches who put that [defensive] group together, how consistently they played, it wasn’t just game to game, honestly. It was play to play, and even in practice. They didn’t make a lot of mistakes. They were very disciplined, good fundamentals. … They took a lot of pride in their responsibility in their role.”
- To Realize Your Potential Find A Great Mentor – Belichick added,”I learned so much about coaching the secondary from coach McCabe. I learned to see the game through the eyes of Joe Collier, and Joe, how he had me break it down for him, I could see how he looked at it as a defensive coach, it was valuable.”
- To Realize Your Potential Think Outside The Box – “Another thing I thought Joe was ahead of the game on was red area defense, and he had some, at that time, I thought very unique and ahead-of-the-curve coaching points and adjustments in the red area that you didn’t see much — that really helped me understand that part of the game and how innovative and creative it was.”
- To Realize Your Potential Enjoy The Process – Belichick concluded, “I loved working for the Broncos in ’78… That was a great learning experience.”
If you are a young leader, what is one thing you learned from the list above which will make you a better leader and reach your full potential?
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