Leadership requires toughness. It requires physical toughness (stamina), mental toughness (discipline), emotional toughness, and competitive toughness. Recently, legendary Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban spoke to his team on the subject of toughness. A video of that session is provided below.
Coach Saban Talks Mental Toughness https://t.co/XLU69O911p
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After listening to his thoughts, you can see why Coach Saban puts such a high priority on toughness. You and I should as well.
12 Leadership Lessons from Coach Nick Saban on Mental Toughness
The following are 12 Leadership Lessons from Coach Nick Saban’s Definition of Toughness:
- Toughness Is A Primary Requirement For Leadership – “The first thing you have to do is you have to have toughness. You have to be tougher than everybody we play.”
- Toughness Is Determined By What Will Break You – “I’m talking about mental toughness… It’s all about what does it take to break you?”
- Toughness Requires Focus – “What does it take to break your focus because you get frustrated about what happened on the last play?”
- Toughness Requires Overcoming Your Circumstances – “What does it take to make you give in because it’s hot outside or you’re tired or you don’t feel like running to the ball or giving effort or finishing the play like you should?”
- Toughness Allows You To Have Sustained Excellence – “So everybody here has got to have a lot of mental toughness to be able to sustain what we do at a high level.”
- Toughness Must Be Shown Over And Over Again – “Just because you got beat on the last play, that can’t affect the next play.”
- Toughness Is Never Easy – “There’s no easy way.”
- Toughness Helps You Maintain Discipline – “Having toughness, what breaks you, is what helps you be able to maintain the discipline”
- Toughness Helps With Decision-Making – “that you need to have to do what you’re supposed to do”
- Toughness Helps With Timing – “when you’re supposed to do it”
- Toughness Improves Quality – “the way it’s supposed to get done”
- Toughness Prioritizes What Is Important – “because you minimize the circumstances that can affect your ability to do that.”
So after listening to Coach Saban, would he describe you as tough?
To receive more leadership insights from Coach Saban, click HERE or on the image to the left for my new ebook The Leadership Of Nick Saban: Timeless Truths From The Incomparable Head Coach Of The Alabama Crimson Tide. This is an invaluable resource for both sports fans or anyone interested in organizational leadership. Enjoy!