Michael Lombardi is someone whose content helps me grow exponentially as a leader. He is a former three-time Super Bowl champion executive with the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers. Michael’s daily newsletter The Daily Coach is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their leadership.
Recently, I had the privilege of attending a webinar hosted by Michael on the subject of how championship teams build culture. The content provided could literally transform any organization. It was so impactful I want to share it with you.
Also, Michael’s two books Gridiron Genius: A Masterclass in Building Teams and Winning at the Highest Level and Football Done Right: Setting the Record Straight on the Coaches, Players, and History of the NFL are must-haves for your leadership library. If you haven’t purchased a copy yet, do so today. You can thank me later. If you want to join this network, click HERE for more information. Now, onto the lessons.
The following are 50 Quotes and Lessons on How Championship Teams Build Culture from Michael Lombardi:
- “I was fortunate to be around people who help one another.”
- “All championship teams have a foundation of where they want to start.”
- “1. The person in charge of the organization… . The first core principle must start with is the person in charge of the organization has to explain to everybody the difference between devotion and loyalty. Because we get that really screwed up. People that are devoted to you don’t tell you the truth.”
- “2. Telling the organization between accountability and responsibility… For championship teams to build something that becomes a championship. It starts with the understanding of devotion and loyalty. That’s number one that leads into number two, which is then telling the organization the difference between accountability and responsibility. And Coach Walsh did this brilliantly. So Coach Walsh was obsessed, and I mean, underscore the word obsessed with making sure pictures are perfectly hung on the wall, and they’re not crooked. And if you saw one that was crooked, and someone had to tell you to straighten the pitcher out, you were accountable. But what Coach Walsh wanted the organization to be is if someone saw a pitcher that was crooked, have the responsibility themselves to go fix the frame. There’s a huge difference. When you’re accountable. somebody’s telling you what to do when you’re responsible. You’re endear to the principles within the company.
- “3. The difference between being on the same page and everyone being aligned… Alignment starts with everyone understanding core principles.”
- “We want alignment, responsibility, and loyalty.”
- “The number one thing we want from our leader is common sense to know what the problem is.”
- “Management is about answering questions. Leadership is about asking questions.”
- “We want the owner to provide stability in the organization.”
- “Believe in the people who work for you.”
- “Pride in the company. Someone has to teach the pride. You’re going to have to bring the past into the present.”
- “Leaders teach pride, common sense, and responsibility and you have to care more than everyone else.”
- “Who are we as a company… We have to have an identity.”
- “The process of your company is built by your philosophy.”
- “Command of the Message. Everyday someone reminds you who we are.”
- “Championship teams want to know where we’re going.”
- “Command of Self – How we handle ourself… No one is immune to the culture. The job of the leader is to adhere to the culture.”
- “Command of Trust – Do you trust me to preserve all the things I have to do to preserve the culture.”
- “To build a good culture, everyone has to do what they’re asked to do.”
- “The most important area is because what we have to be able to do is understand the difference between what is someone who is working and someone who becomes an expert. Knowledge, skill and achievement are critical components of expertise.”
- “When you are an expert in your field and you teach other people, people will gravitate towards you.”
- “Everyone thinks they’re should be one leader, but that’s not the case. There should be a lot of leaders within the group.”
- “You impact the growth culture by having a growth mindset, by wanting to grow every single day.”
- “The leader has to create a sense of belonging.”
- “Championship teams want to get better every single day. The goal is to improve.”
- “Championship teams, the most important part is talent acquisition.”
- “We want to encourage people to take chances and think outside the box… Define each job in a way we can grow.”
- “Every person coming into the building is representative of the culture… One person can destroy a culture.”
- “Scouting is about eliminating people, not finding them… It always comes back to ‘Who are we?'”
- “You can’t let someone in who doesn’t fit the culture.”
- “To make people better, we have to teach. To teach, we have to eliminate ourselves from bias.”
- “Let the students grade themselves before we grade them.”
- “You want your boss to tell you what you need to improve.”
- “You’ve got to be able to not have false duality. You have to be willing to look at problems in decision making without just having one solution… If you think there is only one way to solve a problem, you’re probably wrong.”
- “There’s always solutions to a problem if you’re looking for a better way.”
- “Good teams understand the difference between what’s good and great. And that’s the hardest thing for all of us to do is to understand what’s the difference between good and great? What is good and what is great has to be clearly defined. And it can’t be defined by winds and it can’t be defined by one good practice. It has to be defined by how we behave as a current team, where we go and what we do collectively. That will make us great. And so as the leader, we have to have a standard of excellence to understand what is great because if you have a too low, people will only achieve to the lowest level and talent will never get developed.”
- “So as you look at this and you go through what a championship teams have in common, will all teams that win, have commonality. They all have the three areas that we talked about to begin with. They all have somebody who uses common sense who creates stability, who believe in people they have proud the company they care at the person cares more than anybody the leader has a complete plan on where we’re going, what we’re doing. There’s a philosophy of the team. They understand the characteristics of leadership by the four components. They teach and develop culture. They create an impact for employees to impact culture.”
- “And they understand the difference between what skill is and what an expert is. So those are the elements that I think all championship teams have. And then the most important one is competitive stamina. They’re willing to do it day after day after day. And no one’s really happy until they get to the end of the year.”
- “Writing every day helps us get better.”
- “Brad Stephens wanted players with self-awareness, because he wanted a culture of coachability.”
- “Talent comes after you set up the culture.”
- “You have to have the culture before you can win.”
- “If you’re not at the top of the organization, you live these things out… You prepare like you’re going to get the opportunity… You collect intellectual knowledge for the day you will be in charge.”
- “The habits that matter most are the things that echo from our lives… The team becomes the personality of the coach.”
- “Managers do things right. Leaders do the right things.”
- “There’s a lot of jobs where we can affect the outcome but we should be responsible for the outcome.”
- “In NIL, you have to care so much that the player understands their best interest is in staying with you. (In NIL) It still comes down to who develops talent the best.”
- “When people think you’re an expert in the field and they think you can help them, you create a following. A following is not created by signs, it’s created by knowledge.”
- “Inertia is not a lack of action but an inability to recognize the appropriate action.”
- “Talent cannot be talented unless it fits into the culture.”
What is one thing Michael taught that you can implement today to help you begin building a championship culture?
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These quotes will take 15 minutes to read and a lifetime to apply. Let’s get started. You’re about to get smarter and better as a leader! #CommissionsEarned