10-0

After beating Michigan on Saturday, the Indiana Hoosiers Football Team is 10-0 for the first time in program history. This is after being 9-27 over the past three seasons.

This is a phenomenal turnaround led by Coach Cig Cignitti. While we never know all of his secrets for leading such a remarkable effort in his first year as the program's head coach, there are three things he embraces that stand out to me as difference makers, and each of these is highly relevant in business and life.

Process

Coach Cig is all about the process - setting up what he and his organization will do to achieve the best outcome upfront and then having the discipline to follow through, week in and week out. He previously coached with Nick Saban at Alabama, and Coach Saban preached process. Coach Cig embraced this philosophy, which continues to be his core approach to leading a complex football program. He sets up processes to nurture development, improvement, and advancement up front and then holds the other coaches and players accountable for following through on these processes each week.

As you set out to be more strategic, establish a process to engage with strategic issues in your business and life, and then follow through on that process with discipline and rigor.

People

When Coach Cig moved from JMU to Indiana, he brought many members of his coaching staff with him. Some of these coaches have worked with him since his first head coaching job at Indiana University Pennsylvania (a DII program). He has worked with some of them for 9 years or more. When he finds an assistant coach he can trust and work with, he invests in that person and looks after them. Therefore, in this historic season at IU, many members of his coaching staff have been with him for 5+ years - that matters; it makes a difference. But beyond that, he also recognized it was not only about maintaining past relationships but also about building new ones. He reached out to IU offensive lineman Mike Katic, who was planning to declare for the NFL draft in 2024, and convinced him to return to IU for his final year of eligibility. Katic is a glue guy, a leader who fans and fellow payers love, and a true Hoosier. Coach Cig recognized this and did what he could to get him back into the program, and it's paid off.

To be more effective as a strategist, nurture relationships with those that you work well with and trust, and look after those people as you advance. Look back and forward to nuture important realtionships.

Proximal Goals

One of the main themes of Coach Cig's leadership is that it is all about the next game. He keeps coaches and players focused on what must be done this week. While he clearly has grander ambitions and season goals, he over-indexes on what needs to happen in the next 5-days to achieve those grander goals. This simplifies the mission and objective for his team. After each win, many of the coaches put out a Tweet, "1-0 onto the next one". While it is important for leaders to have grand goals, it is also important for them to focus their team on the proximal goals so that they can take a step closer to the grand goal.

Keep your team focused on the important proximal goals that will get them one step cloase to your grand goal.