Business Lessons from Alabama Football Coach Nick Saban

You don’t have to be an Alabama fanatic to benefit from the messages that Nick Saban delivered in his post game press conference over the weekend. Love Saban or hate him (he doesn’t care either way), you can’t argue with the results he’s achieved. As is often the case, leadership in sports also translates well into the business world.?

After beating Mercer 48-14 on Saturday, Saban was frustrated with his team. It was clear he came into the presser wanting to talk about discipline. The fun starts at about 3:55 in the video. Here are the key messages/themes I took away:

1. Hold yourself and those on your team to your own high standard. Mercer was not a worthy opponent for Alabama, so even with a 48-14 victory there was no reason to celebrate based on the yardstick the leader was using to gauge success. The coach and the team both know the tougher SEC games coming up offer a much smaller margin of error and will therefore require everyone to play better than they did on Saturday.
2. Create meaningful metrics that reframe the team’s focus. Saban mentions that he views every 100 yards of penalties that his team gives up as a touchdown for his opponent. That “touchdown” won’t necessarily show up on the scoreboard, but it does create clarity for his team about what’s important to him. It also gives them something in addition to the scoreboard to measure success, and it is in alignment with holding your team to high standards.?
3. When you’re emotional you make bad decisions. This was my biggest takeaway from Coach Saban’s talk. It’s obviously not a profound piece of new information. But it’s a great reminder to all of us to keep our emotions in check because, if we don’t, we tend to make bad choices and decisions. Saban suggests playing with intensity, but not out of control.?
4. Make good decisions, or risk being replaced. Saban dives into a baseball analogy to explain this one. He talks about trying to teach a baseball player not to swing at high pitches that are over his head. He says, “You can tell him, you can show him, you can tell him, you can show him, and eventually you play somebody else in their place because they’re not dependable.” Good leaders expect their team members to be dependable and accountable.?
5. As the leader, it’s your job to create a culture of accountability. Toward the end of the video Saban tells the story about working for his dad as a kid. Every night there was a “reckoning” where his dad would ask him if he completed the tasks that had been assigned that day. If any of the tasks weren’t completed correctly, young Nick had to do them again right away. Coach Saban suggests that perhaps they need more of this type of mentality going forward on the football team. Coach obviously recognizes that accountability starts with the leader.

Saban has certainly rubbed plenty of people the wrong way over the years. If you are one of them, don’t let that keep you from taking away the lessons he offered last Saturday!?Watch the video here.