Deion Sanders’ New Book Delivers Prime Leadership Lessons

I’m as excited as can be about imminent publication of my new book with Deion Sanders titled Elevate & Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field, which will hit bookshelves on March 12th.

I have worked with Deion for a year on this project and he lives leadership like no one else I’ve ever met. If you want to see what I mean, you don’t have to wait until March 12th. Just check out our conversation on the episode of my Corporate Competitor Podcast, and listen to what a Pro Football Hall of Famer turned Division 1 football coaching phenomenon has to teach.

What can you look forward to? How about this? For most sports teams, all you have to do to identify the onfield leader is look for the person wearing the captain’s “C” on their jersey, right? Not on the University of Colorado Buffaloes football squad.?

“I don't have C's on the jerseys of my leaders,” attested the team’s coach, the one and only Sanders, better known these days as Coach Prime.

“I have an ‘L’ or ‘D’—that's the leader or a dog. A dog is a go-getter. A leader is someone who is a person of influence, a person of unity, a person who brings people together and lifts people up. And oftentimes they advance people. Every dog isn’t a leader, and every leader isn’t a dog. Just because you walk in the front, that doesn't mean you're a leader; just because you make the most money doesn't mean you're a leader.”?

Coach Prime says leadership is a quality that should both bubble up from the team and cascade across an organization. As an example, he offers an anecdote from early in his coaching tenure at Colorado. Faced with a subset of players who claimed to want to develop their leadership skills but showed little interest in following through, Coach did what savvy leaders do the world over.

“I pivoted,” he said.

He created a new leadership group that, unlike the old one, included players who showed up early to meetings with pencils sharpened, exhibited hunger and deep engagement and were inclusive, thought-provoking, and conversational in meetings. That was the bubble up side of the equation.?

As Coach mentored the new group, the cascade out part naturally followed.

“Now that I have invested in the top,” he explained, “the bonafide leaders have the platform to go invest in others, and ultimately everyone on the team gets what they want, which is to take our development as people and players to the next level.”?

And thus was born the amazing leadership culture of the University of Colorado Buffaloes.?

There are countless other examples I could mention. But if you want to take your life and leadership to the next level, join Coach Prime and me on my podcast and order your copy of Elevate & Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field today.?