From the End Zone to the Office: Creating Durable Team Performance and a Sustained Culture of Excellence

Learnings from Bill Belichick and The Patriot Way to Create Durable Team Performance

Hearing about legendary head coach Bill Belichick leaving the New England Patriots last December, after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl titles, the event got me reflecting on his career and impact as a leader. His departure brought to an end one of the greatest head coaching runs in NFL history, during which Belichick drafted one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Tom Brady. The combination of Belichick and Brady significantly changed the fortunes of the Patriots organization. There is a lot of organizational learnings we can apply from the formula Belichick used to build a winning dynasty.

Your Legacy As A Leader

“There’s no medals for trying. This isn’t like eighth grade where everybody gets a trophy. We are in a professional sport, and it is competitive to win. That’s what we do.” - Bill Belichick, New England Patriots Head Coach 2000-2023

How is a great leader remembered? Most would agree that a key output of a truly great leader’s work is a winning team. Not a winning team that wins once or twice, but one that achieves sustained levels of high performance built on a disciplined culture and fault-tolerant system that adapts itself to find consistent success, navigating changing environments and curveballs. It is an organization that achieves outsized business outcomes, year after year after year. That is a leader’s legacy.

Building this dynasty of an organization in the tech world can be challenging. The tech industry changes rapidly, especially in the startup world. Competitive advantage can be fleeting and hard to sustain as innovation, incumbents, and the growth of AI proliferates. On top of this, great talent is hard to find and keep. Tech workers are known change jobs often, with the average software engineer tenure barely topping 2 years. Leaders need to adapt their teams and organizations to an ever changing environment that makes it difficult to:

1. Build high-performance in teams
2. Sustain momentum
3. Create distinct competitive advantage

Organizations that are able to overcome these litany of challenges can win sustainably over time.

Learnings from Bill Belichick and The Patriot Way

For one looking for an example of a durable winning team culture, one needs not look further than how Bill Belichick transformed the future of the New England Patriots NFL football organization. His resume is undeniable. When Bill Belichick took over as head coach in 2000, the team had never won a Super Bowl. During his tenure, Belichick drafted one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Tom Brady. From 2001-2019, Belichick and Brady led the Patriots to 31 postseason victories, 11 AFC division championships, and ultimately 6 Super Bowl wins. How did he do it?

The Patriots built a dynasty of winning by creating an environment that masters teamwork and culture of excellence in an ever-changing environment. Each person on the team embodied The Patriot Way culture and met the demands of what is expected of them to win. Belichick demonstrated strength in understanding and managing his talent - he knew exactly what skills he needed for a job to be done on his team. In the 2000 NFL draft, he drafted a seemingly unremarkable Tom Brady in the 6th round, who grew into one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Tom Brady was a lynchpin helping run the Patriots on the “Do Your Job” system that every player on the Patriots embodied and bled. This system led to durable performance and a culture of sustained excellence. The moral of the story is, Belichick saw Brady’s potential, when others did not.

As tech leaders, there are systems we can learn from and apply from the Patriots dynasty. How can we carry over leadership lessons from a football organization and apply them to a completely unrelated field such as software product development? Fortunately for us, there are timeless principles that apply to winning organizations of all types.

The Winning Formula

“There are no shortcuts to building a team each season. You build the foundation brick by brick.” ~ Bill Belichick, New England Patriots Head Coach 2000-2023

From my leadership experiences and studying how winning companies and sports dynasties, like the Patriots, are built and operate, I have uncovered patterns that leaders of durably high performing teams employ and structured it into a formula. This steps in this formula are:

• Step 1: Set a North Star vision
• Step 2: Clarify expectations and empower people to “do their job”
• Step 3: Foster universal accountability
• Step 4: Master your talent to be able to artfully adapt to change

Step 1: Set and Communicate a North Star Vision

“The Patriot Way ain’t about nothing but winning, man. That’s it.” ~ Kevin Faulk, New England Patriots Running Back, 1999-2011

It is paramount for a leader to providing clarity on the team’s North Star - the most important goals are for the team - and what concrete outcomes are expected for each milestone. In Patrick Lencioni’s iconic leadership book, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni explains that dysfunctional teams are challenged by ambiguity about direction and priorities. This leads to a lack of confidence, excessive analysis, and unnecessary delays. Dysfunctional teams second-guess their decisions, making it hard to get anything accomplished. They struggle to navigate ambiguity, which leads to longer cycle times and unexpected scope creep. Ultimately, leads to muted business impact. It is very difficult to build a high performing team without the team being able to clearly understand their goal and expectations.

For the Patriots, their North Star was “to win” and the concrete outcome of achieving this each season was “winning the Super Bowl.” Every player on the Patriots knew that winning the Super Bowl was THE ONLY goal that mattered. And not just winning it one year - winning it over and over again. Every player brought excellence to work, daily. This was The Patriot Way - the clarity of what the most important goal to achieve is and the high expectations needed to achieve it. From this North Star vision and culture, coach Bill Belichick employed the “Do Your Job” system that clarified what is expected from each player, driving team execution towards the North Star in an unbelievable way.

One of a leader’s primary job is to set vision and goals that inspire action. It is our job to repeat the vision consistently so that expectations are clear and ambiguity is minimized. We must motivate each person on our team to wholeheartedly embrace the team’s North Star.

• Each person on the team should be able to visualize and articulate what the team’s successful outcome will be.
• Each person should understand their specific role on the team.
• Each person should be able to identify with the benefit they’ll get from the team reaching its North Star.

By doing this well, we will build a culture where team members care more about helping the team reach the North Star than their own individual success. Reaching team success will bring individual success as well, a mindset that is critically important for all teammates to embody. This is the foundation of building a culture of sustained team excellence. We need to start by doing our job as leaders.

Step 2: Hold Team Accountable to Clear Expectations

“If you play in New England, it means that Coach Belichick thinks you can fit as a piece of his puzzle. He has a specific job that he needs done, and he thinks you can do it. So my advice to any Patriot would be to know what that job is — and if you don’t know, all you have to do is ask him … he won’t sugarcoat — and then go do whatever it takes to be really good at that job.” ~ Kevin Faulk, New England Patriots Running Back, 1999-2011

The Problem With Ambiguity

In my experiences leading engineering teams, I have observed the lack of clarity in responsibility is often a material root cause of friction and team dysfunction. It is the “unsaid grey areas” of responsibility expectations that can cause the most conflict. Take release planning, for example. If a Product Manager believes the QA engineer should write a test plan, but the QA engineer believes that should be on the Engineering team and Product Manager, and in the end, the “job” does not get done well. We can see how this lack of responsibility clarity situation can easily manifest into finger pointing tension stemming from “this or that person is not doing their job.

• Who writes the test plan?
• Who is responsible and accountable for release quality?
• What does a QA engineer do vs. a software engineer vs. a PM?
• Who organizes the bug bashes and tests what and when?

After all the team situation friction, the outcome usually ends up being poor - a lower quality and disorganized release, plus team tension. Setting clear responsibilities and expectations will help a team can focus their energy on performing their job well and less energy on trying to figure out unnecessary ambiguity or handling team conflicts.

The Patriots overcame team dysfunction well. Under Belichick’s “Do Your Job” mantra, the players never suffered from an identity crisis – they know what is expected of them as individuals and what “puzzle piece” they play in the overall puzzle. This is exemplified in one of Belichick’s?sayings to his players:

“You’re a wide receiver what’s your number one job? Get open. Number two? Catch the ball.”

The “Do Your Job” expectation worked so well because each player easily understood it. It is a simple mantra that removes ambiguity and creates clear and concise expectations for each player:

• This is your job.
• This is how you should do it.
• There is no way around it.
• Now, go and do it.

Understanding Your Puzzle and its Puzzle Pieces

Another reason Coach Belichick was able to set and hold players to clear expectations is he was a master of his talent and deeply understood each person. He knew the “puzzle” he needed to build to win. And he knew what “puzzle pieces” he needed to put the puzzle together. Belichick recognized the importance of mastering his talent in crafting a sustainably winning team:

“It is all about the players...Your team evolves every year. The more you know about it, the better you can coach it.”

To be able to craft your “team puzzle,” a leader must first strive to deeply know their people - each person’s unique strengths, weaknesses, motivations, ticks, and potential. The higher as leaders we grow and the more scope we manage, the less time and more problems to deal with we have. However, we must find a way to make the time to get to connect with our people. That deep understanding is the foundation of being able to successfully design the role each team member has in contributing towards the team goal. I can write a whole book on how to deeply understand and develop our people topic, however, in short:

• Have genuine care and interest in our team members as individuals. Seriously.
• Get to know them beyond job titles and beyond their work lives. Without doing this, it will be hard to deeply understand how our people work and what makes them tick.
• Understand the psychology of their motivations - what brings them energy, what takes away energy, what drives them, what are the most important things in life to them.
• Understand their strengths, weaknesses, and unique talents on the job.
• Develop a view on their potential and map how it can be reached.

Crafting Your Team’s Expectations

As leaders, once the team North Star has been set, break it up into measurable and achievable milestones. For each milestone, understand what skills are needed and not needed to achieve each milestone. Start listing what the “jobs to be done” to reach each of the team’s milestone’s successfully. What puzzle pieces do we need to complete our puzzle and who on our team is right for that puzzle piece? Examples of situations and prompts we should be answering:

• When planning specific projects, what skills are needed for this project to be successful? What lack of responsibility or skill on the project could risk a less successful outcome and how can I close that gap to mitigate risk? What milestones and checkins do I need to set throughout the project to ensure velocity of progress?
• When planning execution towards annual OKRs, apply the same process. What skills do I need to achieve my team’s OKRs? What lack of responsibility or skill on the project could risk a less successful outcome and how can I close that gap to mitigate risk? What milestones and checkins do I need to set throughout the year to ensure velocity of progress towards the team goal?

Once the “jobs to be done” are clear and who should be doing them are assigned, communicate expectations clearly to your people. Ensure there is buy-in and commitment. Writing expectations down can be helpful to ensure there is a shared understanding between both parties. Each person on the team should concretely understand what their role and responsibility is on the team, how they will help their team reach achieve the North Star, what is expected of them in order to make the team succeed, and ultimately, self commit to doing the job. Commitment strengthens when a person feels important and feels like they have a material influence on the team’s success.

On the Patriots, players not only knew their role on the team and the role of their other teammates, they artfully held each each other accountable to “doing their job,” inside and outside the locker room. Everyone exhibits extreme ownership to master their roles and responsibilities. They’re aware of how their roles and responsibilities impact/influence the success of everyone else’s role and responsibilities. Building a culture where every player, not just the leader, holds each other accountable to high performance is key to sustained team outperformance culture over time. We call this universal accountability. Let’s dive into that next.

Step 3: Foster a Culture of Universal Accountability

“Mental toughness is doing the right thing for the team when it’s not the best thing for you.” ~ Bill Belichick

In The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni also introduces the importance of accountability, especially peer, or universal, accountability, as another key dimension of highly functional teams. Universal accountability is driven by each team member desiring the team to achieve the North Star so deeply that they hold each other accountable for high standards of performance. This is because these members care so deeply about the team success that they forego their ego and focus on their own individual success. The success as a team will bring the individual success they also seek. On the Patriots, each player was hyper-focused on winning Superbowls. They gave each other constructive feedback freely, put aside ego, and helped each other become better so the team achieved more.

Joseph Grenny, author of Crucial Conversations, shared in his Harvard Business Review post, “The Best Teams Hold Themselves Accountable”, supporting research on the correlation between team accountability and performance.

• In the weakest teams, there is little to no accountability, even from leadership.
• In mediocre, average teams, the boss/team lead is the source of accountability: This team might get a few things done, which is good, but there’s a tendency towards HIPPO Management (highest paid person’s opinion) and other flaws of ideation. If the lead is not there, team performance degrades.
• In high-performing teams, peers manage the vast majority of the performance problems with one another and hold each other accountable for a high standard of performance: This may be difficult to contextualize because of how people historically see bosses and hierarchy, but peer accountability actually drives the best results.

An environment of complacency and lack of accountability creates resentment among team members, encourages mediocrity, and places a burden on leaders who must discipline employees who miss deadlines and deliver subpar work. Worst of all, high performing individuals will not be happy in this environment and will likely leave.

So how can we build this accountability forward culture on our team? I recommend first reading both the Crucial Conversations and 5 Dysfunctions of a Team books that I have referred to in this writing as a foundation. They're excellent. From there, seek to understand the current state of our team’s accountability culture. One way to measure this is to observe and measure the time it takes on average for the team to address a problem. The shorter the lag time, the faster problems get solved and the more each resolution deepens trust and relationships. The longer the lag, the more room there is for mistrust, dysfunction, and tangible costs to mount. The role of leader is to shrink this gap as much as possible. Building a culture of peer-to-peer accountability is a cultural dimension that not only fosters ownership and excellence, but can also help scale us as a leader and reduce dependency on us managing resolutions to every single team problem that manifests.

Step 4: Master Your Talent to Adapt Team to Change

“Your team evolves every year. The more you know about it, the better you can coach it.” ~ Bill Belichick

In business, like sports, we see this all the time: Strategies for team and organizational transformations look good on paper, but leaders fail since they lacked the right people to execute and implement them. A highly successful leader employs the same strategy they used to build a high performing organization at a previous company at the new team they took over, but fails to achieve the same level of success. Applied to a different team, with different personalities, strengths, and skill gaps, the “tried and true” playbook simply did not work.

Great leaders that consistently build high performing teams everywhere they go are able to continuously adapt their team strategy to the ever changing environments, priorities, and team compositions. A leader’s ability to navigate and evolve a team through change is important to create sustained success. While deeply understanding the company culture and working styles, the industry and its environments, the competitive landscape is table stakes, mastering your talent at hand and creating the right “puzzle and puzzle pieces” with it, is a strong dimension to being able to create durable team performance by successfully adapting the organization through the challenges faced at different points in time.

The Patriots franchise deeply understood the capabilities of every person on the team. They mastered the management of a massive team of players – a 53-man roster, the practice squad, and free agents that have previously played for the Patriots - and the “puzzle piece” towards the “puzzle” each played. Players were continuously, throughout the season, hired onto the team to “do a missing job” or let go when their job was not needed or effectively done. Coach Belichick deeply understood his competition’s strengths and weaknesses and used that knowledge to strategically plan game day team composition - players were intentionally started with the skills best matched to beat the team they were playing that day. The strategy deployed could be different every game and every season.

Instead of chasing the industry perceived “greatness” that other NFL teams were chasing in top draft picks, Belichick was able to decipher the specific skills and jobs to be done he needed for his team, and hired for that. He found great talent on value like Tom Brady in the sixth round of the draft or Julian Edelman in the seventh. It is why veterans like Randy Moss work to overcome past perceptions to fit the team’s expectations in order to win. This is why the Patriots have a tendency to convert undrafted free agents into Super Bowl champions. This is why they are selective about paying large, long-term contracts to players. They look for individual fit for a specific time and space.

In tech leadership, we can apply these lessons in how we navigate our team through company change, how we drive execution and “play the right players for the job,” how we develop our talent and invest in them, and strategy on how our team may reorganize based on changing external factors. To adapt to change well, leaders must deeply understand and manage their talent.

Wrapping Up

Dynasty organizations win over a sustained period of time by consistently demonstrating excellence. In practice, this is a really hard thing to do, whether it’s playing football, building software, or anything in-between. As a leader, it is our job to do what it takes to foster a culture that propels itself towards this end goal day in and day out. Through providing acute clarity, universal accountability, and intentional team composition, we can do just that.