Quirky Football Coach or Accidental Leadership Philosopher?

An Idea for Consideration

The Miami Dolphins' head coach Mike McDaniel is a treasure.?

He has an interesting background in coaching. He played football at Yale, and then found himself attached to a group of rising young coaches who were all considered innovators.?

He's also a recovering alcoholic, which was covered in this ESPN feature. One indication of his personality: After getting to work late because of his past drinking problem, McDaniel pledged to himself that he would avoid wasting opportunities, which manifests in leaving for work before 3 a.m..

But mostly, McDaniel is a quirky guy who casually delivers funny and interesting observations on a regular basis. And that's why I found myself watching a video of McDaniel's press conference this Wednesday. In just over 20 minutes, he unleashed several gems.?

The first gem was in response to a reporter’s question about whether McDaniel anticipated a player would recover from an injury in time for Sunday's game.?

McDaniel: "Ooh! That's several days ahead of us.... Do you guys know what today is?"

Reporter: "Wednesday?"

McDaniel: "Which is….?"

[reporter answers off mic]

McDaniel: "It's the most important day of our life, because it's the only one that actually exists."

Later, a reporter asked McDaniel about his reactions when referees’ decisions don’t go his way. McDaniel’s response (about 10:30 into the video) is a masterclass in balanced leadership and decision-making.?

He said, "I never attach any emotion to [bad officiating decisions] because it already happened. [...] I have a hard time even factoring officiating into any sort of emotions that I have because you control [only] what you can control. I might as well get mad at thunder."

McDaniel goes on to describe why it is important for him not to allow frustrating moments to distract him during games:?

"I think the only way that you have a chance to maximize your daily output is if you allow [those incidents] to live rent free. [..] I try to minimize how long that is to the nth degree, just because emotions factor into decisions, and I feel like, personally, that's irresponsible of me as a decision-maker to have all these people—including you guys—be affected by decisions that I make. 'Well, I was mad!'"

He concludes the response with a line that I’ve repeated to my kids every day this week:

"I try to avoid outs and say[ing], well, 'it's not fair.' If you operate in life trying to keep score of what's fair, you've already lost."

Leadership Wisdom

In a Freakonomics podcast series on how to handle failure, this recent episode includes the reflection of a would-be entrepreneur, John Boykin, after his business idea "failed."

He said: "It was disappointing, but not terrible because the thing is that I’m the guy who tries. I worship at the temple of trying. And if you worship at the temple of trying, you have to maintain heavy denial about the odds that are stacked against you. And you have to know that your likelihood of failure is very, very high, and you have to go ahead and do it anyway."

Something Fun

The other night, I came upstairs to find this note from my daughter waiting on my nightstand. The best part of this is that she’s figured out that proposing that we do math "probloms" and "sereis" work is a surefire way to get a Yes from Dad.

Thanks for reading!

Charles

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