Business owners, company executives, coaches and leaders of any
organization can learn from Seattle Seahawks coach, Pete Carroll. His example could be
the exact antidote for the things that ail your organization. Recently, I
caught an interview of Cliff Avril,
the NFL all-pro from the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks have been arguably one
of the top two prolific teams over the past 5 years. What I heard in this
interview peaked my interest, so I dug in a little deeper. I learned that Pete
Carroll is a brilliant, strategic leader. Since he leads in the sport realm,
many of you will think I’m just talking about his game-time “strategies”. But
I’m not. He is an executive who is innovating strategic leadership in an arena where experimentation is more
often met with overwhelming criticism and failure.
1.
Strong strategy frees an
organization
The interviewer tried to put his finger on what it’s like to
“play for Pete”. He hemmed and hawed getting the question out… “Talking about
Seattle’s philosophy… I don’t know, open-minded… it certainly seems like
Seattle started that trend… ‘be you’… isn’t that the Pete Carroll
thing?” Avril responds, “I think so, honestly, because that was the biggest
adjustment for me… through your college years, if you’re with certain (NFL) programs…
It’s more of a militant type of thing, we have to be hard on these guys so they
play a certain way, kinda make ‘em afraid in a certain sense. But coach
Carroll has a different approach he allows guys to be themselves within
being able to play the game.”
The interviewer continued to press this “Be you” style of
leadership. He was trying to poke holes, “But the other side of it… jawing on
the field… and literally pointing fingers… does that carry on after the game?”
Avril then defends Carroll’s approach, “That’s a part of
thing that Coach Carroll has created in a sense of allowing guys to voice their
opinions… that makes you stronger as a team… people aren’t afraid to call
another person out… now don’t get disrespectful about it… but if you call
another player out because your gonna’ go to bat for him… you need him to do
the same… (and then) I need to up my game to match his…”
This may not seem remarkable to some, but Pete Carroll has
succeeded, in a place where extreme violence MUST be perfectly and precisely
managed, to allow for a great deal of creativity, style and personal
opinion. In fact, many of his players,
like Cliff Avril, believe
this is the source of differentiating success. His
organization plays free, loose, fun and creatively, yet with extreme prejudice to
win created only through personal ownership and team (corporate)
loyalty. Just don’t make the mistake that most do. Many believe this is just the contagious
nature of Carroll’s gregarious and competitive personality, and no doubt that
has something to do with it, but he has designed, implemented and expertly
cultivated every aspect of his organization’s culture with this exact end in mind.
Carroll’s strategy frees the Seahawks to complete at their best and is a great
example of what strong strategy can do, not to control an organization but to
breath autonomous, fluid and personal ownership into it.
2.
Strong strategy establishes clear
and unwavering norms
After watching this interview with Avril, I jumped over to Seahawks.com and watched the first player
interview I could find. It was the second day of rookie camp, so I watched an
interview of a cornerback from the University of Central Florida, Shaquill Griffin. He talked about
his first day on the Seahawks practice field. If there is one thing the
Seahawks are known for it is their Legion of Boom, led by all-pro safeties Earl
Thomas and Kam Chancellor and all-pro cornerback Richard Sherman. Yes, they are
fabulous athletes, but I was surprised to hear Griffin say, “it’s totally
different for me it’s a whole new technique… they told me whatever you learned in college,
just throw it out.”
This made me reflect upon the brilliance of Carroll’s
leadership even further. In a world where athletes are already highly skilled
and have played at the top of their games since the 5th grade, it is
very natural for them to not want to change everything in terms of style or technique. And yet,
Carroll’s organization changes everything. I watched press
conference after press conference and heard the same theme repeatedly. Though
the team enjoys a sort of freedom like no other team, many things are still
very specifically scripted and every player is held to the execution
standard of conformity and perfection. The remarkable thing however, as
Avril articulated, is that the players love the environment, the culture. It is
apparent that Carroll expertly dreamed of a balance between very specific guidance AND
freedom to play and enjoy the game. Then he planted it, cultivated it
and grew it to fruition.
3.
Strong strategy builds the right
guardrails and opens freedom-highways
This is perhaps where Carroll’s personality plays a bigger
role. Balancing centralized authority and non-wavering expectations with high
levels of personal ownership. To support the freedom to create, to take
risk, to fail and to learn while at the same time elevating a culture that
embraces conformity to some of the most minute execution details may be easier
for him becomes to some degree it comes naturally. But I would bet, if you
asked Carroll, he would say that he has often made mistakes managing this
balance, but that he continue to return to his strategy in order to
continuously improve his ability to live in the tension between these two
extremes.
So what should Carroll’s example
inspire us to do?
As managers or coaches who desire to be strategic leaders, we
ought to aspire to live in the tension between extremes. Pete Carroll’s affirmation
comes often comes from what his players say in public. Avril says (and I
paraphrase), we are great because our leaders give us tremendous and sometimes
dangerous freedom. Griffin says (paraphrased), the Seahawks are great
because our leaders hold us all accountable to even the smallest of details.
They describe, freely and authentically, the results of an organization being driven by a
great strategic leader. And therefore we should ask ourselves, what do
our employees, our players our members say about us as leaders? Do they brag
about the personal ownership they feel? Do they act as if they have vast
freedoms in anything not specifically prescribed within the culture? And, those
things with specific guidance, do they talk about how important they are to
execute really well? Do they boast about how the culture self-polices the right
execution of these no-debates? Is the tension that exists within your
organization between the extremes toward which you are encouraging them to go,
or is the tension a result of dysfunction?
Strategic leaders live in the tension between freedom and
hyper-executional-discipline. And it is there, that the great ones,
like Carroll, erect the right guardrails and then let the freedom-highways operate at
high speed.
