Introduction
A leader steers the team to achieve the goals that the organization holds. A great leader is able to transform the team into a winner. This is the desired form of leadership. But what are the tasks that a leader must perform to make the team win? Leadership being the epicentre of the team, need to be able to transform the traditional team to a more performance oriented, resilient, and endowed. Further present diverse environment and competition increases the necessity to be constantly able to transform and accept changes and be ready for any assault.
This paper undertakes a case study analysis of the Vincent Thomas Lombardi to understand the traits in his leadership style that made him so successful as a coach.
Vincent Thomas Lombardi is remembered as the “professional football’s most distinguished and successful coach” (Povich, 1970, p. C1). He had coached Green Bay and the Redskins. Though he is believed to be an autocrat who drove team members wild with demands of practice drills, but in reality he was widely popular and accepted, and was successful in motivating his teams to the road of success. Given this brief background it is important to understand how Lombardi drove his teams to success and how he managed diversity as well as developed talent.
Performance Management Strategies
Research has shown that leaders can transform the performance of individuals and the team (Wang, Law, Hackett, Wang, & Chen, 2005, p. 420). Leadership intervention can transform various aspects of performance management and this essay looks at two such cases – selecting the right people and establishing the system’s purposes and objectives. Lombardi demanded loyalty of each team member and ensured that his personal values were infused in the players and his assistants (Povich, 1970, p. C1). His rule was to fit the player’s into other’s expectations, rather than handpicking the right person (Lombardi Jr., The Lombardi rules: 26 lessons from Vince Lombardi– the world’s greatest coach, 2002, p. 5). This reflects Lombardi’s belief that self reflection and identification are the best way to improve performance and so as a leader eh combated the player’s weaknesses and harnessed their strengths (Lombardi Jr., The Lombardi rules: 26 lessons from Vince Lombardi– the world’s greatest coach, 2002, p. 5).
Leaders can motivate follower to do what they intend them to do by increasing the follower’s perception of personal meaningfulness and the worth of the work they do (Wang, Law, Hackett, Wang, & Chen, 2005, p. 421). So this positive identification of the followers with task performance increases performance of the teams (2005, p. 421). Lombardi was successful in making the team win because he was sure what he wanted out of the team and thus he set clear goals for the team. To quote Lombardi: “I will demand a commitment to excellence and to victory…That is what life is all about, too.” (Brady, 1969, p. D1). This shows Lombardi’s drive for performance and his dedication to success.
Talent Development
Leaders harness talent by harnessing the people with talent in the right way, using their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses. Further as leadership motivation transforms the talents within it. The inspirational nature of the leaders helps in development of the follower’s talent and motivates them to put in the extra effort those otherwise remains hidden (Friedman, 2004, p. 206) so it is the leadership charisma and motivation that drives talent development (Friedman, 2004, p. 206) Lombardi was a great motivator and a very successful coach. He infused confidence in players with words like this: “The Good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.” (Lombardi Jr., 2003, p. 18). He was known for his charismatic leadership as well as his ability to show to the team that football was meant for toughness both mentally and physically (Brady, 1969, p. D1). He trained his team to succeed and was a master of strategy. Lombardi’s charisma and leadership helped in development and nourishing of talents who were also loyal to them: “To this day, I don’t know whether Lombardi liked me or not,” former all-pro tackle Henry Jordan told Milwaukee writer Ken Hartnett, “but we’d go through fire for him.” (Povich, 1970, p. C1)
Diversity
Leadership is responsible to make the culture and environment of the work flexible and open. Transformational leaders are devoid of bigotries and have an open picture for all. Racialism was rampant problem in the Redskins team that Lombardi coached. This issue is reported to have dissolved into “brotherhood” in the first year of his tenure with the team (Povich, 1970, p. C1), which demonstrates Lombardi’s skills to manage diversity. Lombardi believed in involving all the players in any decision making. Even though he was called an autarkist, he believed that he had involved all in making decisions so that the process could become more participatory (Lombardi Jr., 2003, p. 25).
Conclusion
Leadership which aims to transform have to be performance oriented, able to motivate followers and flexible. The case of Lombardi show’s that he was a rare mix of autocratic leader who transformed utilizing the best skills of a transformational leader. Lombardi was an autocratic in the practice field and absolute despot to those who failed to follow his strategies, but was soft and sensitive behind his toughness (Povich, 1970, p. C1) Thus Lombardi’s leadership style was showed that leaders must have values of their own which they apply in their leadership to brig change.
References
Brady, D. (196). ‘I Will Demand a Commitment To Excellence,’ New Chief Says. Washington Post , pp. D1. Web.
Friedman, A. A. (2004). Beyond mediocrity: transformational leadership within a transactional framework. International Journal of Leadership in Education Vol. 7 No. 3, , 203–224.
Lombardi Jr., V. (2002). The Lombardi rules: 26 lessons from Vince Lombardi– the world’s greatest coach. New York: Published by McGraw-Hill Professional.
Lombardi Jr., V. (2003). What It Takes to Be #1. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Povich, S. (1970). Even at Top, Lombardi Looked Up.Washington Post , pp. C1. Web.
Wang, H., Law, K. S., Hackett, R. D., Wang, D., & Chen, Z. X. (2005). Leader-Member Exchange As A Mediator Of The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And Followers’ Performance And Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Academy of Management Journal Vol. 48 No. 3 , 420-432. Retreived on 6 April 2009 from EBSCO (AN 17407908).