The Lessons of Leadership and Coach Mike Sherman

© ignoranceorapathy.com 12/02/2011

Any good leader can tell you, more often than not, it is what you didn’t do that will be your downfall.
Great leaders commit all the available resources they have at their disposal and improvise others if they have to. Great leaders will not hold back if there is even the slightest possibility of success.

Leadership is not always about being right or the strongest or even the most ambitious.
True leadership is about decisions.

First and foremost, you have to be able to make them.
Then you have to be able to execute them.
Once your decision has legs you have to be objective enough to evaluate the progress and results. True leaders are willing to take corrective action when they see failure looming.

Follow up:

A leader understands his surroundings and evaluates his situation. Uses the information and the assets at hand to accomplish the goal.

Advancing a culture of character, ethics, morality and honesty will go along way toward developing the personnel you will ultimately command. A leader will foster these traits in his charges; encourage their personal growth and reward success. This alone cannot guarantee success.

Success comes from commitment. Not just your personal commitment to a goal or project, but your commitment of energy, ideas and resources.

Head Football Coach Mike Sherman of Texas A&M University will not be back for the 2012 football season. I believe that his firing was not because of what he did, but entirely because of what he did not do. What he did speaks for itself. What he failed to do was to utilize all his available resources, analyze and adapt to his situation and make decisions necessary to overcome the obstacles in his path.

Myself, A&M and the community bid Coach Sherman a fond farewell and I know we all wish him the very best.

The lessons he and any good leader should take from this:

1. You must evaluate and understand the situation.
2. You must be willing and able to make decisions.
3. You must be willing and able to implement those decisions.
4. Above all else, you must be willing and able to adapt to the situation as it develops, then fully utilize all of your resources to overcome the new obstacles.

Having a vision or a plan is wonderful. I know and I have heard it said often in military circles; “Plans seldom if ever survive initial contact with the enemy”.

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