NICK SABAN INTERVIEW- Life lessons on Leadership and Work - Life
balance -an interview of Nick Saban by Tim Teebow and Marty Smith (UNFORTUNATELY
NOT by ME)
I wish I was able to
interview Coach Saban but Tim Teebow and Marty Smith (ESPN) were lucky enough
to do so on an ESPN broadcast today “on the lake with Saban”. They asked
Coach Saban the same questions I would have. We are constantly struggling in
surgery to identify key leadership aspects to mold our uprising surgical
leaders and once again another great football coach has stated it so well, I felt
the need to pass this along. (Go to http://broadband.espn.go.com/video/clip?id=17383517)
MS- coach what are your
favorite memories here?
NS- the kids growing
up. One thing about it is when you move around a lot...family memories are
really important to your children. .... I tell everybody, we are always so
worried about getting ahead, the games your gonna win and all that.. but when
you get to my age at this station and you look back and say I wish I spent a
little bit more time doing that. ...you can't relive it. ....As you get older
some times you realize that some things are more important than when you are
coming up and you are trying to make it and you didn't value the memories as
much as you do now... And for everybody out there you gotta enjoy the moment.
MS-how far away from football will you let
yourself go (at the lake house)
NS- I don't feel like I
get away from football when I am out here.... I don't really get away from it
completely, like it doesn't exist, I know that maybe for a couple of hours
maybe I can go back to it, but the rest of the time my mind is completely clear
of it. The level of relaxation is so important to me and if I didn't do that I
could not have coached as long as I had.
TT- when in your career did you learn to
compartmentalize and put football in its place and family and the rest of your
life in its place.
NS- The last couple of
years when I was at Michigan state I had a philosophical change in my approach.
Up to that point it was all about winning...like I had to win, like I had to
prove myself all the time... And sometimes I feel like I affected the team and
made them feel that way. Where when I went to LSU I adopted the philosophy that
hey we are going to play one play at a time ... It was more fun for me, it was
more fun for the players..and we got a lot better results.
{This reminded me of a conversation I had after the Duke Faegin
leadership conference in May 2016, With Dr Sottile where he explained to me
that work life balance is not possible and you must find that happy medium
where you can accomplish what you need to regarding your work and then let it
go because you cannot be engaged simultaneously with your family and work or
both will suffer.
MS-
what is the greatest threat to excellence?
NS-complacency, being satisfied with where
you are. Complacency creates a complete disregard for doing what's right. You
can't just do what you feel like doin you gotta chose to do what helps you
accomplish the goals that you have and when you get complacent you lose respect
for winning. ..... I don't spend much time on the past, I really spend all my
time thinking about the next challenge.
MS - how important is
it to you to be a compass for these young men...as a man, much less as a
football player?
NS- my number one goal
for our players...is that they can be more successful in life because they were
involved in the program. And when they commit I tell them I don't want them to
commit to Alabama, I want them to commit to all the things we do to be
successful.
MS- what do you expect when you get back
NS leadership comes
from the power of one, you affect one person by the example you set, being
somebody they can emulate, caring about somebody, and tomorrow you affect two
more guys...and then next thing you know everybody is affecting everybody in a
positive way.
TT. How much harder is it to get to the top of
the mountain verses staying at the top of the mountain?
NS it's a whole
different set of challenges. In terms of getting people to buy in to doing the
things they need to do to accomplish the goals that they have and not be
satisfied with the goal they just accomplished. You gotta recalibrate every
bodies thinking.
On a side note, shortly after this broadcast ESPN held another Interview
with Coach Saban by correspondent Rece Davis later that afternoon.
RD (regarding
quarterback leadership) how much of that is innate and how much can be taught?
NS sometimes people
think leadership is that you stand up in front of a room and you influence a
hundred people with the speech that you give, or the enthusiasm that you
approach it with but really there is a power of one to me. Taking the time
Influencing a person here and a person there. And next thing you
know that spreads throughout your organization and people are buying into the
right things and next thing you know that works well from a team perspective.
Kenneth A. Lipshy, MD, FACS
No comments:
Post a Comment