Q1 2020 Texas CEO Magazine

WHAT CEOS
Can Learn from
EXCEPTIONAL
COACHES
John Thornton, PhD
I have always been fascinated by the coaches who have “it”—that
X-factor that separates exceptional coaches from the also-rans.
What do they do differently as they put together a staff, organize
practice, recruit talent, and manage high-stakes games? While a
favorable bounce here and there helps out, it’s become obvious over
my forty-plus years in athletics that consistent winning happens
by design. In some form or fashion, the exceptional coaches all
had a system, a routine that worked for them. John Wooden, Pat
Summitt, and Paul “Bear” Bryant—with their respective Pyramid of
Success, Definite Dozen, and Junction Boys—are the stuff of legend.
Each is absolutely authentic. Each put in the vast amount of time,
expertise, and effort it takes to achieve success.
My interest in great coaching runs through my entire career, from
my early involvement in high school coaching to my experiences
with intercollegiate coaching and administration, ending with
my time as interim athletics director at Texas A&M University.
It continues through today in my role as executive professor and
director of the Texas A&M Coaching Academy, where I deal with
the complexities of directorship over intercollegiate athletics
programs. If I have learned anything, it’s that the job of building
a successful athletic program is not for the faint of heart. As the
homespun Coach Bum Phillips once said, “There are two kinds of
coaches: those that are fired and those that are going to be fired.”
The exceptional men and women who succeed in this highpressure
role have my utmost respect. They must channel their
players’ competitiveness, please their donors, and persist through
public scrutiny and the incessant chatter of social media gurus.
And as my mentor Coach Shelby Metcalf—hall of famer and the
winningest coach in the Southwest Conference—was fond of
saying, they do all this with “a scoreboard tied to their ass.”
Does that sound familiar? Perhaps a little like the CEO role?
Indeed, coaching within a Tier One athletic program like Texas
A&M—with its seven-figure revenue and nearly 600 studentathletes—is
a lot like leading in corporate America. Leaders in both
settings face the same pressure to perform, the same responsibility
to deliver wins through other people. And I believe that each role
has much to learn from the other.
Here are five characteristics of the exceptional coaches I have
known, each of which translates to consistent winning in the
business realm.
1. Exceptional coaches define and embrace their
uniqueness. Exceptional coaches are special: They stand
out in some way, whether you call it their style, their persona,
or something else. They might be folksy, hard-ass, nononsense,
or mystical, but whatever they are, they are totally
themselves. They find the authentic core of themselves, share
it with their teams, and use it to separate themselves from
the merely average coaches. This authenticity fosters the
kind of trust and loyalty that—to again quote Coach Metcalf—
prevents fans “from naming a street after you one year and
running you out of town on it the next.”
2. Exceptional coaches are consumed with their
profession. For better or worse, exceptional coaches live
their job every day. They have an unrelenting, laser-like
focus. They constantly fight for what they and their teams
need to win. As an administrator, dealing with these passionfilled
firebrands could get tiresome at times, but I had to
realize that this was a part of what made them good. They
take no days off. They are always striving for excellence.
22 Texas CEO Magazine Q1 2020