Championship Team Governance Capital As Self-Governing Tribal Traditions
Championship Team QBs have a tribal tradition of regularly treating their OL to a nice dinner at an expensive steakhouse the evening before games (Note: OLs are carnivores and not tofu eaters). OLs are the unsung heroes on a football team, but this particular tribal tradition reinforces and strengthens the protective bond that exists between a QB and his “Praetorian Guard.”
Do you believe this type of tribal bond makes a difference during the game, when a millisecond of extra pass protection time can be the difference between a completed pass for a touchdown, an interception or, even worse, the QB being carted off the field on a stretcher? Of course, it does.
Is there a parallel lesson in the corporate world for culturing self-governing tribal traditions, particularly in organizational units that support customer-facing units?
The Cowboy Code
What does it mean to be a “self-governing professional” on a Championship Team? This is a question Championship Teams challenge players to answer every day. Championship Teams see professionalism through a different prism than most of the corporate world. To make the point here, let me take you back to the “Cowboy Code” of the Old West. It is called “riding the brand.”
Take two of the most iconic brands in the NFL: the Dallas Cowboys (name irony?) and Green Bay Packers. From a brand value standpoint, the Cowboys are the most valuable professional sports brand in the world. And the Packers, playing in the smallest NFL market, are more valuable than almost all other NFL brands who play in much larger markets. Having played for the Packers and against the Cowboys multiple times, I can tell you that when you put on the “Green and Gold” or the “Blue Star,” you are “riding the brand” in a very visceral way. You are reminded every day you put on a Cowboy or Packer uniform that great players have ridden this brand in the past; great players will ride this brand in the future; but, for me and my teammates, our time to ride this championship brand was today.
For Championship players, “riding the brand” is not a job; it is a deep sense of responsibility and accountability to past, present and future players. Merely meeting performance expectations is not good enough; Championship players seek to exceed performance expectations. Is there a parallel lesson for “riding the brand” in the corporate world?
If I were compiling a handbook for Championship Organizations, I would also include some of the other Championship Governance principles I’ve learned from the sports world:
Governance Leaders: Only recruit “Character Athletes” that have a team-first attitude. There is no letter “I” in the word “TEAM.” The best coach I’ve ever played for was the legendary BYU coach, Lavell Edwards. Many valuable lessons about competing on the football field (and in real life) were learned from Coach Edwards. During his 19 years as Head Coach of BYU, Coach Edwards won consistently, with less athletic talent than other teams, by recruiting and developing players who were expected to live up to an Honor Code off the field. Coach Edwards had a special talent for setting even higher performance expectations of players than the minimum threshold standards of the Honor Code and then challenging players to exceed those higher-bar expectations. Players who exceeded higher-bar performance expectations (i.e., Governance Leaders) helped inspire other team members to exceed higher-bar performance expectations as well, both on and off the field.
Self-Improvement Resources: You create a Championship Team that has sustainable competitive advantage by providing team members with sufficient support resources for both their on-the-field and off-the-field personal development and improvement. Self-improvement off the field (e.g., strength training, etc.) carries over to performance outcome improvement on the field, and vice versa.
Accountability Processes: Provide all team members with the power of regular (i.e., monthly) Performance Accountability Reviews where everyone in the organization, even superstars, return and report on their individual performance outcomes. Accountability for a Championship Team is much more than a catchy HR slogan; it is literally the lifeblood of their competitive strategy. Championship Teams know that opposing teams will always bring their A-Game when they compete. So, no matter how good the win-loss record is, a Championship Team has to continue to improve as a team, which means individual team members have to continue to improve, which, in turn, means performance outcome accountability to themselves… and to the team.
Performance Culture: Culture self-governing tribal traditions that challenge team members to exceed performance expectations, from the bottom up (not the top down). Bottom-up tribal traditions are the championship glue that holds Championship Teams together. And the proof is consistently demonstrated on the field of play in the competitive outcomes achieved by Championship Teams who have built self-governing performance cultures (e.g., New England Patriots).
Championship Governance principles that are applicable to the sports world are, indeed, applicable to the corporate world for any company that seeks sustainable competitive advantage in their marketplace. And that’s what makes a true Championship Team.
This article was adapted from, “What Corporate America Can Learn About Self-Governance From Championship Teams.”
