It seems appropriate on Super Bowl Sunday to look to Vince Lombardi, considered the greatest football coach of the 20th century, for leadership advice. After Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35–10, in Super Bowl I in 1967, they received the World Professional Football Championship Trophy. Lombardi had been the Packers’ head coach for nine years and built a losing team into one of the greatest dynasties in sports history. In 1971, a few years after his death, the trophy was renamed the Vince Lombardi Trophy in his honor.
Perhaps one of the most interesting comments Lombardi made about his leadership style is his conviction that, despite his hard-nosed opinions about the importance of winning–“it’s the only thing”– nevertheless, a leader “must be sensitive to the emotional needs and expectations of others.”
For the hard-nosed leaders in all of us, it’s an important mantra to remember!