Winning on Behavior
Championships are built from a series of behaviors that start on Training Day One. Your players exhibit behaviors, some good and some bad, and it is your job as the leader to determine which ones are critical to success.
Urban Meyer in his book Above the Line, states, “The performance of a team rises or falls on behavior.” Coach Meyer identified his core competencies and, within each competency, his list of “above the line” and “below the line” behaviors. In his book, he draws clear examples of how those behaviors led the Buckeyes to their 2014 Championship.
Knowing and enforcing Meyer’s competency model with your own team, however, will not guarantee you the same success. Just as Meyer drew upon his experiences and understanding of the game, a winning culture must be created from you and your teams’ values, beliefs, and experiences.
To create a competency model that will drive your team, take your core values and use those to outline the core competencies needed to demonstrate those values. These core competencies are what you expect your players, coaches, and employees to do. They are long-term, clear, and consistent expectations that result in actions. As an example, here is a competency chart from the Army’s capstone leadership manual, ADP 6–22:
Reading from right to left, you can see how competencies are broken down into specific behaviors, which can then be rewarded to enhance your winning culture. This is also how you can identify and eliminate undesirable behaviors. If the behaviors fall below the line, they must be stopped.
GEN(R) Mattis highlighted his three C’s of leadership (Competence, Caring, Conviction) in his book, Call Sign Chaos. The first two appear self-explanatory but could easily be discussed endlessly. The third C, Conviction, is the one that really gets to the core of how you maintain those core competencies. GEN(R) Mattis states, “Your troops catch on fast. State your flat-ass rules and stick to them.” Know your values, explain the competencies to be achieved, and demand the behavior you want to see. That’s how championships are won.
