Bill Walsh

Notes and Quotes from One of the Greatest Coaches of All Time - Part 2

By Anthony Hudson – Bahrain National Team

An Organization has a Conscience

My mission statement was implanted in the minds of our people through teaching.

Thus the dictates of your personal beliefs should ultimately become characteristics of your team.

A philosophy is the aggregate of your attitudes toward fundamental matters and is derived from a process of consciously thinking about critical issues and developing rational reasons for holding one particular belief or position rather than another.

My Standard of Performance

The values and beliefs within it - guided everything I didn't my work at San Francisco and are defined as follows:

Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement

Demonstrate respect and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement

Demonstrate respect for each person in the organization and the work he or she does

Be deeply committed to learning and teaching, which means increasing my own expertise

Be fair, demonstrate character

Honor the direct connection between details and improvement and relentlessly seek the latter

Show self control, especially where it counts most, under pressure

Demonstrate and prize loyalty

Use positive language and have a positive attitude

Take pride in my effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort

Be willing to go the extra distance for the organization

Deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation (don't get crazy with victory or dysfunctional with a loss)

Promote internal communication that is both open and substantive (especially under pressure)

Seek poise in myself and those I lead

Put the teams welfare and priorities ahead of my own

Maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high

Make sacrifice and commitment the organizations trademark

Specifics Our coaching staff was meticulous and tenacious in analyzing and then teaching the requirements of every players position.

Our practices were organized to the minute - like a musical score for an orchestra that shows every musician what to play and when to play it. Our coaches then drilled the team so they could play it better and better.

The specificity of detail and bombardment of information involved in doing this are mind numbing to the casual observer.

Scouts, usually considered outliers who stopped by occasionally with information and opinions on prospects, we're treated right by us. They came to feel like real members of our organization, rather than pizza delivery boys who showed up when called for hot tips about players.

The Prime Directive was not Victory

I had no grandiose ideas or timetable for winning a championship, but rather a comprehensive standard and plan for installing a level of proficiency - competency - at which our production level would become higher in all areas, both on and off the field, than that of our opponents. Beyond that, I had faith that the score would take care of itself.

I directed focus les to the prize of victory than to the process of improving - obsessing, perhaps, about the quality of our execution and the content of our thinking; that is, our actions and attitude.

The Top Priority is Teaching

I would take out a calendar and plan when I would talk about different subjects with individual players, with a squad, with the entire team, with position coaches, staff members, and others. I would discuss a topic from every angle, every approach, never repeating it the same way, such as when I spoke on the subject of communication and interdependence - trying to keep the idea fresh and not become rote.

I was insisting that all employees not only raise there level of 'play' but dramatically lift the level of their thinking.

Team Spirit

Bonding within the organization takes place as one individual and then another steps and raises his or her level of commitment, sacrifice and performance.

The Culture Proceeds Positive Results

By focusing strictly on my Standard of Performance, the 49ers were able to play the bigger games very well because it was basically business as usual - no 'try harder' mentality was used. In fact, I believed it would be counter productive.

What assets do we have right now, that were not taking advantage of?

Be obsessive in looking for the upside in the downside.

Protect Your Blindside - You may have to prompt yourself to continually and aggressively analyze not only your personnel but your organizations vulnerabilities: What's our blind side? What's our counter move to their move? Or is one even necessary?

Progress, or lack thereof, in sports and business can be measured in a variety of ways, some much more subtle than others. Often it takes a keen eye and a strong stomach to dig through the 'ruins' of your results for meaningful facts. A seasons win lost record may not - will not - tell you what you need to know to be fully informed about the strength of your organization. Thus, I looked for clues that might indicate whether we were moving in the right direction at the right speed and if not, what we needed to do to address the problems.