Business Lessons from the Football Field

As a USC Fan, I spend most of my time analyzing the leadership on and off the football field. This year, we had some really interesting development in terms of leadership.

After a very rocky 2 years, Lane Kiffin was kept on at USC despite deep rumblings pushing for his exit. I, like many people, thought that Kiffin just needed more time to get over the restrictions based on the severe NCAA sanctions imposed in 2010.

When Kiffin was fired immediately following a September loss to Arizona State, I thought we were in for real trouble. How would the team react to losing their leader? Surely it would take a long time to recover from such a blow, and we certainly couldn’t expect a new coach to come in and turn things around quickly.

But Interim Coach Ed Ogeron, longtime assistant coach, stepped in and won the very next game against Arizona. He won 6 out of 8 games.

This really shows the difference leadership makes. A bad leader can bring a winning team down, and a good leader can bring a team to the top, despite terrible odds.

From what I can tell, a lot of the difference between Ogeron and Kiffin is energy – Ogeron is described as “enthusiastic,” and his locker room talks are loaded with heart, while Kiffin was most often described as “steady” and “professional.” 

What type of leader are you for your small business? Are you having a losing season? Consider how your energy and attitude is impacting your team’s ability to win. Then, go get ‘em!

**Note: after I wrote this blog post, we learned that Ed Ogeron was passed over for the head coach position at USC. He promptly quit. I'm not sure exactly what happened from an administrative perspective, but from a management perspective, this is really sad. Ed worked at USC for 11 years, then stepped in and made us a team again, and now "management" has decided to pass him over for someone else. Best of luck to Ed, and thank you for your work! 

 Virginia Ginsburg is founder and chief consultant at Swell Strategies. She is passionate about supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting and running successful enterprises. An avid reader, in this blog she reviews books and articles and relates specific learning points back to entrepreneurial businesses.