The St. Louis Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV by a score of 23-16 over the Tennessee Titans on January 30, 2000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. The Head Coach was Dick Vermeil. It was his fourth season as the Head Coach there after being hired in 1997. Interestingly enough, he had been retired for 15 years! They won just five games in 1997 and four in 1998, but the 1999 season was different! Although ESPN The Magazine‘s 1999 NFL preview predicted the Rams would be the worst team in the NFL, they won the Super Bowl!
A short time after that, I had the opportunity to hear Coach Vermeil at the All Sports Clinic here in Southern California. I recently uncovered my notes from that talk. It was a GREAT talk on leadership. I hope that you take something away from this talk.
7 Principles of Leadership
The most important thing that you can hear from me today is to be WHO you are and WHAT you are; how you lead is WHAT you are!
- Must like people
- Players have to know you care
- Players must believe that the staff cares about them
- Move commitment from head to heart
- The human mind is like a parachute, they don’t work unless they are open
- Your ability to build trust is at the base of building a championship program
- You are, they’ll care
- Be A Good Example
- Your actions speak for themselves
- How you lead translates your passion into action
- Be a person worthy of emulation
- Set the Atmosphere
- People should like to work – need to like to work
- This starts with the Head Coach
- If a person does not believe in YOU, how will they believe in your message?
- Recognition – appreciation – praise
- Recognize opportunities to praise
- Treat everyone as an All Pro
- Handle adversity well – don’t dwell on losing
- Competition is your ally
- “You could smell the losing,” on the Rams when he got there
- Define. Delegate. Leave.
- This enhances egos and confidence of those around you to make everyone better
- Delegating properly shows your confidence in people
- You are not always in a position to make all changes and decisions necessary
- Bring energy
- High energy leaders harness the energy of the whole team to do powerful things
- When in a leadership position you are never “energy neutral.” You are either sapping energy from them or giving energy to them.
- Most limitations have been self imposed – your job is to help people let go of those limitations
- Build Relationships as you implement your process
- Only one thing more infections than a good attitude . . . . . is a bad attitude
- Terrel Owens might be the best player at his position but is he the best player for your team?
- People need to take pride in relationships with each other
- Be sincere!
- Establish credibility
- Be believable
- Be humble
- Take blame, give credit
Chris Fore has his Masters in Athletic Administration, is a Certified Athletic Administrator and is a former President of the California Coaches Association. Currently, he is the Principal of a continuation high school in Southern California. He coached high school football for 17 years (8 as a Head Coach) and JUCO football in his last year, before becoming an Administrator. Fore is a court-certified Expert Witness in athletically-based court cases, and is the CEO of Eight Laces Consulting. Eight Laces specializes in helping coaches nationwide in their job search process, and consults schools to fill their vacant positions. Follow him on X
