I spent the weekend captivated watching the new Amazon Prime docu-series Coach Prime which follows Coach Deion Sanders, aka Coach Prime, through his last season at Jackson State University. As I made my way through the series, I was struck by what an incredible leader and teacher he is. While there were many lessons that I drew from watching it, four leadership principles stuck out the most.
- Set the Standard: Coach Prime is constantly reiterating to his players and assistant coaches what their expected standard is for how they conduct themselves on and off the field. That standard isn’t winning, it’s dominating. He claims that every player in college is winning, those that are dominant are the ones that separate themselves to stand out and gain recognition to set up their future. Each win throughout their undefeated season came with small celebrations, but also a reminder that winning wasn’t good enough because complete domination was the standard. While the standard you set doesn’t have to be domination, you do need to set one and reiterate it over and over again.
- Culture Over Everything: The most surprising segment of the series was when Coach Prime gathered all his players and coaches in a room, told a parable, and posed a question about a family member who was talking bad about the family, being disrespectful, and being a “cancer” repeatedly. He asked, “What would you do with them – let them stay or kick them out?” The players and coaches discussed what he should do, arguing both sides. At the end, Coach Prime told them to stand up if you’d let him stay – about 1/3 of them stood up. He did the same thing for a “kick him out” vote and the other 2/3 of the room stood up. Coach Prime then turned to a player sitting in the third row and said, “You’re out, they voted you out, you need to leave now.” The player stood up and walked out. Unbeknownst to the “family,” they had just voted out the player that Coach Prime described – a cancer to the team. He went on to speak emphatically about the need to immediately eradicate such cancers. The penalty may be harsh, but even the smallest seed of cancer in an organization will derail its ability to reach the standard and the goals that have been set.
- Know your team: It’s quite evident in how he interacts with the team that Coach Prime has a high level of emotional intelligence. There are many shots of him speaking one-on-one with his players and it’s clear that he always has their best interests in mind. Not what’s best for him and his goals, not even what’s best for the team’s goals, but what’s best for each individual player. In some cases, he has the other coaches spend extra time with a player who needs more football IQ. In another, he has a conversation with his top recruit about whether to play hurt, motivated by keeping the player healthy in the long-term even if that means a short-term loss for the team. Coach Prime knowing every player’s backstory and what their individual goals were made them stronger on an individual and group level.
- Delegation: The series doesn’t really show how good Coach Prime is with the X’s and O’s of football. However, he does talk about the amazing assistant coaches he’s brought in who clearly know the ins and outs of football. He demonstrates how deeply he trusts all of them to handle the offense, defense, and special teams, as they’ve been hired to do. This trust allows Coach Prime to focus on people, the culture, and solving big-picture problems for his team, organization, and community.
As a newly minted, full-time CEO who has shifted my focus every single day to “CEO” work, I learned a lot from Deion Sanders in these four areas. His overall goal is to take these boys and turn them into great men when they leave his care. I understand this goal as I put a lot of my focus into developing the individual people on my team to help them achieve their personal goals, even if that means, at some point, that it’s not the best thing for my company or me. For them to be able to reach these goals, I have to be the one to know them. I have to be the one to create a culture that allows them to grow personally and professionally, and I must keep it healthy. I have to set the standard of what dominating life looks like.
