Business Monday: Lombardi Lessons – Bob Salvas

– by Bob Salvas, contributing writer

Sports and business.  There are countless analogies between the two.  But I think it is fair to say that people compare football to business more than any other sport (especially when it comes to the topics of leadership and strategy). With NFL football starting their regular season games this week, it seems like an appropriate time to mention just a couple of the business lessons we can learn from football.

For those lessons, we turn to the guy whose name is on the Super Bowl trophy, Vince Lombardi.  Vince Lombardi is most remembered as the legendary head coach of the Green Bay Packers. He won five world championships with that team (including the first two Super Bowls).  Dozens of books have been written about him, and he is widely considered one of the most quoted coaches in sports history.  Here are 3 quick lessons from the coach:

PREPARATION: Every team wants to win, and every business wants to succeed.  The problem most people have is doing the ‘non-glamorous’ work that, over time, will result in a positive outcome.  A football player must learn his team’splays, study the other teams they will be playing, as well as keep up a tough physical regimen.  For business: Have you posted on social media?  Have you sent out the invoices?  Have you made prompt callbacks? Have you attended regular networking events?  Just doing these kinds of things when you have time is not the same as making the time needed to do them!  Consistency is the key to success and boredom or busyness can derail you.

“The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.”

EXCELLENCE: In general, those who win in sports and in business are excellent at what they do.  Many people go into business BECAUSE they are excellent at what they do.  But excellence is fleeting.  Even if you are at the top of your game, the knowledge you have accumulated may be obsolete in 5 years or less.  Keeping on the cutting edge and continuing to grow in your field becomes essential.  

Plus, business requires much more than just being good at whatever it is that you do, you must also be good at business!  Like in sports, you can have people doing different jobs (think football positions) who are either an employee or an outsourced person/company.  But here again, they must be excellent at what they do as well or in can impact your whole business in a negative way.

“The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.”

TEAMWORK: Speaking of having folks around you filling various roles, this is your TEAM.  Not only do all team members have to be performing well, but they must also function in a way that complements the rest of the team.  While agreat team requires individual excellence, everyone must also be rowing the boat in the same direction! 

“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

Look at your business and see if one of these lessons relates to you.  And if you are looking for more inspirational and thought-provoking quotes from Vince Lombardi, go to https://vincelombardi.com/. 

Happy football season!

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Photo, top: Lombardi with Jerry Kramer and the Packers, 1968, CBS Television/Wikimedia Commons — Public Domain.

Bob Salvas is a Professional Development Manager for the RI Builders Assn, a marketing consultant, the founder of Momentum Networking, and the co-founder of THE MARKETING CAMP, a yearly conference to help small businesses achieve success.  For more information about THE MARKETING CAMP, go to themarketingcamp.com.  Bob can be reached at 401-359-1602 or at [email protected].