The Bill Parcells Effect

This article sparked some thoughts on what businesses can learn from Bill Parcells .  For you non-football fans, Bill Parcells is one of the winningest coaches in NFL history.  He is now the “Executive Vice President of Football Operations” for the Miami Dolphins.  

Parcells isn’t perfect.  He is known for his big ego; for being abrasive and inpatient.  In “Good to Great” terms, he is probably a “Level 4″ leader.  He uses his big personality to get his way.  That aside, he produces immediate, tangible results.  Here are the traits that make him a legend:

  • He is remarkeable at finding talent; especially in areas where others over-look.  In a business, he would be more likely to promote a hard-working warehouse supervisor over someone with an MBA.
  • He is a natural mentor; having one of the most extensive coaching trees of any NFL coach.  More importantly, his proteges also become champions - and create their own coaching trees.  As a CEO, his former employees and managers would go on to be successful owners.
  • He holds “team” above any single principle.  This means that those that contribute to the team get to play.  This means he is especially intolerant of non-team guys.  On the flip side, he doesn’t want robots - he admires “personalities”, just as long as they put team first. 
  • His players love him.  As Lawrence Taylor once said, “he made me”.  Parcells is tough, demanding, and negative.  But players respond to that.  They recruit others to play for him.  They stay close to him when they leave the NFL.  Parcells is certainely not a “people person”, but his tough love approach draws people to him.
  • He doesn’t care what you think.  He knows that his way works.  This single-mindedness makes everything else just a distraction.   Closely related to this is his attention to details - he does sweat the little things.  As a CEO, he would notice an error in a spreadsheet or a process issue on the production floor.

Most people that have heard of Parcells know these traits. My favorite is that he is addicted to building - teams, people, systems, etc.  The NFL is just the medium that he has chosen (or that chose him).  This trait is probably the one that is most necessary to be a successful entrpreneuer.  In modern lingo, we would call that “passionate” or “driven”.  He would tell you stop worrying about what to call it and get your a** back to work!