Championship Leadership

I’ve been home most all of this week and have had the chance to enjoy the local media coverage of "our" Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts. From a leadership perspective it has been interesting to watch and listen to the coverage of a coach who does things in a different way than many other football coaches.

While much of what has been written about the calm demeanor and overall approach of Tony Dungy is interesting and valuable to consider, perhaps the most telling thing I heard was from Peyton Manning, the MVP Quarterback who thanked his coach at the victory rally on Monday night, calling him "our best friend."

Many talk about the need for a split between personal relationships and supervision or leadership. This talk typically revolves around people becoming close friends and then having a hard time being objective about performance or meeting job expectations.

Perhaps there are risks in that closeness, but the rewards of emotional closeness in terms of communication effectiveness, trust building and productivity improvement seem to far outweigh those risks. (And besides, I doubt that Tony Dungy has any problem giving feedback on performance!)

Peyton and his teammates may not invite coach Dungy over for dinner like you might with other best friends, but to be considered a friend as a leader seems like a championship quality to me.

Labels: Indianapolis Colts, leadership, sports leaders, Tony Dungy

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati