Team’s Success Starts with the Individual – and with the Love

If you’re a fan of American football, you probably know that Seattle Seahawks Head
Coach Pete Carroll is one of only three coaches in National Football League history to win
both a Super Bowl and a college national championship. Researching Carroll and his
methods, I realized that he had developed an unusual but immensely powerful approach
to leadership that held promise far beyond the football field.

To optimize performance, many leaders take the team or organization as the basic unit
of analysis, seeking out processes and practices that will help people work better
together. Carroll looks at it a bit differently. Remembering that any team is comprised of
individuals, he focuses on helping each individual reach their highest potential not just
as performers but as people. Do this, and the best collective results will emerge over
time.

So, how do you create a space for individuals to thrive? Carroll’s inquiry into unleashing
human potential began with a well-known idea dating back to the psychologist Abraham
Maslow and others: the notion that intrinsic, not just extrinsic, rewards motivate people
to excel. My own conversations with Carroll, undertaken while writing a case study on
him, revealed him to be a master of using intrinsic rewards as motivational tools. Here
are four ways to be a better coach of individuals based on his wisdom:

1. Boost self-confidence
Inspired by the groundbreaking work of Timothy Gallwey on “the inner game,” Carroll
realized that athletes can face key moments of crisis in which their self-confidence
falters. These in turn can lead them to become more rigid, sabotaging their own
performance. A coach’s job is to prevent team members from lapsing into this pattern
and to help them cultivate and sustain a mindset of “relaxed concentration.”

2. Make it personal
We all know that the best coaches forge personal connections with team members. But
it’s hard to put this simple and obvious idea into practice. As I learned from Carroll,
coaches must connect with the individual team member’s full humanity, practicing
empathy in situations when they don’t share a common background or life experience
with team members. Such empathy in turn generates trust and activates team
members’ sense of self-worth. Each of us in our own way seeks acceptance from others.
When we receive it, it not only boosts our sense of self but also increases our willingness
to help others.

3. Allow people to be themselves

Employees never truly bring their whole selves to work, but we can still free them to
express themselves more fully within certain limits. Leaders seem to oscillate between
allowing chaotic individualism on the one hand and enforcing militaristic order on the
other. In truth, a middle ground exists in which individuals can be themselves without
hurting the organization. When we allow for this, people become empowered and
energized, and they feel a sense of ownership.

4. Tap into purpose

Many of us go through life without a clear idea about why we do what we do. When and
if we find a higher purpose, we become much more focused and directed in our efforts.
When a coach helps us align a personal sense of purpose with an organization’s reason
for being, magic happens.

Of course, Carroll also believes in rigorous practice and is obsessed with winning. His
expectation that everyone will work hard and strive to perform at their best serves as a
foundation for firing up intrinsic motivation among team members. But Carroll couples
that expectation with a soft touch. He calls his approach “caring leadership” and
describes it as coming from a place of love. That’s not a word you would normally
identify with a football coach, but if Carroll’s record of success is any indication, it’s one
that leaders in the sports world, in business, and beyond should more openly and
consistently embrace.

Question: What do you consider the secret of team success?