TUNNEY-SIDE-OF-THE-STREET

#89 September 11 2006

Welcome to this week's message from the Tunney-Side-Of-The-Street. You are encouraged to share this with fellow workers, family and friends.

After Further Review - "Change" receives a lot of discussion these days. Change can bring growth and improvement. All growth requires change, yet not all change brings growth or improvement.

Ten NFL teams made a change in head coaches for the 2006 season: Buffalo - Dick Jauron; Detroit - Rod Marinelli; Green Bay - Mike McCarthy; Houston - Gary Kubiak; Kansas City - Herm Edwards; Minnesota - Brad Childress; New Orleans - Sean Payton; New York Jets - Eric Mangini; Oakland - Art Shell; St. Louis - Scott Linehan. All but Edwards, who had five years as NY Jets Head Coach, and Juaron and Shell, who had been head coaches before in Chicago and Oakland respectively, are in their first head coaching job. This is the largest number of head coaching changes in the 86-year history of the NFL. Why so many?

There are several reasons. Let's look at a few:

1) Today's NFL owners are less patient; they want success sooner.
2) Fans are less tolerant. Today's "fast food generation" want instant gratification - "if you don't win NOW - out"!
3) A team gets out of sync. When the chemistry of a T*E*A*M gets out of balance or collapses, a change can bring a breath of fresh air. So what do owners or fans look for in a new head coach? These come to mind:

1) One who can assemble a quality staff and quickly teach their players in a new system; 2) One who is willing to make personnel changes;
3) One who is willing to take risks, and,
4) One with the leadership to establish a winning culture.

Let's look at that last one more carefully. Dr. Nido Qubein - no he's not one of the new NFL coaches - recently became president (read: head coach) of High Point University (North Carolina). While his background and experiences were in the business world - not higher education - he is a teacher, as well as an example, of leadership.

Here's a brief sketch of his approach: 1) He clearly sees the big picture (call it vision) and does not do things incrementally, calling that "intellectual congruence". 2) He focuses on "win" (What's Important Now, through his enthusiasm, patience and persistence. 3) He strives for a climate to make others feel important; and 4) He takes calculated risks to reinvent the culture of the university (Read: T*E*A*M). That may be an excellent plan for the ten new NFL coaches.

Will you look at the big picture when you make changes for improvement?

Will you expand your level of tolerance to help others?

Look for my book
It's the Will, Not the Skill
Principles and philosophies of success

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http://tunney-side-of-the-street.blogspot.com

For more information about Jim Tunney, go to www.jimtunney.com

ARTICLE TAGLINE FOR JIM TUNNEY, Ed.D., CSP, CPAE

Copyright © 2003 Jim Tunney. All rights reserved.
You can visit Jim's website at http://www.jimtunney.com

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