BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 62,361
- Reaction score
- 19,137
- Points
- 113
per Lee Schafer, a STrib business columnist:
Fleck teaches that the greatest successes only follow the acceptance of risk. Moreover, failing in the culture of University of Minnesota football doesn’t *matter, so there’s no reason to fear it. Fleck defines failing as “growth,” and he thinks it’s his job to find opportunities for his athletes to fail at something every day, on the practice field or in class. That’s how they get better and learn.
“Failure,” on the other hand, means to have quit, Fleck said. And quitting is a choice. So this is a culture that gives full permission for athletes to fail yet has no tolerance for failure.
“Trying,” by the way, Fleck defines as accepting failure. “Doing” is defined as “finding solutions.” Doers fail all the time. They are not failures.
Whether Fleck’s culture leads to championships for his team is anybody’s guess. The odds appear to be long, as no Gophers coach has led his team onto the field at the Rose Bowl in more than 55 years.
It’s important to understand, though, that Fleck didn’t have better options than culture change. Unlike a corporate CEO, he can’t exit the football market to get into lacrosse. He can’t orchestrate a merger with the University of Wisconsin Badgers. Having bigger and faster athletes than the other team can certainly help win a football game, yet every coach is hoping to out recruit rivals for top talent.
Fleck said he won’t know until December how much progress he has made. Some of the seniors, he said, maybe already can’t wait to get beyond the sound of his voice. Some younger players who were recruited by a predecessor certainly didn’t ask for his culture and could transfer. That happened after his first season at his last post, at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
Last season, his Western Michigan team won 13 games and lost only once. Fleck knows it’s a yearslong process.
For business executives and other leaders, though, there’s something happening in the University of Minnesota’s football program that is worth paying some attention to, no matter the won-loss record.
If a player who has survived four years with Fleck applies for a job at your organization, it seems a safe bet that you will be meeting a candidate who’s been taught daily some simple truths about character and leadership. He will know there’s a big difference between trying and doing. And he will already know that there’s going to be a unique way of working with others that he will need to figure out to succeed.
It might be a smart idea to hire him.
http://www.startribune.com/fleck-s-approach-shows-importance-of-building-a-culture/453678863/
Go Gophers!!
Fleck teaches that the greatest successes only follow the acceptance of risk. Moreover, failing in the culture of University of Minnesota football doesn’t *matter, so there’s no reason to fear it. Fleck defines failing as “growth,” and he thinks it’s his job to find opportunities for his athletes to fail at something every day, on the practice field or in class. That’s how they get better and learn.
“Failure,” on the other hand, means to have quit, Fleck said. And quitting is a choice. So this is a culture that gives full permission for athletes to fail yet has no tolerance for failure.
“Trying,” by the way, Fleck defines as accepting failure. “Doing” is defined as “finding solutions.” Doers fail all the time. They are not failures.
Whether Fleck’s culture leads to championships for his team is anybody’s guess. The odds appear to be long, as no Gophers coach has led his team onto the field at the Rose Bowl in more than 55 years.
It’s important to understand, though, that Fleck didn’t have better options than culture change. Unlike a corporate CEO, he can’t exit the football market to get into lacrosse. He can’t orchestrate a merger with the University of Wisconsin Badgers. Having bigger and faster athletes than the other team can certainly help win a football game, yet every coach is hoping to out recruit rivals for top talent.
Fleck said he won’t know until December how much progress he has made. Some of the seniors, he said, maybe already can’t wait to get beyond the sound of his voice. Some younger players who were recruited by a predecessor certainly didn’t ask for his culture and could transfer. That happened after his first season at his last post, at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
Last season, his Western Michigan team won 13 games and lost only once. Fleck knows it’s a yearslong process.
For business executives and other leaders, though, there’s something happening in the University of Minnesota’s football program that is worth paying some attention to, no matter the won-loss record.
If a player who has survived four years with Fleck applies for a job at your organization, it seems a safe bet that you will be meeting a candidate who’s been taught daily some simple truths about character and leadership. He will know there’s a big difference between trying and doing. And he will already know that there’s going to be a unique way of working with others that he will need to figure out to succeed.
It might be a smart idea to hire him.
http://www.startribune.com/fleck-s-approach-shows-importance-of-building-a-culture/453678863/
Go Gophers!!