One of the best parts of this remarkable season has been the little treat Metro Detroiters get after each game.
If you’re us at Local 4, you wait about 30 minutes to an hour, and then you check YouTube or social media to see if the Detroit Lions have posted Dan Campbell’s postgame locker room speech.
It’s difficult not to feel pumped up when the coach speaks, but this makes him a powerful motivator.
Campbell’s locker room speeches have become so epic that the Lions cannot seem to get enough and are willing to run through brick walls for him.
It is something Maureen Monte says we’ve watched all season, like his handling of the referees snatching the game from the Lions in Dallas.
“I believe in a concept called self-leadership,” said Monte. “If you cannot manage yourself, you can’t lead others. So, he chose to use that as fuel, ‘We’re going to win every single game the rest of the way.’”
Whether in sports or business, she says the players and employees have a vote in whether the leader is for real and whether to cooperate.
“Leaders cannot treat their people like equipment, they must have a profound connection with those in charge,” Monte said.
She says Campbell does, but the real competitive advantage, she believes, is his authenticity and requirement of accountability.
“They can smell intent, whether you care about them, they can smell intent to believe what you are saying, you can smell intent if you know what you’re doing, so you can’t fake that,” Monte said.
But one more ingredient makes Campbell’s approach the gold standard: his unrelenting attack mode.
“We’re not the last place team, we’re going out there on the attack, and eventually that builds both competence and confidence and then you’ve got this energy that has momentum and continues and continues and continues,” Monte said. “That’s how the navy seals do it.”
Campbell learned the game from Bill Parcells and coached under Sean Peyton. That’s NFL coaching royalty, so whether Campbell knew he was adopting the Navy Seals leadership training or not, he’s struck gold and is running with it. Perhaps all the way to Las Vegas and the Super Bowl.
Mone said his talking about the Super Bowl now as a goal is a very good strategy.
