I approached building the 49er organization with an agenda that didn't include a timetable for a championship or even a winning season. Instead, I arrived with an urgent timetable for installing an agenda of specific behavioral norms -- actions and attitudes -- that applied to every single person on our payroll.To put it bluntly, I would teach each person in the organization what to do and how to think. The short-term results would contribute both symbolically and fictionally to a new and productive self-image and environment and become the foundation upon which we could launch our longer-term goal, namely, the resurrection of a football franchise.
While I prized preparation, planning, precision, and poise, I also knew that organizational ethics were crucial to ultimate and ongoing success.
It began with this fundamental leadership assertion: Regardless of your specific job, it is vital to our team that you do that job at the highest possible level in all its various aspects, both mental and physical (i.e., good talent with bad attitude equals bad talent).
From "The Score Takes Care of Itself"
By Bill Walsh with Steve Jamison and Craig Walsh
