TURNING A TEAM AROUND (PART III)

The following is an excerpt from an article in the Harvard Business Review in the winter of 2000. It was written by Bill Parcells and titled, "The Tough Work of Turning Around a Team."


Success Breeds Success   Here's my philosophy to win games, you need to believe as a team that you have the ability to win games.  That is, confidence is born only of demonstrated ability.  This may sound like a catch-22, but it's important to remember that even small successes can be extremely powerful in helping people believe in themselves.   In training camp, therefore, we don't focus on the ultimate goal -- getting to the Super Bowl.  We establish a clear set of goals that re within immediate reach: we're going to be a smart team; we're going to be a well-conditioned team; we're going to be a team that plays hard; we're going to be a team that wants to win collectively; we're going to be a team that doesn't criticize one another.   When we start acting in ways that fulfill these goals, I make sure everybody knows it.  I accentuate the positive at every possible opportunity, and at the same time I emphasize the next goal that we need to fulfill.  If we have a particularly good practice, then I call the team together and say, "We got something done today; we executed real well.  I'm very pleased with your work.  But here's what I want to do tomorrow: I want to see flawless special teams work.  If you accomplish that, then we'll be ready for the game on Sunday.    When you set small, visible goals, and people achieve them, they start to get it into their heads that they can succeed.