With the 2022-2023 College Football Playoffs finalized, it’s thought-provoking to consider how these teams reach the highest level of success. While all these teams have elite coaches and leadership that translate to exceptional results, the teams all have specific characteristics of winning programs. And, of course, that’s in part a result of the coaching and leadership excellence. What does it take for teams to reach excellence? Here are twelve characteristics of championship teams:
- Vision Focused: Winning teams create significant clarity around the vision for the future. They discuss it, visualize it, and prepare for that moment. Every opportunity in practice and training means aligning with that larger vision.
- Team Oriented: Winning teams develop a team focused mindset where everything revolves around what’s best for the team. No players make the work about them or their successes. If or when that happens, teammates help realign those players with a team focused mentality.
- Clear Roles: Winning teams establish clearly defined roles through honest communication with their coaches. Each player on the team knows their role, how to fulfill it, and why it’s critical to the team’s success. Because of these clear roles, everyone focuses on doing their jobs to align the pieces for success
- Coaching: Winning teams absolutely crave coaching and feedback. They want to know how and why to improve each day. If they’re not getting coached, they know they’re not improving. They know and understand the importance of tough, disciplined coaching when it’s needed.
- Details Matter: Winning teams focus relentlessly on the details. Every detail in pre-practice, practice, post-practice, weight room, and team meetings impacts the end product. They know that if some areas become sloppy that it shows up in challenging situations during games.
- Process and Preparation: Winning teams prepare exceptionally well for their opponents, but they keep their specific process at the center of everything. They know what to do and why they’re doing it every day in practice and workouts. There are no surprises in any game situations because the team has committed to the process and prepared in minute detail.
- Compete Every Day: Winning teams make every situation a competitive one. Each player on the team knows that the more competitive their practices and workouts, the more prepared they are to win against an elite opponent. High compete level separates the very best teams.
- Specific Standards: Winning teams align their actions and behaviors with specific standards; they also align those standards to a specific and clear level of achievement. These teams know that the standards push them to a higher level and help eliminate poor performance.
- Accountability: Winning teams hold every person, including the coaches, accountable to the standards. All players on the team are willing to promote and protect the standards because they know allowing the standard to fall means allowing their performance to suffer.
- Leadership: Winning teams have an abundance of leaders on the team. The coaches are leaders, the captains are leaders, the starters are leaders, the bench players are leaders, and the support staff are leaders. Everyone leads on winning teams.
- Energy: Winning teams bring energy to every practice, workout, and game. They understand that the energy they create is an advantage for them. The players on the field bring energy, but the bench players also play a critical role in the practice and game atmosphere.
- Compelled: Winning teams have a healthy level of commitment to the process, results, and competition that Jeff Janssen titles “Compelled.” While discipline and commitment are important, many elite teams and players take it to a near obsessed level of commitment.
All winning teams and championship programs share specific characteristics that help them reach that level of success. While these are some of the characteristics, others exist that help these teams reach success as well. The players help develop these characteristics, but it’s the coaches who lay the framework for this environment. Championship programs and their sustained success is a direct result of exceptional leadership, processes, and systems that shape the foundation.
What are the characteristics of winning teams and programs?