Page 93 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Good Values Attract Good People
The young man, however, had revealed an aspect of himself that 75
wasn’t fine. In fact, it was unacceptable to me: disrespect for his
mother. If he couldn’t respect her, how could he possibly respect
me when things got tough? I politely ended the meeting and ex-
cused myself. The scholarship was never offered.
The individual who had been so rude to his mother went on to
play for another school and did very well. In fact, he helped his
team defeat UCLA on more than one occasion. In spite of that, I
was delighted that I had discovered something so important before
it was too late, before allowing him to contaminate our team with
his “values.”
Your behavior as leader—what you do—creates the environ-
ment in which the team functions. For some leaders it’s anything
goes. For me, what goes is defined by the Pyramid of Success, my
dad’s two sets of three, and plain good sense and decency. I believe
this is one of the reasons Vince Lombardi became very uncom-
fortable when a writer quoted him as saying, “Winning isn’t every-
thing, it’s the only thing.” It suggested Coach Lombardi sanctioned
winning at any cost. What he sanctioned—as I understand his
beliefs—was giving all you have to the contest rather than doing
“whatever it takes” to win.
There’s a difference—a big difference. Coach Lombardi be-
lieved in the power of good values, and so do I. If you don’t care
what kind of person you have on your team so long as they help
the team win, I question whether you’ll attain consistent and
long-term success. I’ll go further than that: If you don’t care about
the code of conduct held by those you lead, you’re not a good
leader.
Character counts and values matter. And you, the leader, set the
standard for both in your organization. Let me offer these addi-
tional thoughts that may help you lead by example in creating a
winning organization.