by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“There’s no other way to say it,” said Sean McVay, LA Rams Coach, after Superbowl LIII.”I got out-coached tonight.” New York Times, February 2019.

He was clearly speaking about Bill Belichick, his team’s opponent coach. It epitomized Belichick’s objective for the game that night; to satisfy his team’s New England marketplace for success and to give his team’s fans (customers) something to crow about for the next week and into next season. He met their expectations for a win, even if it wasn’t a high scoring rout. To get that sort of endorsement from your opposing coach is tribute indeed.

Judging by the rousing reception his team received from sizable crowds of raving fans on the streets of Boston two days later, they gave living proof that he and his team had done its job. Just imagine if companies and other organizations could get that sort of acclimation every year they met their market and customer expectations? Of course the other expectation chanted on the streets was, “Now our seventh!” This alluded to the expectation that Belichick’s team would go forward and win its seventh Superbowl in nineteen years during 2020. New desires were already there, despite winning six over the past 18 years…really hard to do.

This is a reminder that customer and market expectations are constant and unrelenting. No sooner have you satisfied today’s desires and you already have to be thinking about tomorrow’s success, too. And that’s one of the reasons that Belichick and his Patriots have been so consistently successful over the years, because they know how to take care of today’s business and they also have a smart-eye on tomorrow, too. Starting with the team’s owner, Robert Kraft, who clearly has the wholehearted respect and support of all the players, there is a strong and capable leadership team – including board members and executive-leaders – shaping franchise strategy along with Belichick.

Leadership capability is one of three key cornerstones of building a consistently successful organization, along with highly motivated people talent – football players in this instance -, and having the right franchise and game strategy- tactics. The latter point about having the right franchise or organizational strategy starts with understanding your market and customer expectations. Both Kraft and Belichick are clearly pretty good at this, along with their Board of Directors and senior leadership team.

In the enlightened leadership world these are kicked off with a market-customer picture or map – see the adjacent version for the Patriots. As Belichick will see, there could be 15 or more different constituent or customer groupings that will have vested interest in the team’s success. There are at least 9 outside parties and 6 inside ones in their particular case. They are also representative of the franchise’s marketplace. Yours may well differ.

The trick from the Patriot’s leadership team’s perspective is to particularly prioritize at least the top 50% of external constituents (5) and do the same for the internal ones (3). Once these have been highlighted, then determine the various expectations of each prioritized constituent. Two examples:  1) Local football league expectations-RED – Player opportunities; Coaching advice; Franchise recognition of their team; Game ticket discounts; Player visits; Try-outs.

2) Patriot player expectations-BLUE – Strong

leadership; Effective coaching; Game time; Injury support; Properly remunerated; On-field recognition; Scandal free franchise; Winning tactics and strategies. (NOTE: Players don’t particularly expect to be managed; only properly led.)

Once franchise leaders have figured these out, they have to objectively confirm that their external constituent expect-ations particularly represent their specific marketplace. And then they should go through an “honesty” exercise to indicate how much they meet those expectations; where a “check” – against each expectation – means they meet that expectation, a “double check” means that they surpass that expectation, an “OK” means they are within range of meeting that fan expectation, and a “?” means that they have a lot more work to meet that customer/fan expectation. When they have completed this stage, they can then figure out action-initiatives to enhance key shortfalls and reinforce their pluses.

This writer cannot verify that Belichick and his franchise leaders went through such a thorough exercise, but it’s likely they have intuitively hit many of the important spots. They have not been exposed to an enlightened model like this, which is “outside-in” focused, because it truly concentrates on the marketplace and customer expectations. When you do that and align your organization and people accordingly, it puts you in a strong position to succeed – or win in the Patriot’s case. You owe it to your organization to create your own version with your key team and then educate all staff accordingly. Only then will you dramatically increase your chances of success – especially if you act on the indicators.

Ideally, Belichick and Kraft will do such an exercise for their 2019-20 season, then their team will be closer to being ready for a seventh Superbowl than they otherwise would be. One question still open from their fans point of view: “We want a bigger margin of defeat.” Okay, but that wasn’t possible this year, since the two playoff teams ended up using virtually the same play-by-play formula. When two organizations copy each other, they shouldn’t expect much of a differentiator, other than player talent. The Rams had the second best defense in the league, so shut down the Patriots. The Patriots had the 23^rd defense in the league, but, owing to Belichick’s superior coaching talent; as well as his defensive coach, who has now been picked to coach Miami Dolphins next season; they inspired their journeymen defense to raise their game dramatically in the Superbowl. This virtually shut down the Rams’ offense.

» Hence a low scoring game where the Patriots came out on top. A game is normally won before the players enter the field, other than extenuating circumstances.

      » Good leadership counts every time, although commentators prefer to focus on players: since it’s likely they don’t understand the power of effective leadership, because they’ve usually never been a leader.

      » Effective leaders, like Belichick, don’t look for personal adoration, because they know they cannot succeed without the commitment and talent of their players.

      » You constantly have to be thinking about tomorrow as well as today, if you’re going to have a consistently effective enterprise…easier said than done!    

To find out more about evolving an Outside-In approach, talk with: