Learn how to take your team to the next level with the lessons from Jim Collins' classic book, Good to Great.

How do some programs go from being being mediocre to excellent?

Many lessons can be learned from businesses that have made a successful transition from middle of the road to dominating their competition. Author Jim Collins wrote a book called Good to Great. Over the past several years he studied companies like Circuit City, Kroger, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo that have made tremendous gains in productivity and profits - over three times the market.

By examining the principles that allowed these companies to become the best of the best, Collins highlights the principles necessary to make the climb to excellence and reach the summit. Similarly, coaches and teams in the sports world can also use these principles to take their programs to a championship level.

Collins found that the successful companies shared seven principles: 1. Level 5 Leadership, 2. First Who... Then What, 3. Confront the Brutal Facts, Yet Never Lose Faith 4. The Hedgehog Concept, 5. A Culture of Discipline, 6. Technology Accelerators, 7. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop. I'll explain what he means by each of these concepts and show you how you can use them to take your team from "good" to "great."

1. LEVEL 5 LEADERS

Business - Collins writes: "We were surprised, shocked really, to discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy - these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar."

Sports: Collins findings were very similar to our findings on the Seven Secrets of Successful Coaches. The successful coaches that we interviewed such as Mike Candrea, Mary Wise, and Kay Yow are humble, down to earth, people. The focus is not on them - it is on their athletes. In other words, they seek to create heroes instead of be heroes. Thus, its not all about them - it's what they can do to help their athletes become better players and people. Collins argues, as we do, that the best leaders look to serve their people, not themselves. This is what he calls Level 5 Leadership - or what we call Credible Coaching.

2. FIRST WHO... THEN WHAT

Business - Collins writes: "We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats - and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage 'People are your most important asset' turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are."

Sports: Before you can become a great program, you must make sure you have great people in your program in terms of athletes and staff. Obviously the right people in the program means "talent" in the sporting world. Great recruiting is critical for taking a good program to the great level. You must attract the right people to your team and then make sure that they are in the positions that maximize their strengths. Further, the right people also pertains to your players' attitudes and character. You must recruit and select people who want to be on your bus - who are truly committed and have bought in to you and your program. If your players are not committed or invested in the program, you need to get them there soon - or off your bus.

3. CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS, YET NEVER LOSE FAITH

Business - Collins writes: "We learned that a former prisoner of war had more to teach us about what it takes to find a path to greatness than most books on corporate strategy. Every good-to-great company embraced what we came to call the Stockdale Paradox: You must maintain unwavering faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

Sports: In the words of Tug McGraw, "You've gotta believe." No matter where your program is right now, you've got to remain optimistic that sooner or later you will breakthrough to the next level. It will take time and it won't be easy, but you have got to believe deep down that you will get there eventually. If you continue to take care of the process of building a successful program, the outcome will take care of itself. At the same time however, Collins insists that you must take an honest look at your current situation. Where are you deficient? What are your weaknesses as a team, as individuals, as a coach? You must make an in-depth, no-holds-barred assessment of your current situation and look to build from there.

4. THE HEDGEHOG CONCEPT

Business - Collins writes: "Going from good to great requires the curse of competence. Just because something is your core business - just because you've been doing it for decades - does not necessarily mean you can be the best in the world at it. And if you cannot be the best in the world at your core business, then your core business absolutely cannot form the basis of a great company."

Sports: This one is little bit more philosophical, but basically Collins suggests that the best companies know what they can do best and it forms the core of their philosophy. In talking with former Nebraska volleyball coach Terry Pettit, he said that great coaches figure out what they want their teams to do the best and stick to it. For instance, Pettit sought to field a very athletic team on the volleyball court. The San Francisco 49ers' bread and butter was/is the West Coast offense. The Lakers of the 80's had their Showtime fast-breaking style. Nebraska football has perfected the option. Whatever the case, the dominant sports teams tend to find what they can do best, perfect their system, and then select people who can master and complement their system of play.

5. A CULTURE OF DISCIPLINE

Business - Collins writes: "All companies have a culture, some companies have discipline, but few companies have a culture of discipline. When you have disciplined people, you don't need a hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don't need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don't need excessive controls. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance."

Sports: Plain and simple, this principle translates into self-discipline, commitment, and self-motivation. Teams that succeed create an environment where people want to contribute. As I mention in Championship Team Building, when people are involved in the process of setting goals, they will be much more likely to take ownership of the team and be committed and even compelled to make them happen. Great teams have athletes who are self-motivated and willing to hold each other accountable. As we found with successful coaches, because people are bought into the program, coaches don't need to create a laundry list of rules to be followed. They work hard and do the right thing on and off the court/field because they want to, not because they have to.

6. TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS

Business - Collins writes: "Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. They never use technology as the primary means of igniting a transformation. Yet, paradoxically, they are pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies. We learned that technology itself is never a primary, root cause of either greatness or decline."

Sports: This one too is a little tougher to apply, however, I think the overall theme is innovation. The coaches who are successful in the sporting world are the ones who are continually keeping up to date. They are looking for the latest advances in technology, motivation, and coaching so that they can stay on the cutting edge of the game. Coaches who allow themselves to fall into a comfort zone, or worse yet, believe they know everything that there is to know, soon become outdated and outdistanced by the innovative coaches. In the words of guru coach Bill Walsh, "You must be a student of the game and a life-long student of the game. Even toward the end of your career, you're looking for the newest innovations and creations in your sport, and the newest message of teaching and programming your athletes."

7. THE FLYWHEEL AND THE DOOM LOOP

Business - Collins writes "Those who launch revolutions, dramatic change programs, and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap from good to great. No matter how dramatic the end result, the good-to-great transformation never happened in one fell swoop. There was no single defining action, no grand program, no killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembled relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond."

Sports: It's not that successful teams do one big thing right that everyone else is missing. It's that they do dozens of little things right on a daily basis - this is the real secret of success for athletes, coaches, and teams. A motivational speaker named Joel Wheldon says the same thing in a talk he calls "Elephants Don't Bite." His message is that it's not the big things that get you, it's always the little things (like mosquitos and bees) that have a much bigger bite. Take a look at yourself and your program... Are you focused on doing the critical little things that will eventually lead to big results? Do you let your players and staff know how much you appreciate them? It's a little thing that makes a big difference. Do you invest the time to plan a practice? Do you stand by your word? Are you looking to get better? Do you truly listen to your athletes? All of these little things accumulate over time and help you ultimately develop the team environment where people develop, excel, and recruit others to. Or, by not doing these things, you can create an environment where people stagnate, regress, and look to escape. Value and trust in the process, and the outcome will eventually take care of itself.

I hope this article gave you a chance to reflect on some principles you can use to take your program from good to great. If you would like to find out more about the book Good to Great please visit http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0066620996/qid=1014765134/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-5297866-2201411