Bill Walsh Leadership Quotes

Like water, many decent individuals will seek lower ground if left to their own inclinations. In most cases you are the one who inspires and demands they go upward rather than settle for the comfort of doing what comes easily.

A good leader is always learning. The great leaders start learning young and continue until their last breath.

For me the starting point for everything - before strategy, tactics, theories, managing, organizing, philosophy, methodology, talent, or experience - is work ethic.

Someone will declare, “I am the leader!” and expect everyone to get in line and follow him or her to the gates of heaven or hell. My experience is that it doesn’t happen that way. Unless you’re a guard on a chain gang, others follow you based on the quality of your actions rather than the magnitude of your declarations.

Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.

Here’s a good question to write on a Post-it Note and put on your desk: “What assets do we have right now that we’re not taking advantage of?” Virgil

Do expect defeat. It’s a given when the stakes are high

His leadership example of doing your job, treating others with respect, expecting people to do their jobs, and holding them accountable is a formula for success that will work in any good organization.

Not to get too clever, but “consistent effort is a consistent challenge.

often you crash and burn.

MY FIVE DOS FOR GETTING BACK INTO THE GAME: 1. Do expect defeat. It’s a given when the stakes are high and the competition is working ferociously to beat you. If you’re surprised when it happens, you’re dreaming; dreamers don’t last long. 2. Do force yourself to stop looking backward and dwelling on the professional “train wreck” you have just been in. It’s mental quicksand. 3. Do allow yourself appropriate recovery—grieving—time. You’ve been knocked senseless; give yourself a little time to recuperate. A keyword here is “little.” Don’t let it drag on. 4. Do tell yourself, “I am going to stand and fight again,” with the knowledge that often when things are at their worst you’re closer than you can imagine to success. Our Super Bowl victory arrived less than sixteen months after my “train wreck” in Miami. 5. Do begin planning for your next serious encounter. The smallest steps—plans—move you forward on the road to recovery. Focus on the fix. MY FIVE DON’TS: 1. Don’t ask, “Why me?” 2. Don’t expect sympathy. 3. Don’t bellyache. 4. Don’t keep accepting condolences. 5. Don’t blame others.

The culture precedes positive results. It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.

Your competitor must never look at you across the field, conference table, or anywhere else and conclude, “I not only beat you, I broke your spirit.” The dance of the doomed tells them they’ve broken your spirit. That message can hurt you the next time around. And

Leadership, at its best, is exactly that: teaching skills, attitudes, and goals (yes, goals are both defined and taught)

passion, expertise, communication, and persistence are the four essentials of good teaching and learning,

Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize.

And, of course, between the ups and downs, the good times and bad, there are ongoing challenges to keep everyone firing on all cylinders at all times. Not to get too clever, but “consistent effort is a consistent challenge.” There

Even when you have an organization brimming with talent, victory is not always under your control. There is no guarantee, no ultimate formula for success. It all comes down to intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing. When you do that, the score will take care of itself.

During the ensuing fourteen years, the San Francisco 49ers won five Super Bowls. It happened only because at the moment of deepest despair I had the strength to stand and confront the future instead of wallowing in the past. Many can’t summon the strength; they can’t get up; their fight is over. Victory goes to another, a stronger competitor.

happens everywhere all the time. Have you noticed, however, that great players and great companies don’t suddenly start hunching up, grimacing, and trying to “hit the ball harder” at a critical point? Rather, they’re in a mode, a zone in which they’re performing and depending on their “game,” which they’ve mastered over many months and years of intelligently directed hard work.

My Standard of Performance—the values and beliefs within it—guided everything I did in my work at San Francisco and are defined as follows: Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement; demonstrate respect for each person in the organization and the work he or she does; be deeply committed to learning and teaching, which means increasing my own expertise; be fair; demonstrate character; honor the direct connection between details and improvement, and relentlessly seek the latter; show self-control, especially where it counts most—under pressure; demonstrate and prize loyalty; use positive language and have a positive attitude; take pride in my effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort; be willing to go the extra distance for the organization; deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation (don’t get crazy with victory nor dysfunctional with loss); promote internal communication that is both open and substantive (especially under stress); seek poise in myself and those I lead; put the team’s welfare and priorities ahead of my own; maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high; and make sacrifice and commitment the organization’s trademark.

Communication is complex. It’s not just the King’s English. Body language, gender connection, age connection, role connection, affluence and wealth connection, receiving or taking directions, and the state of mind of one person or another are all elements in communicating with someone. It’s not just being able to talk back and forth. It’s recognizing when to say it, how to say it, when to listen, whom you’re talking with, how they feel, what you’re trying to get down to, how important the circumstance is, what the necessity is timewise, and how rapidly the decision must be made.

In planning for a successful future, the past can show you how to get there. Too often we avert our gaze when that past is unpleasant. We don’t want to go there again, even though it contains the road map to a bright future. How good are you at looking through the evidence from the past—especially the recent past? There’s a certain knack to it, but basically it requires a keen eye for analysis, a commonsense mind for parsing evidence that offers clues to why things went as they did—both good and bad. And, of course, it often requires a strong stomach, because what you’re rummaging through may include not only achievements but the remains of a very painful professional fiasco.

If you’re growing a garden, you need to pull out the weeds, but flowers will die if all you do is pick weeds. They need sunshine and water. People are the same. They need criticism, but they also require positive and substantive language and information and true support to really blossom. If you’re perceived as a negative person—always picking, pulling, criticizing—you will simply get tuned out by those around you. Your influence, ability to teach, and opportunity to make progress will be diminished and eventually lost. When that happens, you become useless, a hindrance to progress. When your feedback is interpreted as a personal attack rather than a critique with positive intentions, you are going backward. Constructive criticism is a powerful instrument essential for improving performance. Positive support can be equally productive. Used together by a skilled leader they become the key to maximum results. Most of us seem to be more inclined to offer the negative. I don’t know why, but it’s easier to criticize than to compliment. Find the right mixture for optimum results.

consistent effort is a consistent challenge.

Before you can win the fight, you’ve got to be in the fight.

Creating gold from dross is alchemy; making lemonade when you’re given lemons is leadership; making lemonade when you don’t have any lemons is great leadership.

Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.

What Bill Walsh did is easy to describe: (1) He could identify problems that needed to be solved; and (2) He could solve them.

Constructive criticism is a powerful instrument essential for improving performance. Positive support can be equally productive. Used together by a skilled leader they become the key to maximum results.

When it comes to telling people what you expect from them, don’t be subtle, don’t be coy, don’t be vague. What is your version of, “Gentlemen, this is a football”?

the skill of being a great listener—is the first law of good communication. (The second law is “When you’re not listening, ask good questions.”)

Listen 2. Learn 3. Lead

Because I tell myself to try harder and harder, to hit the ball better and better. I become a victim of myself and go into a kind of stupor because I’m trying so hard without really knowing what the heck I’m trying to do.

Be more concerned with finding the right way than in having it your way.

And that’s what it all comes down to, namely, intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing in a competitive environment. When you do that, the score will take care of itself.

That, in my opinion, was his primary leadership asset: his ability to teach people how to think and play at a different and much higher, and, at times, perfect level. He accomplished this in three ways: (1) he had a tremendous knowledge of all aspects of the game and a visionary approach to offense; (2) he brought in a great staff and coaches who knew how to coach, how to complement his own teaching of what we needed to know to rise to his standard of performance; and (3) he taught us to hate mistakes.

Do force yourself to stop looking backward and dwelling on the professional “train wreck” you have just been in. It’s

A philosophy is the aggregate of your attitudes toward fundamental matters and is derived from a process of consciously thinking about critical issues and developing rational reasons for holding one particular belief or position rather than another.

Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement;

When the inevitable setback, loss, failure, or defeat comes crashing down on you—losing a big sale, being passed over for a career-making promotion, even getting fired—allow yourself the “grieving time,” but then recognize that the road to recovery and victory lies in having the strength to get up off the mat and start planning your next move. This is how you must think if you want to win. Otherwise you have lost.

Failure is part of success, an integral part. Everybody gets knocked down. Knowing it will happen and what you must do when it does is the first step back.

The competitor who won’t go away, who won’t stay down, has one of the most formidable competitive advantages of all. When the worst happens, as it did to me, I was helped by knowing what it took to be that kind of competitor—to not go away, to get up and fight back.

Planning for the future shouldn’t be postponed until the future arrives.

By nature he was an innovator who wasn’t afraid of change.

A leader must be able to identify these types of situations and not shy away from removing malcontents from the organization. It takes true character to stay with an organization when things seem to be at their bleakest. It

When things are going best is when you have the opportunity to be the strongest, most demanding, and most effective in your leadership.

Accuracy, accuracy, precision in execution of everything at all levels. No sloppiness. Game-level focus was the price of admission. Obviously,

Bill Walsh was not afraid of talent. He hired assistant coaches who were extremely good, and he did it with the expectation that they would move on—up to head coaching positions. And in fact, about fifteen of them did. He didn’t feel that you sold your soul to the company store. While you were a 49er, you were expected to give it your all, but Bill was very enlightened in the way he supported the lives and careers of employees beyond just what they could do for his team.

Sometimes you can't have the last word.

The ability to help the people around me self-actualize their goals underlines the single aspect of my abilities and the label that I value most—teacher. —BILL WALSH

enabling us to establish a near-permanent “base camp” near the summit, consistently close to the top, within striking distance, never falling to the bottom of the mountain and having to start all over again. Initially, it meant I had to drastically change the environment, raise the level of talent, and teach everyone what they needed to know to get to where I wanted us to go.

but all successful leaders know where we want to go, figure out a way we believe will get the organization there (after careful consideration of relevant available information), and then move forward with absolute determination.

A leader must be keen and alert to what drives a decision, a plan of action. If it was based on good logic, sound principles, and strong belief, I felt comfortable in being unswerving in moving toward my goal. Any other reason (or reasons) for persisting were examined carefully. Among the most common faulty reasons are (1) trying to prove you are right and (2) trying to prove someone else is wrong. Of course, they amount to about the same thing and often lead to the same place: defeat.

Have there been times when your own ego has turned unhealthy, been pumped up for various reasons into egotism? Have there been instances where you hurt yourself because you got caught up in your self-importance? Be careful. People can sense it, they can see it. When they do, your effectiveness is dramatically reduced. At times it can even be fatal. That’s why it’s worth monitoring in yourself and your staff.

When you reach a large goal or finally get to the top, the distractions and new assumptions can be dizzying. First comes heightened confidence, followed quickly by overconfidence, arrogance, and a sense that “we’ve mastered it; we’ve figured it out; we’re golden.” But the gold can tarnish quickly. Mastery requires endless remastery. In fact, I don’t believe there is ever true mastery. It is a process, not a destination. That’s what few winners realize and explains to some degree why repeating is so difficult. Having triumphed, winners come to believe that the process of mastery is concluded and that they are its proud new owners.

Success doesn’t care which road you take to get to its doorstep.

This success wasn’t an accident; I had written the script for our success. Informed preplanning—looking perceptively into the future and getting ready for it—gave the Stanford football team a distinct advantage. I took that advantage with me when I was hired by the 49ers.

Be bold. Remove fear of the unknown—that is, change—from your mind.

The second-richest man in America, Warren Buffett, says one of his biggest challenges is to help his top people—all wealthy beyond belief—stay interested enough to jump out of bed in the morning and work with all the enthusiasm they did when they were poor and just getting started.

They were locked into the past and unwittingly locking themselves out of the future. Leaders do this to themselves and their organizations all the time.

Unfortunately, too often we find comfort in what worked before—even when it stops working. We get stuck there and resist the new, the unfamiliar, the unconventional.

The motto of the Boy Scouts, “Be Prepared,” became my modus operandi, and to be prepared I had to factor in every contingency: good weather, bad weather, and everything in between. I kept asking and answering this question: “What do I do if . . . ?” It’s the same for you, of course: “What do you do if . . . ?” Most leaders take this no deeper than the first level of inquiry. You must envision the future deeply and in detail—creatively—so that the unforeseeable becomes foreseeable. Then you write your script for the foreseeable.

you must not only have a plan but also prepare for what happens if the plan works or fails or if an unexpected situation suddenly requires a completely different approach. What then? And what happens after that? And after that?

Leaders sometimes wonder why they or their organization fail to achieve success, never seem to reach their potential. It’s often because they don’t understand or can’t instill the concept of what a team is all about at its best: connection and extension. This is a fundamental ingredient of ongoing organizational achievement. (Of course, incompetence as a leader is also a common cause of organizational failure.) Combat soldiers talk about whom they will die for. Who is it? It’s those guys right next to them in the trench, not the fight song, the flag, or some general back at the Pentagon, but those guys who sacrifice and bleed right next to them. “I couldn’t let my buddies down,” is what all soldiers say. Somebody they had never seen before they joined the army or marines has become someone they would die for. That’s the ultimate connection and extension.

Running a football franchise is not unlike running any other business: You start first with a structural format and basic philosophy and then find the people who can implement it. —BILL WALSH

have put in the category of “I’ll worry about that when the time comes”? Planning for the future shouldn’t be postponed until the future arrives. When

Being really good wasn’t good enough. He taught us to want to be perfect and instilled in the team a hunger for improvement, a drive to get better and better.

He did not view the organization and the individuals within it as two separate entities, but as one and the same: “People are the heart of your organization,” he instructed me. This perspective affected his leadership profoundly.

Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement; demonstrate respect for each person in the organization and the work he or she does; be deeply committed to learning and teaching, which means increasing my own expertise; be fair; demonstrate character; honor the direct connection between details and improvement, and relentlessly seek the latter; show self-control, especially where it counts most—under pressure; demonstrate and prize loyalty; use positive language and have a positive attitude; take pride in my effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort; be willing to go the extra distance for the organization; deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation (don’t get crazy with victory nor dysfunctional with loss); promote internal communication that is both open and substantive (especially under stress); seek poise in myself and those I lead; put the team’s welfare and priorities ahead of my own; maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high; and make sacrifice and commitment the organization’s trademark.

Of course, if this were some crappy novel, it’d be a bunch of albino Vatican hit men trying to cover up the fact that Jesus’s descendants are a family of Lithuanian shoe salesmen in Perth Amboy and the papacy is run by aliens.

Conventional wisdom often produces conventional results

Flying by the seat of your pants precedes crashing by the seat of your pants.

Hearing someone described as being able to 'fly by the seat of his pants' always suggests to me a leader who hasn't prepared properly and whose pants may soon fall down.

【V信83113305】：Georgetown University, founded in 1789, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it is renowned for its strong emphasis on liberal arts education, international relations, and law. As a Jesuit institution, Georgetown integrates intellectual rigor with a commitment to social justice and ethical leadership. The university's historic campus, overlooking the Potomac River, blends tradition with modern academic excellence. Notable alumni include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and numerous global leaders. Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service is particularly distinguished, attracting students worldwide. With a vibrant community and proximity to political and cultural hubs, the university offers unparalleled opportunities for research, internships, and professional growth.，一比一原版乔治敦大学毕业证购买, Georgetown本科毕业证, 修改乔治敦大学成绩单电子版gpa让学历更出色, Georgetown留学成绩单毕业证, 哪里买乔治敦大学毕业证|Georgetown University成绩单, 挂科办理Georgetown University乔治敦大学毕业证文凭, 一比一原版Georgetown乔治敦大学毕业证购买

【V信83113305】：Georgetown University, founded in 1789, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it is renowned for its strong emphasis on liberal arts education, international relations, and law. As a Jesuit institution, Georgetown integrates intellectual rigor with a commitment to social justice and ethical leadership. The university’s historic campus, overlooking the Potomac River, blends tradition with modern academic excellence. Notable alumni include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and numerous global leaders. Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service is particularly distinguished, attracting students worldwide. With a vibrant campus life and proximity to the nation’s political hub, Georgetown offers unparalleled opportunities for research, internships, and professional growth, fostering a community dedicated to "men and women for others."，美国毕业证学历认证, 挂科办理Georgetown University乔治敦大学毕业证文凭, Georgetown毕业证定制, 专业办理乔治敦大学成绩单高质学位证书服务, 乔治敦大学学位定制, 乔治敦大学文凭-Georgetown, 办理乔治敦大学毕业证-Georgetown毕业证书-毕业证, 美国买文凭办理乔治敦大学毕业证成绩单, Georgetown文凭办理

【V信83113305】：Georgetown University, founded in 1789, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it is renowned for its strong emphasis on liberal arts education, international relations, and law. As a Jesuit institution, Georgetown integrates intellectual rigor with a commitment to social justice and ethical leadership. Its historic campus, overlooking the Potomac River, blends tradition with modern academic excellence. The university boasts notable alumni, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and numerous global leaders. Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service is particularly distinguished, attracting students worldwide. With a vibrant campus life and proximity to the nation’s political hub, Georgetown offers unparalleled opportunities for academic and professional growth.，乔治敦大学毕业证办理, 办理乔治敦大学文凭, 极速办乔治敦大学毕业证Georgetown University文凭学历制作, Georgetown University学位证书办理打开职业机遇之门, 美国办乔治敦大学毕业证办成绩单购买, 办乔治敦大学毕业证认证学历认证使馆认证, Georgetown乔治敦大学电子版毕业证, 申请学校!Georgetown成绩单乔治敦大学成绩单Georgetown改成绩, 美国Georgetown University毕业证仪式感|购买乔治敦大学学位证

【V信83113305】：Georgetown University, founded in 1789, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it is renowned for its strong emphasis on liberal arts education, international relations, and law. As a Jesuit institution, Georgetown integrates intellectual rigor with a commitment to social justice and ethical leadership. The university’s historic campus, overlooking the Potomac River, blends tradition with modern academic excellence. Notable alumni include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and numerous global leaders. Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service is particularly distinguished, attracting students worldwide. With a vibrant campus life and proximity to the nation’s political hub, Georgetown offers unparalleled opportunities for academic growth and professional development.，留学生买文凭Georgetown University毕业证-乔治敦大学, 【美国篇】乔治敦大学毕业证成绩单, 美国学历购买, Georgetown乔治敦大学毕业证制作代办流程, 乔治敦大学颁发典礼学术荣誉颁奖感受博士生的光荣时刻, 乔治敦大学毕业证制作, 1:1原版乔治敦大学毕业证+Georgetown成绩单

【V信83113305】：Georgetown University, founded in 1789, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it is renowned for its strong emphasis on liberal arts education, international relations, and law. As a Jesuit institution, Georgetown integrates intellectual rigor with a commitment to social justice and ethical leadership. Its historic campus, overlooking the Potomac River, blends tradition with modern academic excellence. The university boasts notable alumni, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and numerous global leaders. Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service is particularly distinguished, attracting students worldwide. With a vibrant campus life and proximity to political and cultural hubs, Georgetown offers unparalleled opportunities for academic and professional growth.，办理GU大学毕业证-乔治敦大学, GU文凭购买, 想要真实感受GU乔治敦大学版毕业证图片的品质点击查看详解, 办理GU学历与学位证书投资未来的途径, Georgetown University文凭毕业证丢失怎么购买, 乔治敦大学电子版毕业证与美国Georgetown University学位证书纸质版价格, 高质Georgetown University乔治敦大学成绩单办理安全可靠的文凭服务, Georgetown University乔治敦大学挂科了怎么办？, GU乔治敦大学学位证书快速办理

【V信83113305】：Georgetown University, founded in 1789, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it is renowned for its strong emphasis on liberal arts education, international relations, and law. As a Jesuit institution, Georgetown integrates intellectual rigor with a commitment to social justice and ethical leadership. The university's historic campus, overlooking the Potomac River, blends tradition with modern academic excellence. Notable alumni include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and numerous global leaders. Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service is particularly distinguished, attracting students worldwide. With a vibrant campus life and proximity to the nation’s political hub, Georgetown offers unparalleled opportunities for academic and professional growth. Its motto, "Utraque Unum" (Both into One), reflects its dedication to unifying diverse perspectives.，Offer(Georgetown成绩单)乔治敦大学如何办理?, Georgetown学位证毕业证, 乔治敦大学文凭-Georgetown University, 制作文凭乔治敦大学毕业证-Georgetown毕业证书-毕业证, 美国大学文凭购买, 美国Georgetown乔治敦大学毕业证成绩单在线制作办理, 专业办理Georgetown乔治敦大学成绩单高质学位证书服务