Scott Pioli and Mr. Steve Hauser

Last Monday's class (2/21) we also discussed an article from Sports Illustrated about Scott Pioli, the new general manager and team president of the Kansas City Chiefs. Pioli made a name for himself with the Patriots where he won three Super Bowls with the team as their director of player personnel. He was overshadowed by Bill Belichick's prowess but is now molding the Kansas City Chiefs with many of the techniques used in New England. Last year the Chiefs drafted the most college captains out of all of the NFL teams. It's a philosophy that goes along with his belief that it's more important to find the right people than the individuals with the best stats or 40 yard dashes (sounds like the leadership idea of getting the right people off the bus and the right people on the bus). In 2010, the Chiefs won more games than in '08 and '09 combined and made the playoffs for the first time in a while. Pioli's philosophy is obviously paying dividends for the Chiefs' franchise. Here's the great article showcasing Pioli from Sports Illustrated: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1179410/index.htm

Steve Hauser, an aspiring NFL coach and student in the forum, had some interesting points to make concerning the article and his experience as captain of the Wesleyan Tennis team:

            The Sports Illustrated piece on Scott Pioli serves as an interesting example to the theories expressed by Kouzes and Posner. In particular, Kouzes and Posner’s section entitled “Enable Others to Act” fits especially well with the credos expressed by Pioli. For the football executive, attributes such as reliability, dependability, accountability, and discipline are considered vital to a sustainable winning experience. Similarly, Kouzes and Posner theorize of the importance of enabling others to become their own leaders, therefore creating a sense of internal discipline. These ideas or key words may sound blasé, but with sufficient action behind them these simplistic ideals can prove to be invaluable to the sustainable success of a program or institution. By “modeling the way”, as Kouzes and Posner would describe it, men such as Scott Pioli have provided the necessary structure and accountability to create sustainable success.

            As a newly appointed captain for the Wesleyan Men’s Tennis team, I am attempting to “model the way” for my teammates. After reading these accounts and listening to the discussion in our forum, I decided to gather the team and we created a mission statement. Like Pioli, we found keywords that harkened back to the origins of our beliefs and these words were effort, aggressiveness, and teamwork (a.k.a EAT). With a catchy mnemonic and a basic creed, our team now has concrete aims.

            Sustainable success, however, is not simply granted upon the creation of a mission statement; it must be earned through action. With our goals now concretely formulated and proudly shown on a large banner, these words must continually resonate and be religiously practiced. It is my responsibility, as a captain, to make sure we continually move forward in line with these virtues. Hopefully, once the power of this model is seen it can become a process the team carries on in the future, providing internal disciple and sustainable success for years to come. 

 Great job Stevey!