By Stephen D. Bruce, PHR
Editor, HR Daily Advisor
In the book Bear Bryant On Leadership: Life Lessons from a Six-Time National Championship Coach , one of the legendary football coach’s former players says, “The best thing Coach Bryant did for me was kick me off the team.”
Today’s epinion comes from business and leadership blogger Dan Oswald (CEO of BLR) in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. It might seem surprising, says Oswald, for a college football player to say being kicked off the team was the best thing a coach ever did for him—it wasn’t receiving a scholarship, which provided a college education, or even the privilege of playing college football, it was getting kicked off the team that benefited him most.
That quote comes from Rich Wingo, a star linebacker for the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 1970s. To fully understand why Wingo might say that kicking him off the team was the best thing Coach Bryant did for him, here’s the story.
Before his junior season, Wingo was voted a preseason All-American and, reportedly, he started to think pretty highly of himself.
In a morning practice during the preseason, Wingo was doing a drill. He later said, “I’m sure I wasn’t hustling, although I certainly wasn’t consciously thinking about it.” After doing the drill several times, the player heard Coach Bryant say, “Wingo, go out there and do it again.”
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According to Wingo, it was the first time Coach Bryant ever made him do a drill again. One of the assistant coaches threw him the ball and he sprinted to the sideline.
Coach Bryant said, “Do it again.”
Wingo says you could have heard a pin drop when that happened. So, Wingo did the drill again, and Coach Bryant said, “Get off my field.” Wingo started jogging off the field. That’s when it happened: “I looked back and everybody was just staring at me. That’s when I realized I’d been kicked off the team.”
Wingo got dressed and waited for Coach Bryant after practice. He told his coach, “The last thing my dad told me before I left home years ago that no one’s going to fight for Rich Wingo any longer except for Rich Wingo. I’m here to fight.”
Coach Bryant invited Wingo into his office. That’s when the legendary coach told him, “I just don’t know if I want you on my football team.” Bryant explained that he thought Wingo was just “content” with being a starting inside linebacker and that’s the way he’d play. Bryant said he wanted people on his team and those around him to be “committed” instead of “content,” people who wanted to get a little better every single day.
Wingo told the coach he didn’t want to play anywhere but Alabama and asked for his spot back on the team. After a night of thinking about it (and letting Wingo sweat it out), Bryant reinstated Wingo the next day.
“That conversation impacted my life,” Wingo later said. “The concept of being ‘committed’ and not ‘content’ is a major part of my testimony today. He wanted people who were totally sold out on the program. He said, ‘Rich, I’ll take people who aren’t the best athletes, but I’ll win with those guys if they are sold out every day.’ ”
“Starting that day, I went from being ‘content’ to being ‘committed.’ I learned how to practice and get better every day. All of my friends told me that after I jogged off the field that day, they had the best practice of their entire career at Alabama, because they didn’t know who was next.”
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That’s quite a story and there are plenty of lessons in it for us as managers and employees alike. As managers, we need to make sure we have people on our teams who are committed, not just content. We need to surround ourselves with people who want to make themselves and the team better every single day.
As a manager, you know who is really committed and who is just going through the motions. You need to know when even a good performer is hurting the team. And, like Coach Bryant, you need to be willing to take action.
Maybe the coach was just trying to get Rich Wingo’s attention and that of the entire team. If he was, his method definitely worked. Maybe he really intended to play the season without the star player and was convinced otherwise by Wingo’s plea to stay on the team. Since Bear Bryant is no longer with us, we’ll never know. But either way, Bryant’s apparent willingness to let a top player go because he was content, not committed, had its desired impact on the team.
As employees, we can learn from this as well. Rich Wingo was going through the motions because he could do so and still be a starter. But he wasn’t living up to his potential. Are you committed to what you do every day? Do you want to get better? Do you make your team better or does the example you set hold others back? It begs the question, are you committed or just content?
Interesting story, but I’m not sure how transferable it is to the workplace, at least when it comes to managing others (as opposed to yourself). The motivations, conflicting interests, priorities, etc. are much different in a workplace than on a college team–not to mention the legal considerations.
I have to agree with Barb, this is yet another hackneyed rah-rah sports story that doesn’t relate to the workplace. It is a great read and is personally motivating, but it is irrelevant when it comes to leading people in the workplace. You cannot just kick someone off the team because they aren’t committed. You BLR guys know better!
Hard to take advice from an editor when the title of the article is incorrect.
I find the significance in management, as some Managers are content in their departments so are going through the motions. If they were committed they’d be finding different ways to better their departments! Awesome article!
The opposite is also true – when management overlooks a poor performer’s lack of performance or promotes an employee even though they do not meet the hiring criteria, are not well liked and are unproductive because they are ‘one of the boys’ yet fail to acknowledge others who work hard and get the job done – the effect would be a losing team. The stars jump ship while the lazy folk happily develop their own little lackie haven.
in reply to the first comment: I think you missed the intent. the intent is: Be the best you can be no matter what you do. You may not be the best at it, but if you commit yourself you will be better than someone who is just content at what he or she is doing.
title should be “Being Fired”
This is ridiculous. Employees live under the cloud of constantly being fired, or laid off, and now they are supposed to be like football players and be committed to winning at all costs. This is outdated thinking and I’m sick of it. Employees have been asked to do the work of multiple people for years and now this article is saying they have to like it, too! Come on. Get a grip.
We just released someone who had been here for years and always just did enough or less. She was a poison to the others because she created a norm for behavior. Everyone here has stepped up their game since she left. I can’t believe that others don’t see the correlation to business.
I have used this story a couple times since originally reading it. First, I was asking a fellow manager how is day was and his response was “just four more hours til quitting time . . .” In relaying the story, I didn’t beat him over the head with it, but he personally found value in the story and said he was going to use it. The second time was when I overheard an employee outside of my department walking down the work hallway tell another employee lightly “hey, where’s your smile? This place looks a lot better with it here.” The response was a big, heartfelt smile from the fellow employee. I told him of the story as positive reinforcement for what he had done. I liked the story and appreciate your sharing it. Thanks!
You didn’t address management enough to be sure. What about a boss who has all his people do all the work, takes credit and then collects a huge paycheck to boot? How are his employees supposed to deal with that, keep trying to get better? It’s a total morale bummer. Maybe the bosses should take note. When the economy improves a lot of people are “OUTTA HERE”
While there are major differences between sports and work, and the story doesn’t translate the best into the workplace, there is some correlation. Yes, people are being asked to do more in the same amount of time for the same pay. While they don’t have to be happy about it, they should have some pride and at least do the best they can.
I’m in a similar situation right now. Because of a reorganization and change in systems being used, I have 2 employees who have new duties, very different from what they’ve been doing. We could have eliminated their positions and hired more qualified people to do the newly created jobs, but we wanted to give them a chance to learn new skills (which they wanted to do). One clearly isn’t interested and is doing just enough to get by. If she’s not willing to engage and do her best, isn’t it the company’s right to find someone else who is willing?