Check out this great article entitled “Channelling Churchill, Ryan Inspires His Team” on New York Jets’ football coach Rex Ryan The article makes several important points that support the conclusion we came to from our research on leaders who produce sustainable superior performance. Our research concluded that sustainable superior performance comes when leaders develop task excellence and relationship excellence. Rex Ryan is doing this by connecting with his players on both emotional and rational levels. He connects rationally by communicating and leading his team to implement effective strategy and tactics. This produces “task excellence.” Ryan’s passion and authenticity helps him connect on an emotional level. This helps produce “relationship excellence.” Ryan communicates simple, relevant and memorable themes with phrases such as “burn the boats” and “how dare you?” He tells memorable stories to illustrate his points.
The Jets are a decent team but not a great team, yet. They just pulled off a big playoff win by defeating the Indianapolis Colts. Given what I’m seeing, I expect the Jets are on the rise as Rex Ryan and team continue to develop a Connection Culture with Vision, Value and Voice.
