Nick Saban - Focus On The Process , Not The Results

The following are some notes taken from an article on Brandenton.com, written by Gardner Sherrill,on NIck Saban's 'process' oriented approach to achieving sustainable success.

Nick Saban, love him or hate him, has been the most successful coach in all of sports over the past seven years, with the Alabama Crimson Tide holding three national titles and a 74 -14 record.


When asked about his success, he and his team largely attribute it to his process.

"Process guarantees success," says Saban. "A good process produces good results."

As we review the year's end and make our economic and market forecasts for 2014, what lessons can we learn from the success of Alabama football?

Process is about control and focusing your efforts where you have the most control. Consequentially Saban doesn't focus on or talk about winning. Winning is an outcome and not something he can control. Instead, the focus is on effort and activities that applied consistently tend to result in success.

Nick's Paradox: "The more one emphasizes winning, the less he or she is able to concentrate on what actually causes success."

Saban, his staff and the team focus on perfecting the process.

"Eliminate the clutter and all of the things that are going on outside and focus on the things that you can control with how you go about and take care of your business," Saban says. "Take the other team out of the game and make it all about you and what you do."

Gardner Sherrill, CFP, MBA, is an independent financial adviser with Sherrill Wealth Management. To learn more visit sherrillwealth.com.

My takeaway from the process is that you have to focus on what you need to do to get better.  You have to identify what you as a person needs to do to improve and be the best that you can be.  When you focus on you, you will improve, and your situation will improve along with it.  You can't worry about difficult athletic directors, boisterous parents, or the fact that you have to share your best athletes.  You have to make sure that you are growing and learning so that you are presenting the best product possible for your stakeholders.

From a team standpoint, you can't focus on wins and losses, because when you do that, you will lose focus on what really matters; improvement and growth.  When you focus on the win/loss column, you focus on 'quick success' strategies that might help you in individual games, but will not help you in the long run in trying to obtain sustainable success.  However, when you focus on the fundamentals, player growth and development, and building a quality culture, you will be creating a situation where your program can, in Pete Carroll's words, 'Win Forever.'





Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/12/31/4912555/coach-nick-saban-has-success-model.html#storylink=cpy