Lessons Learned

(Photo credit: Associated Press/Charles Krupa)

Josh McDaniels is not exactly perceived to be an exemplary leader in some quarters. He is the offensive coordinator for arguably the most polarizing team in all of sports (that would be the New England Patriots). Recently, he turned down an offer to be head coach of the Indianapolis Colts after the “done deal” was widely reported (including in this ESPN post) and a press conference scheduled.

McDaniels may be controversial. He also has something to teach us about adapting to and learning from failure.

In 2009, McDaniels was hired as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. At 33, he was the youngest head coach in the NFL. It didn’t last long. McDaniels didn’t even make it through his second season in Denver; he was dismissed before the end of the season with a 3–9 record. After his firing, he called his father, Thom (a former legendary high school football coach in Ohio who now mows greens on a golf course).

"You need to write down everything you would do differently if you ever get a chance to be a head coach again," Thom told him. "Do it while everything is fresh in your mind. Over time, add to it."

It was a dark time for McDaniels.

"I was by myself—just me and my thoughts," McDaniels said. "I had very little interaction with other people. I had time to go back over everything we did in Denver, the decisions we made, step by step. I could slow it down."

Shortly thereafter, he created an Excel spreadsheet titled lessonslearned.xls.

Most of what McDaniels has put into the spreadsheet concerns relationships.

"Lesson Learned: Take time to digest information and make good, PATIENT decisions. Never rush into anything—all things are important. Impulsive—is a bad word—listen to everyone and make the RIGHT decision. Nothing gets fixed quickly."

"Lesson Learned: LISTEN better. To anyone who tells me something. There are so many people who can help us win & have wisdom I don't have. I will do my part in teaching but can never stop learning myself. Best results come from a group effort!"

"Lesson Learned: Be considerate of assistant coaches' time, their emotions & make sure they always know how much I care. Push them, hold them accountable and love each one of them personally. We win as a team, we lose as a team and I always take responsibility for the losses. They get the credit when we win—they deserve it."

"Lesson Learned: I wanted to practice until I felt we totally had it. Wrong Choice. I need to lighten the load and REALIZE the value in allowing the players to feel good about that. Players who feel you are taking care of them will give you all they have during the week and on Sunday."

By now, more than 100 lessons learned populate McDaniels' laptop. Inspired, I started my own lessonslearned.xls file. Never trusting my (very) fallible memory, I decided to add a few elements to the file to facilitate the recollection of the episode that caused the learning event. A few sample entries from that file are shown below:

What’s to keep you from starting your own lessonslearned.xls spreadsheet? Isn’t it important enough to spend a few minutes each week reflecting on the week’s successes and failures, logging them and learning from them?