“Leadership is about service and how I serve the players and how I serve the coaching staff. Those are things that I’m constantly trying to think about as I’m going through the day. It’s not always about yelling and screaming. Obviously I’m demanding also. I think players will tell you that. But I think this role is about service. How do I get other people to play, coach and operate at their optimum level? That’s constantly on my mind.
“I think it’s important to be authentic and to be honest. I don’t have all of the answers. I tell the players that; but I’m constantly working to find the right answers. I think it’s about being genuine and being authentic. I think at the end of the day, I’ll have peace with my actions and the things I say, regardless of how things go.”
He said: “the types of people we’re looking for are tough, who are smart, who are competitive, put the team first and people who love to do what they’re doing.”
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Hooligan, Galant, mlb1399 and 1 other person like this.
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I think this part is quite crucial when it comes to leadership.
Now looking at things from the aspect of military leadership, “know yourself and seek self-improvement”, Flores is at least smart enough to know he doesn’t know it all and seeks that self improvement but on the other hand, from a military aspect “I don’t know” is the worst thing you can tell your troops. A Platoon Sergeant ALWAYS knows and to a degree I would think a head coach always knows as well. I can’t ever imagine Don Shula ever telling his players I don’t know.
Flores is still a young head coach in his second season. Perhaps if he’s successful and has a long career as a successful head coach he won’t have to say I don’t know, or at least his players will know he knows...even if he doesn’t at that time -
In his interview the other day, he was asked multiple dumb questions relating to Zach Sieler. The first was something like, "You're a city boy like me and you've probably never been hunting. Would you go hunting with Sieler? I probably know your answer." What kind of question is that, LOL? And you could see Flores was instantly annoyed. Yet he did his best to have patience and answer the question, while also stressing that he supports all his players and whatever their hobbies were off the field. Then he flips the script to "players are people and football doesn't define them, so you have to support them in everything they do." Ridiculously good answer and he spent about 2 minutes on it.
Later, he was asked about Bell and how close Miami was to signing him. But with this question, he wasn't having it and said that he wasn't involved in that at all...his focus is on the NY Jets. Then comes a follow up question a few minutes later and he gives the same answer...he didn't even think about it because he's focused on the Jets; his staff does a really good job with that stuff though. He spent about 10 seconds on each of these questions.
All of these questions were unnecessary and you could see Flores frustrated, but each time he spun them around to credit someone "in the building" for being a great person or doing their job well. That impressed me that he didn't lose his cool. -
It seems that any reporter anymore, regardless of his or her beat always seems to ask stupid irrelevant questions. Hell I have no degree in journalism and I know I could ask more intelligent relevant questions that fans truly want addressed.
KeyFin likes this. -
I think the degree to which you have to "know" what to do (even if you don't really) depends on how fast decision-making has to be. When speed of decision making matters you can't afford to "not know".
In science though, where accuracy and not speed is paramount, you'll NEVER see this kind of "knows what to do" attitude from a good project manager. It's always the result of in depth discussion because you end up wasting far more resources if you don't take the time to explore various possibilities before deciding on a course of action.
Even in the military you won't see this "knows what to do" at the higher levels where they do a lot of wargaming to test out different approaches before deciding on strategy, and you certainly don't see it in weapons development.
Different tasks, different approaches to problem solving. -
You are correct insomuch as timing does have an effect in the decision making process, especially in the military. One of the things we leaders were ALWAYS taught was a quote from General George Patton...
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week"
In combat, there are many things that go into battle but sometimes in the fog of war when you don't have the luxury of planning, we always fall back on Patton...quickly develop a plan and execute it violently!!! Spirit often drives men to overcome even the most insurmountable obstacles.
With coaching, the same can be said, particularly during a game. If you're talking about planning during the week, you have the luxury of time for preparation but during a game, sometimes you just got to implement the Patton Doctrine!