TO BUILD A WINNING TEAM, L.E.O.

One of my favorite stories from this college football season has been the national rise to prominence of the Indiana University football program and its inspiring leader, head coach Tom Allen. He’s led the Hoosiers from the mire of historical mediocrity to a place the team hasn’t been in decades – near the top of the Big Ten standings and into the national spotlight. Coach Allen has built his program on a simple mantra: L.E.O. – “love each other.” You see those three letters plastered everywhere inside the Indiana football program. You hear them constantly from coaches and players alike. And you can almost feel that mantra permeating every part of the team’s personality. Check out this clip of Coach Allen’s postgame interview after last week’s win at Wisconsin. It’s L.E.O. personified.

If you’re working to build a winning team today – either at school, at work, or at home – I hope you’ll take a minute to consider the benefits of leading your team with love, the way Coach Allen does. This isn’t easy or natural for most of us, but he's proof that when you create a culture driven by an authentic love for the people around you, incredible things can happen. In that spirit, here are three keys to implementing an L.E.O. attitude in and around your team today.

1) Love comes first. Coach Allen has been preaching L.E.O. and building it as the foundation of his program since the day he took over four years ago, long before the Hoosiers ever found on-the-field success. His conviction is that love drives results – not the other way around. Counterfeit love is conditional. It makes deals, like committing to love your team members once they’ve finally started winning. But real love is unconditional. It’s committed to the team members with no strings attached. Three years into his tenure at IU, Coach Allen's team had lost twice as many Big Ten games (18) as they’d won (9). To outsiders, it may not have appeared they'd made much progress. And yet, despite the difficulties, L.E.O. endured. It grew and it strengthened. Coach Allen and his team have stepped into the national spotlight this year, but he's been the same man - loving his guys the same way...relentlessly - even back when they were struggling in the dark. Coach Allen's love isn’t a by-product of his team’s success. Actually, just the opposite is true. The team’s success is a by-product of his unconditional love.

2) Real love isn’t soft. One of the things that can keep us from leading our team with love is the fear that it’ll show weakness in us or promote weakness in our team. But real love like Coach Allen’s isn’t soft. I’d argue it’s actually pretty strong, pretty tough, and pretty demanding. In a culture that exemplifies an L.E.O. attitude, love isn’t defined by a feeling. It’s defined by action. Putting love into action means honoring your commitments to those around you, regardless of the circumstances you're facing. It means being accountable for bringing your best and working to get better every day. It means cultivating a willingness to sacrifice your own desires for the good of the group. It means taking more than your share of the responsibility when things go wrong and giving away more than your share of the credit when things go right. It means being a great teammate – cheering for, encouraging, and uplifting those around you. It means going the extra mile, even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient, to show your people you care. That kind of love is real and rare. It requires our time and our toughness, our attention and our intention…which is probably why so few of us are willing to do it.

3) You lead the way. The truth is, there's nothing like being a part of a real team, one that genuinely loves one another like they do in the video above. Every player wants that. Every coach wants it. But a team like that doesn’t get built by luck or by accident. It’s built on purpose - every day - by individuals who choose to make loving each other the top priority. If you want your team to experience new levels of success, if you want them to play for something bigger than themselves, and if you want them to come together like never before? Then you are the one who needs to lead the way. Choose to step forward and take your love to another level.

Renew your commitments to those on your team, and honor them regardless of the circumstances you're facing. Be accountable for bringing your best and working to get better every day. Set your selfish ambition aside, and start sacrificing your own desires for the good of the group. Start taking more than your share of the responsibility when things go wrong and giving away more than your share of the credit when things go right. Be a great teammate – cheer for, encourage, and uplift those around you. And go the extra mile, even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient, to show your people you care. That’s love in action, and it’s the best, most effective, and most rewarding way to build a winning team.