Super Leadership

It is by far the most hyped sporting event each year garnering millions of viewers worldwide, netting huge revenue and exposure for vendors, and creating lots of conversations around the water cooler on the Monday morning following the game. Everything seems bigger than life during the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl and expectations are often so high it is nearly impossible for the outcome to match them. Even the commercials have become their own story within the story.

Leadership principles seem fundamental to any conversation about team sports. A championship outcome is generally attributed to the coach whose strong discipline creates a winning attitude and mental toughness among his players. The quarterback who rallies his teammates on a game-winning touchdown is lauded as a true emotional leader. No one remembers the team that loses the game each year because leadership is about winning.

As I prepare to enjoy this year’s Super Bowl match up between two competent opponents I wonder what leadership should look like before, during, and after the big game? Will the inspirational style of Giant’s head coach, Tom Coughlin, be rewarded with another NFL crown? Can the star athletes on each team resist the need for individual attention after making a “big play?” How will the quarterbacks best leverage the talents of their teammates if they are called upon to engineer the two-minute offense in the game’s waning minutes? 

Watching the Super Bowl should be about having fun with family and friends. It is good to know we can enjoy a respite from many of the political and economic challenges of our time (thanks NBC for including a Presidential interview during the pre-game madness to ruin this theory). But perhaps we can, and should, gain some leadership insights while watching two well-prepared, well-coached, and talented teams perform on the field for our enjoyment. Will it be super leadership that endures beyond the game’s outcome or more populist leadership hype that does little to inspire or change anything for the better? I invite you to be the judge.