How does Jim Harbaugh do it?
That’s the question being asked in Ann Arbor – as well as around the country – as we look at the resurgence of Michigan football. Long a dominant team -- in fact it’s the football program with the most wins in history – the past seven years has seen Michigan slip into mediocrity. Until now!
Despite a last-second loss to archrival Michigan State on a blocked punt on the last play of the game, Harbaugh remains upbeat and confident in his team. Speaking with the media after a visit with the President – and to support Michele Obama’s Better Make Room program to help teens get into college -- Harbaugh shared his thoughts on the game with the media, "We won’t let the sadness get in the way of the way we’re improving… (We will) look at the things we’re doing that are putting us in a position to be successful… And it’s never one play, it’s never one play in a football game."
That is classic Harbaugh, who spent part of his youth in Ann Arbor, played quarterback at Michigan and played 14 years in the NFL and eventually served as head coach at Stanford. Moving to the NFL, Harbaugh took the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl – only to face his older brother John, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, a game the elder Harbaugh’s team won.
The way that Harbaugh and his staff have turned around a losing program at Michigan and piloted it toward a brighter future is something from which anyone in management can learn. This is especially true since the players on the Michigan team are not his recruits; he inherited them from the previous coach. Here are five things to learn from Harbaugh’s approach to build a winning team.
Know the game. According to ESPN analyst and Heisman Trophy winner, Desmond Howard, Harbaugh is a “master play caller.” Harbaugh’s strategic sense of the game, coupled with his understanding of the play-to-play dynamics, gives his players the confidence that “coach knows what he’s doing.”
Trust the staff. Many of the coaches have worked with Jim, either in college or in the pros, for years. He knows they can teach players positions and schemes, and he believes in their abilities.
Believe in the players. Michigan players have underperformed for years; now they have the opportunity to prove their abilities and do it for a coach who can teach as well as inspire. Harbaugh’s an emotional coach but seldom, if ever, will you see him tear into a player after a bad play. That’s locker room stuff. Not public shaming.
Maintain control. Within limits. Jim’s right hand man – and boyhood friend and known to all as the Colonel -- is Jim Minick, a former Marine. Minick has told Jim to focus on coaching; he will manage the details off the field. Such a presence enables Harbaugh to focus on coaching.
Believe in the team. That is something his mentor and former coach Bo Schembechler taught him. After the loss to MSU, Harbaugh said, “Resolve is the steel in our spine. We have got to move forward.” There were no harsh words for the punter who misplayed the ball, only a commitment to learn from the experience and gain something from it.
Most important, Harbaugh has done what all good coaches – and good leaders – do. He has gotten the players to believe in themselves. After the team’s opening season loss at Utah Harbaugh told the media he thought the players were being too down on themselves. He thought their effort had been good. Some of the players expressed disappointment because they felt they had let their coach down.
Harbaugh has leverage that sentiment to energize the team. It’s not about letting him – or any coach down – it’s about letting your teammates down. Good leaders preach one for all and all for one. There will be mistakes; there will be failures. What there will not be is lack of effort. If you give it your all, and you play for your teammates, then you will succeed. Not necessarily on the scoreboard but in the game of life.
Harbaugh can be intense, sure. Not every manager should radiate that kind of intensity, but what every manager can learn from Harbaugh is to look at the talent you have and see how you can make them better. And that begins by encouraging individuals to believe in themselves.
Note: My late father, L. P. Baldoni M.D., delivered Jim Harbaugh. Jim’s mom, Jackie, was a patient of Dad’s practice, and when she went into labor, it was Dad’s turn on call. I am grateful to Brett Forrest who informed me of my father’s role in Jim’s birth and wrote about it for ESPN the Magazine. My Dad, a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, would have enjoyed Jim’s return to Michigan as head coach.
