Do Your Job: The Patriot Way of Leadership

What do you do with a team member who is not doing their job?

Do what Bill Belichick, legendary coach of the New England Patriots, would do.

Stop, show, get assurance, do not repeat.

For example, during practice, a wide receiver runs the wrong route. Belichick would:

  1. Stop everything.
  2. Show the player what he did wrong.
  3. Show the player the correct way.
  4. Get assurance that the player understands the correct method.
  5. Get assurance that the player understands why the team needs him to do his job. (This is the answer to “Where are we rowing?”)
  6. Make it clear that next time it happens, we’ll have to stop everything (again). But this time, the player will down in exchange for a player who can do the job right.

Why?

It’s simple. If you want to go where we’re going, you gotta do your job.

Otherwise, someone who cares about getting to where we are going will.