12 Benefits You Get When Leaders Turn Up The Heat

12 Benefits You Get When Leaders Turn Up The Heat

Today, The Rocket Company CEO Michael Lukaszewski conducted our weekly team meeting with an appropriate high level of passion and energy.  It was awesome!
What Michael and all great leaders intuitively know is there are times when every organization, no matter how effective and successful they may be, needs to raise their level of energy.  Great leaders know they must instill a sense of urgency and turn up the heat.
As I thought about our meeting today, I remembered a September 30th Sports Illustrated article about Head Coach Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes football team.  Few leaders instill a sense of urgency and turn up the heat like Coach Meyer.
As I read the article written by Pete Thamel, I gleaned 12 Benefits You Get When Leaders Turn Up The Heat: 

1. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Develop Smart Organizations – Offensive Coordinator Tom Herman, a Mensa member, spends hundreds of hours of practice and studying game film to prepare for games.
2. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Relentlessly Prepare – Great leaders leave nothing to chance.  Ohio State’s offensive precision is a result of intense repetition.  The plays most likely to take place during a game are practiced 100 to 300 times.
3. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Create Healthy Tension – Coach Urban Meyer does not suffer from passivity.  He leads with “relentless tension.”
4. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Provide Guidelines For Others Operate Within – Meyer provides a “macro message” and Herman executes the play calling within those guidelines.
5. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Are Constantly Thinking Ahead – Great leaders limit surprises to as few as possible.  Meyer is always thinking two to three plays ahead at all times.
6. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Are Idea Generators – Do you implement every idea you have or do you give some ideas time to mature?  Great leaders redshirt ideas.  Meyer and Herman choose not to run certain plays in blowout wins to save them for future opponents.
7. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Lead Fast Moving Teams – When your team is smart, well-prepared and operates within known guideline you have established, they do not have to come to you for approval of every decision.  Backup quarterback Kenny Guiton says, “You can move fast when everyone knows what they’re doing.”
8. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Model What Effective Leadership Looks Like – Following Meyer’s lead, quarterback Braxton Miller says, “If I come in lazy (to practice) the whole team’s vibe isn’t there.”
9. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Get The Most Out Of Their Teams – Herman adjusted his coaching style because of Miller’s odd mix of physical talent and aloofness.
10. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Get Results – Michael talked a lot in our meeting today about not confusing activity with accomplishment.  Meyer said prior to playing Buffalo, 4-8 in 2012, “I didn’t schedule this game.  I’m not going to feel bad for them.” He is all about results.
11. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Demand Excellence – After defeating Buffalo by “only” a score of 40-20, Meyer said, “That’s my fault.  I’ve got to get better.  I’m going to take the hit for this one.” He even added, “Well, we got outcoached today.”
12. Leaders Who Turn Up The Heat Increase Production – Meyer concludes, “When there’s a sense of urgency, that’s when production increases.  When there’s lack of urgency, there’s complacency, and that’s terrible.”

What do you think of leaders who turn up the heat?