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Never waste a new leadership lesson, part II – Character, Excellence, and Culture 

Leadership is a team sport

In a prior article, I wrote, “I am a student and a teacher for life. I will never let a good leadership lesson go to waste.”

My eyes might be “untrained” for football, but our dismal Trojan Football season is not about football if you ask me. 

Most of what I know, practice, and teach over the last three decades relates to public policy, management, law, and the leadership required to link them. I am blessed to have led organizations in all three sectors: public, private, and not-for-profit. I still serve self-aware but focused on the mission and the people served by that mission. It is never about me but the people I serve. My teams and I educate, communicate, and develop, having raised and spent millions of dollars for causes we believe in and serve.

While my leadership may have accounted for 10% of our overall impact, 90% came from the organization’s unique culture and the remarkable team we assembled in service of that culture. Leadership is about creating high-performing teams that efficiently deliver the organization’s mission. 

In my years of service, I learned that great cultures leverage their mission, unique purpose, and values to strengthen their ethos. I may have drunk the “Kool-aid” of our brand, “We are Trojans, we are SC,” but I sincerely believe that is a promise we deliver to our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and fans. This brand sets us apart from the competition. Our constituents feel meaningfully connected to this brand and its promise. This brand is not pretentious but humbly rooted in character, excellence, and culture. 

Organizational purpose

Every organization has its idea of what it promotes. But without a clear purpose, communication, and accountability, the why and how are more elusive. It is not about doing something new. It is about finding and embracing what has worked for generations. Trojan legends will tell you how this has worked for them on and off the field. A retrospection and reflection on our USC Football culture may be the remedy we must prescribe to rediscover our excellence. 

Competencies to lead others start with building relationships and trust. To extend influence, leaders must lead by example. Steven Covey called this “modeling the way.” Strengthening others to empower them to act is a special gift. Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. Team building is essential to many critical functions of a team, including mission, vision, collaboration, culture, morale, and productivity. Leadership qualities like empathy and emotional intelligence, active listening, body language, and conflict resolution ensure a cohesive, successful team where members work together to deliver results. 

Character, Excellence, and Culture

The four and five-star recruits and transfer portals are great. Still, if they do not embrace this USC Football culture of excellence, character, and team to enable one another to act, to my leadership-trained eyes, we will not see winning back in the iconic Coliseum. Our coaches and student-athletes may be too worried about their reputations. Dale Carnegie famously said, “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, for your character is what you are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

Finally, a Trojan legend, a Rose Bowl, National, and Super Bowl champion, and my friend Riki Ellison said it best after this disappointing season:

“The thrashing by Notre Dame and closing the season with a resounding loss to our rival UCLA is the signature of the complete loss of USC Football tradition and culture. Sadly, the greatness of that culture is now a relic of the past with no affiliation to the present.”

I hope we return to teaching character, excellence, and teamwork. Tommy Trojan, the icon modeled after several USC Football players dating back to 1930, has long served as a reminder of the five qualities of a Trojan: faithful, scholarly, skillful, courageous, and ambitious.  

Fight on!