Nick Saban highlights Alabama leadership, believes leadership takes two parts
Alabama head coach Nick Saban gave his unique perspective as a coach about what leadership means for the entire Alabama team on Wednesday, while calling out his team in a teachable moment. While speaking in a press appearance, Saban was asked what he had seen out of his team in terms of leadership through their recent scrimmage.
Saban answered with plenty of positives about his team and the leaders who inspire players around them, but cautioned against every player who may believe leadership didn’t apply to them.
Nick Saban on leadership
“I do think that we have some really positive leadership on this team,” began Saban. “I’ve talked about this before, we have some really good leaders. But there’s two parts of leadership. There’s players who lead, and we have some really good players doing that. But there’s also players that have to learn how to respond to leadership. That means they take ownership for doing what the leaders ask them to do.
“And that’s something that everybody’s gotta make a decision and a commitment that they’re willing to do, to take ownership for doing that. So there’s one thing to command things, but there’s another thing to take ownership for it yourself so you can buy into what people are asking you to do.”
“You know, a really simple example — I guess I would be considered a leader,” continued Saban. “But when I say ‘run to the next drill,’ and everybody continues to walk — am I being a bad leader? Or are they not responding to leadership? That’s the question. So we have good leadership, but people have to learn how to respond to it and take ownership for the standard and the level the leadership has an expectation for them to aspire to.”
Alabama’s headman never seems to miss an opportunity to teach and coach his team, and his lesson about taking ownership of your own individual work is another reason why he’s become one of the biggest coaches in the history of the sport.