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The GM Shuffle with Michael Lombardi

A podcast about football & leadership with former NFL front office exec Michael Lombardi

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Overview

Throughout his three-decade long career with the NFL, Mike Lombardi worked as an NFL executive with the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles, and Oakland Raiders alongside NFL legends including Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh and Al Davis. On The GM Shuffle, Lombardi and co-host Femi Abebefe will tackle a wide range of topics weekly within the world of the NFL and break down everything listeners and fans need to know about players, coaches, organizations, the draft, free agency, and all the NFL storylines in a way that only they could with the success and credibility they bring to the podcast audience.

Organizations of all types will benefit from the insights found here. “Football is ultimately a business, and as in any successful business the most important ingredients are a sound culture, a realistic plan, strong leadership, and a talented workforce.” So let’s look at some of the leadership lessons to be found here.

The main lesson that comes through his experience with great coaches and owners is that culture comes first. “If you haven’t created an underlying ecosystem of excellence, short-term success is all it will ever be.”

He writes: “Character assessment is by far the hardest challenge for team builders. More than any other factor, inaccurate character assessment is why draft boards are to this day littered with so many mistakes. For starters, let’s be honest, there’s a sliding scale of morality in the NFL (as in every industry), in which the more talented a player is, the more he can get away with.”

Why We Like It

About the Host

Michael Lombardi is a three-time Super Bowl winner who has spent more than thirty years working in the NFL, with three of the most innovative minds the league has ever seen: Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh and Al Davis.

He has been an American football executive for decades. He has worked on the staffs of NFL legends Al Davis, Bill Walsh, and Bill Belichick and with Nick Saban while with the Cleveland Browns.

What Makes a Great Quarterback?

A winning way. (Winning is a habit.) A thick skin. (The measure of who we are is how we react to something that does not go our way.) Work ethic. (Your best player has to set a tone for intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning.) Football smarts. (A quick mind come with preparation. You prepare so well that you don’t have to think; you just react.) Innate ability. (Born with it quality: Walsh couldn’t define it, but he knew it when he saw it.) Carriage. (Quarterbacks have to inspire. They can always look as if they have it all under control and that somehow they will figure out how to lead the team to victory. No one wants to follow a sulker.) Leadership. (Quarterbacks who fail to gain the respect of teammates leave a team rudderless.)

From Bill Belichick

  • “Although practice doesn’t make perfect, it gets you closer to perfection each time you do it.”
  • “We aren’t collecting talent; we are building a team.”
  • Mental Toughness: Doing what is best for the team when it might not be the best for you. If players can fight past exhaustion, if they can focus when they’re completely drained, well, that’s mental toughness.

What Makes a Great Coach?

  • Command of the Room
  • Command of the Message
  • Command of Self
  • Command of Opportunity
  • Command of the Process

Interested in one-one coaching?

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Interested in one-one coaching?

Optimize your performance and 10x your results with NVG High Performance Coaching
Learn More

Host

Michael Lombardi and Feme Abebefe

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Host

Michael Lombardi and Feme Abebefe

Tags

, , ,

Overview

Throughout his three-decade long career with the NFL, Mike Lombardi worked as an NFL executive with the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles, and Oakland Raiders alongside NFL legends including Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh and Al Davis. On The GM Shuffle, Lombardi and co-host Femi Abebefe will tackle a wide range of topics weekly within the world of the NFL and break down everything listeners and fans need to know about players, coaches, organizations, the draft, free agency, and all the NFL storylines in a way that only they could with the success and credibility they bring to the podcast audience.

Organizations of all types will benefit from the insights found here. “Football is ultimately a business, and as in any successful business the most important ingredients are a sound culture, a realistic plan, strong leadership, and a talented workforce.” So let’s look at some of the leadership lessons to be found here.

The main lesson that comes through his experience with great coaches and owners is that culture comes first. “If you haven’t created an underlying ecosystem of excellence, short-term success is all it will ever be.”

He writes: “Character assessment is by far the hardest challenge for team builders. More than any other factor, inaccurate character assessment is why draft boards are to this day littered with so many mistakes. For starters, let’s be honest, there’s a sliding scale of morality in the NFL (as in every industry), in which the more talented a player is, the more he can get away with.”

Why We Like It

About the Host

Michael Lombardi is a three-time Super Bowl winner who has spent more than thirty years working in the NFL, with three of the most innovative minds the league has ever seen: Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh and Al Davis.

He has been an American football executive for decades. He has worked on the staffs of NFL legends Al Davis, Bill Walsh, and Bill Belichick and with Nick Saban while with the Cleveland Browns.

What Makes a Great Quarterback?

A winning way. (Winning is a habit.) A thick skin. (The measure of who we are is how we react to something that does not go our way.) Work ethic. (Your best player has to set a tone for intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning.) Football smarts. (A quick mind come with preparation. You prepare so well that you don’t have to think; you just react.) Innate ability. (Born with it quality: Walsh couldn’t define it, but he knew it when he saw it.) Carriage. (Quarterbacks have to inspire. They can always look as if they have it all under control and that somehow they will figure out how to lead the team to victory. No one wants to follow a sulker.) Leadership. (Quarterbacks who fail to gain the respect of teammates leave a team rudderless.)

From Bill Belichick

  • “Although practice doesn’t make perfect, it gets you closer to perfection each time you do it.”
  • “We aren’t collecting talent; we are building a team.”
  • Mental Toughness: Doing what is best for the team when it might not be the best for you. If players can fight past exhaustion, if they can focus when they’re completely drained, well, that’s mental toughness.

What Makes a Great Coach?

  • Command of the Room
  • Command of the Message
  • Command of Self
  • Command of Opportunity
  • Command of the Process

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