Play to win. It is an easy thing to say; the words flow naturally enough. It is a harder thing to do, though — harder and harder as the pages of the NFL calendar turn, and the games get bigger, and the regular season melts into the playoffs, and the playoffs finish in the Super 
Bowl.
But as they often say, 'fortune favors the bold.'
On Sunday, it was Sean Payton, the coach once stripped of his play-calling duties while he was the Giants’ offensive coordinator, whose game plan kept the ball away from quarterback Peyton Manning and the Colts’ productive offense. At the big game, it was Payton, not Peyton, whose team produced 31 of the final 38 points, matching the biggest deficit overcome in Super Bowl history.
For the New Orleans Saints’ the decision that ultimately turned Super Bowl XLIV in the Saints' favor came before the game even started. Prior to kickoff Sean Payton told the Saints team that they would go for an onside kick in the second or third quarter.
At halftime, with the Saints trailing the Indianapolis Colts 10-6, Payton made the call.
Saints Coach Sean Payton understood that if he wanted to reap the greatest reward, he needed to take some risks.
Statesman.com did a good job of putting the call into perspective:
To call an onside kicks in that situation is to risk disaster — and, worse, in today's world, it is to risk ridicule. There is a reason people go by the book — because, if it all blows up on you, you can shrug and say, "I went by the book."
Sean Payton? He called the onside kick — and it worked. And as he said afterward, "At halftime, I just told those guys, 'You've got to make me look right here.'"
In the end, leadership is the act or bringing about positive change. This requires leaders to initiate, to blaze new trails, to venture into the unknown and unexplored terrain. All of this entails risk. Kouzes and Posner in their bestselling book, “The Leadership Challenge” describes it this way:
Bowl.But as they often say, 'fortune favors the bold.'
On Sunday, it was Sean Payton, the coach once stripped of his play-calling duties while he was the Giants’ offensive coordinator, whose game plan kept the ball away from quarterback Peyton Manning and the Colts’ productive offense. At the big game, it was Payton, not Peyton, whose team produced 31 of the final 38 points, matching the biggest deficit overcome in Super Bowl history.
For the New Orleans Saints’ the decision that ultimately turned Super Bowl XLIV in the Saints' favor came before the game even started. Prior to kickoff Sean Payton told the Saints team that they would go for an onside kick in the second or third quarter.
At halftime, with the Saints trailing the Indianapolis Colts 10-6, Payton made the call.
Saints Coach Sean Payton understood that if he wanted to reap the greatest reward, he needed to take some risks.
Statesman.com did a good job of putting the call into perspective:
To call an onside kicks in that situation is to risk disaster — and, worse, in today's world, it is to risk ridicule. There is a reason people go by the book — because, if it all blows up on you, you can shrug and say, "I went by the book."
Sean Payton? He called the onside kick — and it worked. And as he said afterward, "At halftime, I just told those guys, 'You've got to make me look right here.'"
In the end, leadership is the act or bringing about positive change. This requires leaders to initiate, to blaze new trails, to venture into the unknown and unexplored terrain. All of this entails risk. Kouzes and Posner in their bestselling book, “The Leadership Challenge” describes it this way:
“Leaders are pioneers – people who are willing to step out into the unknown.
They are people who are willing to take risks, to innovate and experiment in
order to find new an better ways of doing things.”
Leaders take these risk because they have a vision, they see a future and a new world that inspires action and makes the risk worthwhile. Leaders are pioneers… not settlers. Great leaders take risk. They push past the edge of their current reality. Striving to bring their vision into today.
Sean Payton did just that. He dared to be great - he pushed the envelope because he saw his team as a Champion and took the risks necessary to get them there.
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