While the rest of the country is still watching replays and school-kids lie in bed dreaming of All Blacks’ glory, the All Blacks themselves are tidying up after themselves.
Sweeping the sheds

Doing it properly.
So no one else has to.
Because no one looks after the All Blacks.
The All Blacks look after themselves.

-James Kerr
“Legacy”

This year I helped organize a “Coaches Leadership Academy” at our high school. While I may not be coaching football, wrestling, or track anymore, I’ll always be a coach, and I have a passion for coaching coaches and helping them reach their potential because I know how profound of an effect they can have on a campus. Part of what we do in the Coaches Leadership Academy is a book study (leaders are readers!). This year, as a staff, we are reading “Legacy“ by James Kerr. It’s a really good book about the leadership principals that guide the most successful professional sports organization in history, The New Zealand All Blacks.

The first chapter is titled, “Sweep The Sheds.” The VERY short version is that after each game, the team captains are the ones who clean up the locker room. I love the quote at the top of this page. “Because no one looks after the All Blacks. The All Blacks look after themselves.” It’s interesting to me that he starts the book with this chapter. I think it speaks to how important humility and servant-leadership are to leading a team of people. The following are some of the thoughts that I shared with the coaches in the Leadership Academy, but I think the concepts apply to leaders of any type of organization.

As a leader, I think we have to be willing to show that no task is “beneath us.” Some of us “more seasoned” coaches have had the “luxury” of getting to mow and paint the fields, paint the locker rooms, mop the mats, and sweep the gym floors on a regular basis, and while that may have seemed like a colossal beatdown at the time, I think it helped to naturally develop a “sweep the sheds” mentality in many coaches throughout the years. In most big schools today, we are fortunate to not “have to” do many of those things, but I think that not having to do those things can come with a cost (I acknowledge that there are still a lot of coaches out there in smaller schools still doing these things on a regular basis. God bless you guys!). It becomes so easy for entitlement to creep into our way of thinking. It’s so easy to say “that’s not my job.” We have to actively fight off that entitlement. I think it comes down to intentionally looking for things that need to be done and taking on the responsibility of making sure they get done.

The best head coach I ever worked for called it the “Carl Fridrich Rule” (Carl Fridrich was his dad). Each year, he’d address his whole staff before football season started, and he always talked about the Carl Fridrich Rule. Here’s the short version… When he was a kid, he always knew that when his dad got home from work, all of the kids had better be doing something productive around the house. If Carl walked in and saw the kids just sitting around, he’d always ask them, “Couldn’t you see that ______ needed to be done?!” Coach Fred (my boss at the time) charged us with taking on that type of mentality. If something needs to be done, do it. Don’t look for someone else to do it. Don’t say “it’s not my job.” Don’t let it sit there because it might not be that big of a deal. Take care of it because that’s what first-class coaches in first-class programs do. I’ve never been around such a selfless group of men, and I am certain that Coach Fred’s leadership had an awful lot to do with that.

How do we build that into our athletes? I think this might be one of our biggest challenges in a lot of places because so many of our kids today are not asked to do these types of things at home. First, I think we have to abandon a “pay your dues” mentality. I have seen a lot of places where freshmen (or JV) eat last or sub-varsity players are responsible for picking up the field after practice. Instead, I think we have a few other ways to approach it. Talk to your leaders separately, and get them to understand the importance of modeling “sweep the sheds” for the underclassmen. Assign leaders to various groups to make sure things get done. Praise kids when you catch them going above and beyond or when they do something that’s not necessarily considered “their job.”

Our administrators do something at my high school to try to help build a sweep the sheds mentality. We carry around “Busted” cards. If we catch a student picking up trash or doing something for the greater good, we give them a busted card because we “busted them doing something good.” That card is good to get one of their tardies excused. You know what’s interesting about it? It seems like the students that we continue to “bust” are also the students who never need to have a tardy excused. Funny correlation, huh?

How do we model “sweep the sheds” as leaders? A few years ago, I interviewed for a football job. It wasn’t a “great job” in the eyes of many. It was a place that had been down for some time, but a buddy of mine told me that I’d like working for the head coach. As I interviewed, he took me across campus to give me the tour and to meet with the principal. One thing I noticed as we made the long walk across campus was that he stopped and picked up every piece of trash that he saw along the way. He was a new head coach. He had come from a very successful 6A program in Texas where he’d been the offensive coordinator in 3 straight state championship games, and now he was trying to put together his own staff for the very first time. However, he still made an effort, as he showed me the campus, to pick up the pieces of trash that he saw. He knew that the way you do the small thing was the way you do all things (which happened to be something Coach Fred would always say). As I watched him pick up trash, I knew this was a guy who got it. I accepted his job offer as soon as he called me. Modeling “sweep the sheds” doesn’t have to be complicated. We just have to be intentional about it.

Last week our assistant athletic director told us a story about our superintendent. When our assistant AD was still working at the campus level as a head women’s basketball coach, her building principal was the man who is now our superintendent. They were opening a new building. She went to him one day asking if he knew when the computers were going to be installed in the offices. She said he looked at her and said, “You don’t have a computer yet?” He immediately got up and said, “come with me.” Next thing you know, this campus principal was opening boxes and setting up her computer on her desk for her, so she could get to work. Imagine how busy a brand new principal is when he’s opening a brand new building and trying to hire a brand new staff. Yet, he still took the time to serve one of his teachers. He was sweeping the sheds. I wonder why he is now the superintendent of one of the fastest growing school districts in America?

Sweep the sheds. Do the little things that other people aren’t willing to do so that you can enjoy the success that other people won’t. No job is too small or insignificant for true leaders.

How do you model “sweeping the sheds” for your team? How do you build that kind of a culture throughout your team or organization? I’d love to hear some great examples. Feel free to share in the comments or online through social media. As always, thank you for taking the time to read and share. I really appreciate you!

Before You Go!

Check out the new “Leaders are Readers“ link at the top of the page. I’m starting to compile a list of some of the books that have had an impact on me over the last 5-10 years. It’s a work in progress, but as I’m writing this, I think there are already 34 books listed with a few short comments about my thoughts on each one. If you’re looking for something new to read, you might find a suggestion that interests you there. Also, I’m always looking for new books to add to my list. If you have any suggestions, please share them. I love talking about books!

Your level of influence is directly correlated to the amount of reading that you do. If you’re not reading on a regular basis, you probably just haven’t found what interests you yet. Dig through and see if something sticks.