The Super Bowl, Mike Vrabel & Bad Bunny: What's Love Got to Do with It?

All eyes this past Sunday were on the fantastic unity-and love-infused Bad Bunny halftime show. What a message! But truth be known, in our household it was, and always is, about the game. 

Super Bowl Sunday is a big day for me. Not because I especially love football. But, I love my husband and football helped define him. You see, Bill comes from a big Italian family. His grandparents were immigrants and their beloved grandson became the first in the family to graduate from college—the Ivy League no less. 

What helped spur Bill to the Ivy League? Yes, his big brain. But also, football. Bill, who played linebacker for Danvers High School in Massachusetts and who was co-captain of his New England championship winning team, was heavily recruited for his scholar-athlete bona fides. He turned down a number of great colleges to attend Dartmouth. Why Dartmouth? Because it was within 2 hours from his home and that meant his devoted mom could bring up pasta on Sundays when she came to watch his games.

As a New Englander through and through, you can imagine why this past Super Bowl Sunday was bigger than the usual big deal for our household. When the Patriots lost, Bill didn’t moan and groan. He simply said, “We’ll do better next year.”

I hope so. But the truth is, I’ve never really been a Patriots fan. Until now.

It was their former coach, Bill Belichick, who always got me fuming. Sure he won and won big (at least when Tom was on the team), but his leadership style was transactional, autocratic. He treated his players as replaceable parts in a system. He was arrogant and emotionally distant. For him, it was about the hierarchy and he was always on top. 

At the end of many games, Belichick would tell his team, “You didn’t do a good enough job, even though we won.” His was a win-at-all-costs approach, which makes him the poster boy for the kind of old school, traditional leadership I detail in my book, Intentional Power: The 6 Essential Leadership Skills for Triple Bottom Line Impact.

But the Patriots new coach, Mike Vrabel? Him, I love.

He cheers when they win and cheers when they lose. He shares credit and hoards blame. He’s a hugger who is not afraid to show emotion. He has a growth mindset. He makes mistakes and learns from those mistakes. With Mike Vrabel, the Patriots’ players have been celebrated every step along this “magical journey” that took them from a 4-13 season last year - before Vrabel took over - to this year’s Super Bowl. 

As Coach Vrabel said about leading a team, "You have to be intentional and get to know these guys, what they care about…They want to know: Can I trust this person? Are they knowledgeable? Does he care about me?" He’s been called the “Ted Lasso of American Football”.

The good news is that Mike Vrabel isn’t a fictional character. He’s proving that the “magical” Ted Lasso model of leadership can actually work in the highest levels of professional sports. He is THE model of modern leadership. As I explain to my global CEO coaching clients, the Ted Lasso approach doesn’t just work on the athletic field, it works in the highest level of business as well. Why? Because today’s best leaders understand that it is more than being about “Me”; it’s about ‘We”.

“Modern Leadership” as I define it has been around for a long while. Southwest Airlines co-founder and former CEO, Herb Kelleher, called it, “Leading with Love.” Repeatedly voted best CEO in the airline industry and celebrated as one of the most innovative CEOs in America, Herb Kelleher fundamentally believed that creating a company culture built around compassion, empathy, respect, and appreciation was the recipe for success. He said, "I'd rather have a company bound by love than a company bound by fear." This leadership doctrine delivered profitability to Southwest for 46 years in a row. 

Research shows that organizations which lead with love (as defined by six dimensions of compassionate leadership including empathy; openness and communication; physical health, mental health and well-being; inclusiveness; integrity; respect and dignity) outperform on every metric that matters: profit, productivity, retention, innovation, and customer satisfaction. It results in:

• Increased Employee Well-Being:

  • Reduced burnout and fatigue

  • Improved psychological well-being and life satisfaction

  • Better work-life balance

  • Decreased stress and mental ill-health

• Strengthened Organizational Culture:

  • Stronger psychological bonds between workers

  • Increased commitment to organization

  • Better collaboration

  • Lower turnover

  • More trusting and connected employees

• Enhanced Performance Metrics:

  • Higher overall productivity

  • Improved customer satisfaction

  • Better attraction and retention of talent

  • Competitive advantage in the long run

We are living in a time when traditional and modern leadership approaches are at war with each other. We are seeing the former gain leverage as cruelty, rather than compassion. Cruelty leadership appears to be driving the actions of many of those who are in the highest offices today. But as Bad Bunny reminded millions around the world: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” Lead with love and you’ll not only create a winning team, you’ll create a lasting legacy for yourself and your business.

Lead - LOVE - On!

Lisen

P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day 🥰

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