Jimmy Johnson Quotes From: Turning The Thing Around

Jimmy Johnson Quotes From: Turning The Thing Around

“To any general, CEO, coach, or author, the element of surprise is a fundamental advantage.” [p. 2]

“I know you can find a stack of books at any bookstore on everybody’s opinion of how to be successful.  It’s not that easy for me.  It has to do with dealing with people, how we structure our organization.” [p. 5]

“…I am a pretty good wizard. Tin Man had a heart, Scarecrow had a brain, and Lion had courage.  They just needed to be told.  That’s my job.  Everybody needs to be-can be-motivated, no matter how much money he or she makes.  Different personalities require different catalysts.  Lion had to be yelled at. Tin Man had to be touched.  Scarecrow had to be challenged.  After that, they were a helluva team….Wizardry is a thorough understanding and application and projection of reality.  Wizardry is seeing a person as the very best that he can be, treating him on that level, and waiting for him to rise to it.  He always will, given time….Wizardry is quite logical, but it is at times emotional, because it is entirely human.” [p. 7]

“Jerry operates somewhat like another, even richer, Arkansan, the late Sam Walton of Walmart: no middle men. Cut straight to the top.” [p. 17]

“Jerry is such a great salesman.  I don’t think “if” is in his vocabulary.  He always talks as though the deal is already done.  He doesn’t say, “Here’s what we could do,” he says, “Here’s what we’re going to do [Here’s what I am doing].” [p. 18]

“…But my strategy was a rope-a-dope.  I was lying on the ropes, letting them take their swings, knowing that eventually they would punch themselves out.  Occasionally I’d peek-a-boo between my gloves…I knew better than to be any more aggressive than that, because I didn’t yet have the credibility with them on which to take an aggressive stance…” [p. 30]

“That’s the kind of bonding and loyalty we build on my staff….When I bring in a new guy, I bring in more the person than the coach-someone I’m certain will click with our chemistry right away….I wanted to have the right kind of people that I could work with, who could learn and develop, and have the right kind of chemistry for a group that was going to be with each other night and day, year round. [p. 36]

“We had gone in knowing it would take us time and a lot of work to turn the thing around….we couldn’t rely on conventional methods of rebuilding.” [p. 45]

“When people make a trade they always think they’re getting more than they’re giving.” [p. 50]

“But turning points are always determined in retrospect, and only if you’ve followed through thoroughly. All I’ve illustrated to you so far is that I’m a pretty fair commodities futures broker.” [p.54]

“…industrial psychologist. Such specialists evaluate the personalities and aptitudes of employees, develop ways to teach them their jobs more efficiently, and generally try to keep them happy on the job.  Any good CEO knows that such corporate caring makes the company more efficient and profitable.  (And so does any good football coach, though again, I wasn’t at all thinking in terms of coaching.  I hadn’t hit on the right job yet, but I was definitely on the right track: making people happy, making people fit into a plan, making people proficient and efficient.” [p. 74]

“All my life I’ve kept a positive attitude even when I had to work at it.” [p. 80]

“When you see a new head coach come into any program, clean house and bring in his own people, it isn’t just because he wants to give all his old buddies jobs.  I repeat, and I cannot say it enough times, that coaching staffs must be bonded to function properly. They must know one another well, like one another (hell even their wives and girlfriends have to like one another) and be able to communicate very efficiently.” [p. 104]

“Confidence is necessary to play football [and to do anything].  Different players have different ways of building confidence.  Both my formal training in psychology and my decades of firsthand experience with human beings told me that if I stymied and handcuffed the players who needed to be demonstrative, I would stymie and handcuff their confidence.  Because of a lot of our players’ backgrounds, we had to be somewhat flamboyant.” [p. 130]

“I have formal training in the psychology of learning, but none of that does any good on an unwilling or uncaring pupil.” [p. 180]

“You can have the greatest eye in the world for physical talent, and fill a roster with the finest players in America, and be the smartest Xs and Os coach in America, and you can still watch a team fall flat on its face. Why? Because human beings haven’t been made to feel the best that they can possibly feel about themselves.  Seeing people as the best that they can be, and getting them to see it too, is my job.  And I am pretty good at it.” [p. 187]

“I never tell a running back, “Don’t fumble.” I never tell a placekicker, “Don’t miss.” I say to a running back, “Protect the ball.” I say to the placekicker, “Make this.” You’d be surprised how few coaches understand the simple psychology I’m using here. But in my opinion, it is vital psychology.  The human mind, upon receiving the message, “Don’t fumble,” will record the word “fumble” and, consciously or not, worry over it.  The “Don’t” doesn’t help.  If anything it hurts, because it’s a negative.  And so the running back told, “Don’t fumble,” is more likely to fumble than if the coach had said nothing at all.  So I try never to plant a negative seed.  I try to make every comment a positive comment. In recent years, specialists called sports psychologists have been collecting some nice fees from some professional athletes.  For these fees, all they are doing is teaching the athletes to turn their thinking around-to think, “protect the ball” or “make this,” or in the case of baseball pitchers, “throw strikes.” We have even seen psychologists sitting behind home plate so their clients could see them from the mound. Why? Well, because they’re doing part of the job which, in my opinion, any coach or manager should be doing, which is to make the player feel as good about himself as he can possibly feel, all the time.  You’d think every coach, manager and CEO in America would understand this by now.  Certainly, any CEO who might have hired James W. Johnson as an industrial psychologist would have had it made abundantly clear to him.  There’s just too much scientific evidence to support positive management.” [p. 189]