Creating a culture of winning paves way for success

In any competitive arena – not just sports … but also politics and sales – there is the never-ending quest for the key to success. Those who find it, get showered with rewards. Those who don’t, wallow in mediocrity … and eventually fade into oblivion.

Every once in a while we get a vivid reminder that one of the most important keys to success is creating a culture. And getting everyone on that team to become a passionate, fully-immersed part of that culture. It’s not a new idea. In the world of cosmetics sales, companies such as Avon and Mary Kay mastered this idea many years ago. They got their sales associates to buy into an all-consuming beauty culture. And they successfully passed that culture on to their customers. Beauty became the be-all and end-all … and it worked.

In the world of politics, there is no better example than Donald Trump. He created a culture that revolved around the common man and pitted all who ascribed to that culture against “the swamp” in Washington, the “fake news” propagators in the media, and the intellectual elitists on the college campuses.

There was a grass roots movement across America and the supporters truly believed they were finally uniting against the establishment. All he did was pull off the biggest upset in American political history.

In the world of sports, in many ways, it is more difficult to create a culture that leads to championships.

On the professional side, coaches are dealing with athletes who are making millions of dollars each year. They have already reached a financial level that stretches beyond their wildest dreams. The normal methods of motivation are ineffective.

Getting millionaires to buyin to a common culture is extremely difficult. But not impossible.

Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, found a way. He uses the “us against the world” mentality. He constantly preaches to his players that the rest of the world is uniting against them – trying to take away their victories, their championships. He recites it until they start to believe it … and the anger rises … and so does the win totals.

It has worked for almost 20 years.

Conversely, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson tried a very different approach. Shortly after his arrival in South

Philly it sounded as if the players in this most violent sport had joined the Peace and Love movement. Pederson began talking about how much he loved his players. The players then started talking about how much they loved each other. It bordered on sickening.

But then there were multiple signs of team unity. Unselfish behavior became the norm.

Former Super Bowl champions and Pro Bowl players put their ego aside. The best example was running back Legarrette Blount who never complained when Jay Ajayi joined the team in midseason to take away much of his playing time. Instead, he helped him learn the system and the two provided the Eagles with a punishing running game.

Likewise, quarterback Carson Wentz did not sulk when his AllPro season was ended by a severe knee injury. Instead he worked hard to help Nick Foles become the knowledgeable, confident quarterback who led the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory.

New Phillies manager Gabe Kapler is trying to create a new culture of physical fitness and fanatical attention to nutrition on his team. He still has some convincing to do. By the looks of some of the players on the team, they have not all joined the movement.

On the collegiate scene, coaches face a much different challenge. Motivating players is not a problem. Getting to know them is a challenge.

In college basketball, especially, many star players come to a school with the idea of spending one season on the team … then moving on to the professional level. Even if a coach creates a culture that can lead to success, the players don’t travel the path long enough to become a part of it.

Teams like Arizona and Kentucky were stocked with one-and-done McDonald’s All-Americans, making a quick pit stop on their way to the NBA. Each school made an early and unexpected exit from the NCAA tournament. The mass exodus from the college campus already has started.

Even Duke – ranked No. 1 at the start of the season and relying on the coaching magic of Mike Krzyzewski – couldn’t reach the Final Four. They will see key players leave before they could be immersed in that Duke culture.

A master at creating a culture is Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright. Two Final Four appearances in three years is proof of it. Putting together a team that has won more games over a four-year stretch than any other team in college basketball history is proof of it. Winning the 2016 national championship over North Carolina, one of the elite names in the history of the game, is proof of it.

But hearing the players speak in a unified language is even more proof of it. They constantly refer to the key to their success as “playing Villanova basketball.” They constantly refer to their ultimate goal as “getting better every day.” They constantly run in unison to pick up a teammate when he has been knocked to the floor.

There is no doubt that they have bought into the culture created by Wright.

Look no further than the other tiny Catholic university that found its way into the Final Four, Loyola Chicago. It has an undergraduate enrollment of 11,000 students – 66 percent female and 34 percent male. Pair them with Villanova – 6,000 students – and they total about one-third of the combined student population of the other two Final Four schools – Kansas (20,000) and Michigan (31,000).

If there is any doubt that Coach Porter Moser has created a culture that works at Loyola, then you have not been watching the NCAA tournament. There is a noticeable closeness among the Loyola players, mostly upperclassmen who have been around long enough to become ingrained in the atmosphere.

No doubt, creating a culture — and selling that culture to the participants — is a big part of success. The few who have done it sit atop their worlds.

Tony Leodora is president of TL Golf Services, host of the weekly GolfTalk Live radio show on WNTP 990-AM and host of the Traveling Golfer television show — as well as editor of GolfStyles magazine. He is former sports editor of The Times Herald. Send comments to tlgolfservices@aol.com.