"Accidental greatness" never happens. Nobody accidentally "works hard". Not that working hard guarantees anything. Anybody can get lucky once, but repeated success invariably reflects reproducible process.
At the hospital where I practice, we had a young African-American, Troy, who was head of Environmental Services. He dressed impeccably, but also jumped in and showed employees what to do, when and how to do it. I told him "you won't be here long" and he asked "why?" "Because how you go about your business marks you for something bigger." Troy was gone (to a bigger hospital and bigger job) in less than a year.
Distinguish what we do from who we are. We can be great at our job and a dishonorable person...or vice versa. But as leaders, we have the opportunity to influence others profoundly...positively and negatively.
Stephen M.R. Covey shares the duality of character and competence. What you see (competence) and that less observable both are vital. There are great and nefarious leaders in history with great results and abominable character.
What are some great examples of great process in sports? In Saban, Monte Burke's unauthorized bio, he says that Saban's wife attributes her husband's success to his greatness recruiting. In John Calipari's Players First, he acknowledges that he only recruits among the top fifty high school players. Pete Newell, John Wooden, and Bob Knight were known for their brilliant teaching of fundamentals. Dean Smith was an innovator in use of analytics and practice techniques, like occasional scrimmage scoring by SHOT QUALITY. Anson Dorrance of UNC women's soccer brews a "competitive cauldron" with a heavy emphasize on conditioning.
What the above also shows are many varied pathways to success. But none of these are possible without talent. But talent is insufficient. Few of us know of Larisa
Preobrazhenskaya, the Mother of Tennis. But all of us know her proteges. She was known for focusing on fundamentals, to the point that students did not play tournament matches for THREE YEARS. She emphasized imitatsiya - rallying in slow motion with an imaginary ball.
In one of her classes of ten students, three achieved top ten rankings in the world...despite players getting GROUP (not private) lessons in a dilapidated facility.
Indeed, 'technique is everything'.
