Have you ever heard of “The Process?”

No, not the 1 still being undertaken by the Philadelphia 76ers.

It‘s what Alabama head football coach Nick Saban teaches his football players.

It works because he’s produced 7 national title teams. Saban and his coaches drill this into their players about how to think and act at practice and in games.

It works like this:

1. You are going to get knocked down on every play. If not, you’re not playing hard or fast enough.

2. Get up and go to the huddle or leave the field.

3. Ignore the clock. Let Nick worry about that.

4. Ignore the score. Let him worry about that too.

If we’re behind, we’ll catch up. We always do.

5. Never rest until you get back to the bench. If we’re ahead, keep driving. Our opponent aims to catch us.

6. You know what you must do on the next play.

7. It will last 6 to 10 seconds. Use the seconds well.

Make it yours

Sounds simple, doesn’t it. But when you’re getting knocked down hard every 10 seconds in a 4-hour college football game, it’s not always easy to remember.

That’s why you practice every day. You make that warrior ethic a habit.

Good habits are hard to acquire, but easier for you to live with. Bad habits are easy to acquire but harder to live with.

When Saban recently appeared on a podcast, he shared other thoughts about leadership and the path to success in life.

“One thing I struggle with is we live in such an outcome-oriented world,” Saban said. “People want to focus on outcomes. I think outcomes are a bit of a distraction.”

As leaders, we should focus on the process.That is, doing the things big and small that will produce the results we want.

Rather than talking about how much you aim to achieve, work with others to do what will get the results all of you want to achieve.

Share your vision

Saban shared this at the Columbia Regional Business Report’s 21st Century Business Forum sponsored by Nephron Pharmaceuticals.

The program features monthly interviews with some of the nation’s most prominent thought leaders.

In business, as in sports, what’s most important for leaders to do is to define and create their organization’s culture, Saban told podcast host, Jon Gordon.

Leaders need “to get people to have a vision for what they want to accomplish and what they want to do, to get them to understand ‘here’s the things you have to do to accomplish. Here’s how you have to edit your behavior to be able to do it,’ and then have the discipline to execute it every day.”

Got a Nick Saban story to share? Email the Sports Grouch at ChronicleSports@yahoo.com.