Why does it seem harder to win season after season for many sports teams?

They put together a winning team to reach a pinnacle of success last season. Why can’t they do it this year? And next year? And the year after that?

What does it take to put together winning streaks?

Look at the teams that win NCAA titles or the Super Bowl. Not many of them repeat that success.

Even a winning coach like Bill Belichick lost his star quarterback and the Patriots were a lesser team.

Success breeds complacency. That is the problem for most teams.

They begin to take success for granted. It lulls them into cutting corners and taking the easy way out.

Bear’s secret

One reason Paul “Bear” Bryant was so successful as the University of Alabama football coach was he never took success for granted.

His teams worked hard.

“I want practices to be so grueling that the games will seem easy,” he once said.

Nick Saban, who took over a failing Alabama football program long after Bryant had retired, follows the same principles.

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 business minds and thought leaders.

Saban expects top performance from everyone. They must produce at every practice. If you rest of your laurels, someone will run over you. That takes discipline.

Nick’s secret

“The hardest thing is the discipline,” Saban said.

When it comes to discipline, you as their leader must set the example.

“The first thing about leadership to me is that you really have to be somebody that somebody (else) wants to emulate,” Saban said.

“You have to do things the right way yourself.

“A lot of times, people would rather not choose to do that because it requires a commitment on their part.”

The next part of leadership, Saban said, is a willingness “to help other people for their benefit, not for your benefit.”

Doing it for your benefit “is manipulation,” he said.

Saban said building good individual leaders on a team by investing time in them on a 1-to-1 basis allows them to influence positively those around them.

“If you have a good leader at every position, he can impact every player at his position,” Saban said.

If you have good leadership in every part of your business, they can influence all the others.

“Individuals make the team what it is,” Saban said.

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