Tony Dungy on Serving

Tony Dungy had this to say about FCA's second core value:

Serving

Ever since I’ve been in a leadership position, my focus has been the model of Christ as the servant-leader. There are different ways to lead, but I’ve always felt that it’s better if other people follow me because they want to follow, not because I’ve been put up there as the leader and they have to follow. To do that, you have to earn people’s trust and their respect; and the way to do that is to show them you are there to help them. As coaches, that is our job—not necessarily to win a championship, but to help all the players, everyone in the organization, do their jobs as well as they can.

Practical ways for a coach to serve: I really try to, number one, be a role model and serve my team spiritually. I want to teach them as much as I can about football and how to be better players; but I also want to help them be good people, do well in the community and do well after football. So, I try to present those things to them so that they can see that football isn’t the end of the road. Therefore, I am hopefully serving them as individuals, serving their families, and also serving them by giving everything I have to make them the best players they can be.

How Christ’s example of serving factors into coaching: To me, Christ’s model was the best. He had quite a few disciples, but there were 12 guys He really poured Himself into. He did so much to make those guys the best team they could be. At times, that involved teaching, it involved His being the example, it involved one-on-one talks.

For me, it’s the same thing. I want my players to know that I’m not the one trying to be up front and get all the rewards, but I’m really there to make them the best team they can be. That’s going to involve working as hard as I can, spending hours studying the other team to get our game plans ready, and doing everything I can so that they can play well. And more than that, it is being involved, being there for them, being a sounding board and trying to help their families.