This weekend, millions of us will tune in to watch College Football Championship Weekend. We will see confetti, trophies, and legacies defined in sixty minutes of play. The networks will build narratives around “destiny” and “glory,” but if you listen closely to the post-game interviews, you’ll notice a distinct pattern among the winning coaches. They rarely talk about the “need to win” or the shiny trophy. They talk almost exclusively about execution.
As we head into our own version of “Championship Weekend”—closing out Q4, finalizing budgets, and locking in Go-To-Market strategies for 2026—there is a valuable lesson to be learned from the architect of the greatest dynasty in modern sports, Nick Saban.
His advice on handling high-stakes pressure is counterintuitive:
“Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship. Don’t think about the national championship. Think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That is the process. Let’s finish!” — Nick Saban
In business, we are often guilty of “scoreboard watching.” We obsess over lagging indicators: the stock price, the quarterly revenue target, or the signed contract. While these metrics matter, fixating on them during the game is a distraction. It creates anxiety, tightness, and emotional decision-making.
Saban’s philosophy, known simply as “The Process,” flips this dynamic. It argues that the score is just a byproduct of the habits you execute in the dark. To apply this to your leadership, consider these three pillars:
- Redefine the Goal: The “National Championship” is your annual revenue target; the “Drill” is the quality of the email you are writing right now. Great leaders narrow the focus. Don’t ask your team to “win the quarter” today. Ask them to win the 10:00 AM meeting.
- The Standard is the Standard: Saban was famous for ripping into his defense even when they were up by 30 points. Why? Because the standard of excellence doesn’t change based on the score. In business, this means treating a $500 invoice with the same process rigor as a $5 million contract. If you get sloppy with the small stuff because you’re “winning,” you build the habits that will eventually make you lose.
- Eliminate the Clutter: Championship environments are noisy. There is media, hype, and criticism. The “Process” is about mental shielding—ignoring the external noise (market volatility, competitor gossip) to focus entirely on internal execution.
We saw the ultimate real-life example of this during the 2018 National Championship game. Alabama was down 13-0 at halftime against Georgia. The offense was stagnant, and the “outcome” looked bleak. If Saban had focused on the scoreboard or the championship trophy, the safe, logical move would have been to stick with Jalen Hurts—a quarterback who had gone 26-2 as a starter—and hope for a lucky break.
Instead, Saban focused purely on “what is needed in this moment.” The moment called for a passing spark that the current strategy wasn’t providing. He made the gut-wrenching decision to bench his proven starter for a true freshman, Tua Tagovailoa. It was a massive risk. If it failed, he would have been villainized. But he didn’t manage for the narrative; he managed for the immediate need of the next play. The freshman threw the game-winning touchdown in overtime.
In business, we face this “halftime” constantly. We stick with legacy software, underperforming vendors, or comfortable strategies because “they got us this far” (the Sunk Cost Fallacy). True leadership requires the discipline to pivot a strategy or reallocate resources now—even if it’s uncomfortable—because the immediate “drill” demands it, regardless of what the Q4 projections said two months ago.
As you watch the games this weekend, enjoy the spectacle. But come Monday morning, stop looking at the trophy. Keep your eyes on the drill in front of you. That’s how dynasties are built.
Book Recommendation 📖
The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh. While Saban perfected “The Process,” Bill Walsh invented the philosophy for the modern era. When Walsh took over the 49ers, they were the worst team in the league. He didn’t set a goal to win a Super Bowl. He set a “Standard of Performance”—dictating everything from how players tucked in their shirts to how receptionists answered the phone. He believed that if you perfected the micro-details, the winning would happen automatically.
Much Watch Video 📺 🔥🔥🔥
A must watch, Nick Saban: The Process of Sustained Excellence. I selected this video because it breaks down the specific components of Saban’s “Process” (Process over Outcome, Vision-Driven Culture) in a way that directly translates to business leadership, perfectly complementing the article’s theme.