Nick Saban won six national championships. He built dynasties at LSU and Alabama. Generations of coaches will study his methods.

But one of the most underrated parts of the "Saban Way" wasn't about scheme or recruiting. It was psychology.

Saban shared on The Pivot podcast last year that he's always had a psychiatrist on staff - Dr. Lionel Rosen and others - going back to LSU, Miami, and throughout his time at Alabama.

"I've always had this great appreciation, which I don't think a lot of coaches do, for the psychological disposition of people and their ability to compete. I think as coaches we look at physical ability and talent, but sometimes we don't look at the mental aspects of what it takes to be able to bring the talent to fruition."

Then he said something that hit me:

"Talent is not talent if you can't use it, and some people can't use it because of how they think, what their hard-wiring is or whatever."

Think about that. You can have all the physical ability in the world - but if your mind gets in the way, it doesn't matter.

Saban used Dr. Rosen to understand how to coach each player differently:

"Because he was a psychiatrist, he could always give me some feedback on people that I would never be able to recognize as a coach. Like how do you manage this guy? Because some guys you need to get on, they're not self-starters. Some guys are obsessive compulsive, want to do everything right. Well you don't want to get on that guy."

The key insight: You can't treat everyone the same. But you also can't let everyone know you're treating them differently.

"You don't want everybody around to know that you're treating people different, that you're yelling at this guy but you never yell at that guy. Does that make sense? So he's the guy that always gave me some information and insight into what's the best way to coach this player."

Most coaches focus on talent evaluation. Saban focused on talent activation. He understood that knowing how to reach someone is just as important as knowing what to teach them.

How well do you really know the people you lead?

Arizona trailed Purdue by 7 at halftime of the Elite Eight with a Final Four berth on the line.

Head coach Tommy Lloyd had been talking to his team all year about long halftimes and long timeouts - how they can't let the disruption affect their rhythm. They had to be the team that comes out with the most effort.

So at halftime, after assistant coach Jack Murphy showed the players some clips, Lloyd came in and shared his overall thoughts on what they needed to do in the second half.

Then he did something different.

"I said, guys, the coaching staff and I are going to leave right now. You guys got a few minutes to talk amongst yourselves and kind of figure this deal out, and let's go kick their ass in the second half."

The coaches walked out. Arizona outscored Purdue 48-26 in the second half to win 79-64 and clinch their first Final Four since 2001.

Lloyd said afterward: "All these dudes, I was literally a spectator like you were in that second half. That's what it felt like."

Koa Peat described what happened in that room: "Just our leaders leading us, honestly. JB, Tobe, Ivan, Mo, they all talked to us and just told us to keep going. We've been through adversity this season. Can't get too high or too low. Just stay even keeled. And we went out there and played our game."

Lloyd has a pet acronym he uses with his team: FIO. Figure It Out.

"We practice a lot of figure-it-out situations. And the players have got to kind of, in the moment, figure out the right plays to make with the right fundamentals. And when they do that, when they're figuring things out, complicated things, we're our best version of ourselves."

There's a moment in every season - in every organization - where the leader has to step back and let the team lead itself. The question is whether you've built a culture where they're ready to do it.

Lloyd had. And Arizona figured it out.

I've been watching Jefferson Fisher lately - he's a trial lawyer turned communication coach - and something he said recently stuck with me.

"When you set out to win an argument, you often will lose the relationship. All you've won is really their contempt."

Think about how many conversations we approach as competitions. We want to be right. We want to prove our point. We want to win.

Fischer teaches the opposite: instead of seeing arguments as something to win, see them as something to unravel. There are knots in the conversation, knots in the communication. Your job isn't to pull harder. It's to ask, "Help me understand. What am I missing?"

The next thing that hit me: simple language swaps that change how people perceive you.

Subtle shifts. But they change how you show up.

I've been asking myself about how I can be more effective when I communicate and starting to ask myself: What is the goal of this conversation?

Every word you use is important for others, but it’s also important for yourself and how you represent yourself.

Communication is a skill. And like any skill, it can be trained.

For coaches and leaders:

For athletes and performers:

All of these posts and more are in the Coaching Vault.

What I am reading and listening to:

📚 Book: Radical Candor by Kim Scott

🎧Podcast: The Psychology of Motivation | Nir Eyal - The Finding Mastery Podcast

🎥 Video: The science of flourishing & how to give life meaning | Daniel Coyle

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