With the New England Patriots playing in their 7th Super Bowl in 17 years in a few hours, I find it important to understand how such a dynasty could occur. What is the biggest difference in the behavior of good organizations compared to the bad ones? The NFL is known for being one of the hardest sports to have consistent success in (take this for instance: the past two Super Bowl reps last year did not even make the playoffs this year).

However, there are two teams that have this kind of success being the Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh holds the record with Super Bowl wins at 6 while the Patriots are in the tail-end of perhaps the greatest stretch in the sport’s history. But what makes them so different than the snake-bitten franchises like Detroit or Cleveland? What behavior drives these organizations to succeed where most have failed? What organizational behavior is key to success in the NFL?

The Patriots are winners based off this guy’s looks alone!

As stated in my recent post, great leaders make great futures for their organizations. It’s no coincidence that the two owners of the Patriots and Steelers, Robert Kraft and the Rooneys respectively, are considered the best in the business. They make the best decisions on who to hire and who to fire.

But the best organizations don’t make those decisions often. Take for instance that Belichick, coach of the Patriots, has been at the helm for 17 years while the Steelers have had 3 head coaches since 1969. That is impeccable. Put this in comparison of the aforementioned Browns: they have hired 3 head coaches in the last 4 years. 

Hirings and firings produce a level of uneasiness in an organization; this prevents the employees from fulfilling the second level of Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs: job security. If the employees have no belief in job security, they’ll focus more on not getting fired than doing a good job. This is turn makes overall productivity go down, resulting in poor performance across the board. Then the culture turns dreadful, creating a toxic environment renowned across the lands (see any perennial losers in sports or Cleveland).

However, if employees know they aren’t one mistake away from losing a job, they can take risks.

An overbearing boss makes you loss focus on your work

The Rooneys and Kraft are known for being good owners because they often choose to not overreact to any one incident. This lets their employees and staff feel comfortable knowing they have some kind of job security. They let employees focus on their jobs and give them some leeway in terms of responsibility. Thus, it allows employees to focus on fulfilling higher needs based on Mazlow’s model. This is why the Patriots are at the Super Bowl and why Cleveland has never been to one.