Success Secrets and Stories

Lessons from Coach Cignetti: How to Win = Evaluate Culture, Accountability, Talent

• Host and author, John Wandolowski and Co-Host Greg Powell • Season 4 • Episode 5

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What if the fastest way to stronger results isn’t a bold new strategy but a return to fundamentals? We dive into the leadership playbook behind Kurt Cignetti’s rapid turnaround at Indiana University football, and translate his on-field methods into tools any manager can use to reset expectations, stabilize culture, and lower stress across the team.

We start with clarity. Cignetti wins by obsessing over basics—blocking, tackling, clean execution—which in the workplace becomes precise roles, consistent standards, and plain-language accountability. From there, we unpack why stability builds culture, how loyal, well-compensated staff preserve momentum, and why high turnover quietly erases progress. You’ll hear practical ways to co-write job descriptions with your team, build simple measurements everyone understands, and create a cadence that turns feedback into growth rather than surprise.

Talent gets a hard look, too. Instead of chasing shiny résumés, we show how to hire for mindset, character, and a high motor, then coach skills on top. Drawing on lessons from Nick Saban’s process-driven program, we connect clear goals, steady standards, and daily discipline to dependable outcomes. We also tackle stress head-on: identify root causes in systems, leadership, or culture; close the gaps between expectations and communication; and choose environments that align with your values and capacity so you can thrive rather than grind.

By the end, you’ll have a checklist to evaluate your team, your leaders, and your workplace with fresh eyes—and a way to make change without theatrics. If this conversation helps you lead with more confidence and less chaos, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review so others can find it.

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Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell

SPEAKER_01:

Well, hello, and welcome to our podcast, Success, Secrets, and Stories. I'm your host, John Wondolowski, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, Greg Powell. Greg? Hey everybody. And when we put together this podcast, we wanted to put out a helping hand and help that next generation and help answer the question of what does it mean to be a leader? Today we want to talk about a subject that I think supports that concept. So today I wanted to bring up lessons from the gridiron. What Coach Signeti teaches us about managing people. And today I think it's a like a little bit of a different angle on leadership. One that starts on the football field, and I should say the American football field, but lands squarely into the terms that are necessary in a workplace. I want to talk about Indiana University's Hoosiers, a college football team here, and their head coach, Kurt Signetti. Football fans already know that he's transforming this program quickly. But leaders in the industry can learn a lot from the way and the approaches and the fundamentals and the culture, and mostly the talent that he has found in this position as a new football coach. So John and I talked a little bit about football and what it really means around the world.

SPEAKER_00:

And this Americans go soccer, and really what we're talking about is football. We may have to think of a soccer or perhaps international football example. Sir Alex Ferguson from Scotland is the ultimate icon at Manchester United, known for unparalleled longevity, rebuilding teams, 13 Premier League titles, and two champions leagues. And that's really what makes this conversation so interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, but whenever I thought about it for a good example, it was Ted Lasso. And okay, it's a fictional character, but here's an equivalent of a coach who understands the human side of coaching. Goes to England and is in football, football, football, European football. And he ends up being successful because he's teaching the elements of leadership and the elements of a human involvement and making sure that there's a home front and a business front. And okay, it's fictional, but it's really to the point of what Coach Signetti has actually done, bringing us to be a much more effective team by doing all these things that are the blocking and tackling of a good job, of a good leader.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's what makes this conversation so very interesting. Leadership principles don't change just because the environment changes. Whether you're running a football team, a hospital, a construction crew, a corporate department, the fundamentals are the fundamentals. And Coach Signetti is a master of them. So let's break down what he does and how it applies to everyday leadership.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So the first thing Signetti did was go back to the basics. And what that means in American football is blocking, tackling, execution of plays correctly. No trick plays, no flash, just clarity and consistency.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's such a powerful leadership lesson. When teams struggle, it's almost always because the fundamentals are not aligned. People don't know what to expect, or the expectations shift depending on who's talking.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. On the team, it's whenever the priorities you want to confuse the other team, but it's really harder when your own team's confused. And Signeti communicates that task, that job, the same way every time. And that he pairs it with accountability, which is a key point. Clear expectations matching clear consequences. That combination really stabilizes the team.

SPEAKER_00:

So leaders often skip this step because it feels too simple. But simple isn't easy. And without it, everything collapses.

SPEAKER_01:

Honesty is the most important element of Signetti's approach. And that's how he evaluates talent. He grew up in a family where his father coached, his brother coaches, and they understand the craft of coaching from the ground up.

SPEAKER_00:

And then he had a chance to work under Nick Sabin at Alabama, one of the greatest leadership laboratories or coaching trees that you will find in college football.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And there's something that people miss. He values a stable coaching staff. His coordinators have been around him for years. They know his system. His assistants mean something to him. It's sort of like when you go into another company and as a manager or as a CEO, you want to make sure that you have people that are in good positions in accounting and in human resources and that they know your philosophy. And at the same time, Coach Signetti made sure that they are compensated well and they understand that that loyalty is something that is a positive, that they end up going with him as a team.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, that's a huge leadership takeaway. Stability builds culture. Let me repeat that. Stability builds culture. But high turnover destroys it. Leaders who invest in their people and then keep them, retain them, create momentum.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's a wonderful lesson. The third lesson I think that is interesting and it kind of combines with the second lesson is Signeti is exceptional at identifying and acquiring talent, especially through the transfer portal. But here's the twist: he doesn't chase the highly recruited, star-rating, raw physical talent kind of stats.

SPEAKER_00:

You're right, John. What he does is he looks for mindset, commitment, and accountability.

SPEAKER_01:

And really, what does that say about him? That says so much of he wants players to buy into a winning culture. Leaders that on the field should take notes in terms of their skills, their attitudes, and how that determines how someone is evaluated on the team, whether their attitude drags down the team. If they understand of being part of that organization means something to the coach, it should mean something to them. You know that's true everywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

You could teach skills, but you can't teach character. Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

And then another lesson: Signeti learned from probably one of the best coaches, Coach Sabin, on the importance of process preparation and discipline. And if you don't know who Coach Sabin, and he was the coach of Alabama and was famous for having all his assistants going into different jobs in terms of being head coaches and offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators because they learned something from that teacher, that one of the better coaches, how goals are clear, standards are clear. And if you can't meet those standards, someone else will, and it's time to move on.

SPEAKER_00:

And you know, John, that's not really harsh. That's just plain leadership. Opportunity gets you in the door, performance keeps you there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that brings us to the matter of how that applies to leaders outside of sports. That they have to understand that those things are applied to family, to friends, that same commitment of making sure, but you can't start over and go and get a new family. You have to find a way to work and adapt, but it's that engagement. It's not being a passenger or accepting. You have to make that family environment work. If it's not working, you have to get involved. That's part of the process.

SPEAKER_00:

So leadership isn't just about strategy, it is about people and stress. When expectations are unclear, your stress level skyrockets. People hit the limits of their capacity and start questioning whether their needs are being met or not.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And leaders feel the stress too, as well as staff. The first step is to identify the root cause of the stress. Sometimes that the system is actually the issue. Sometimes it's the leader. Sometimes it's the culture. But you can't fix what you can't name. And that's that identification of where the stress is actually coming from. So let's go back to Signeti's basics. In the workplace, do you have the people that actually understand their job assignments? Are they expectations that are clear? And is there a metrics or a measurement of how they're doing to create that definition?

SPEAKER_00:

So, John, I'm thinking you had a moment like this somewhere along the path of your own career, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I I think it was kind of interesting. With different jobs, one of the first things you do is you go in and you look at the job descriptions that have been written by predecessors on what is entailed in order to do the work that they've been assigned. And to be honest, it's shocking. Some of them are so outdated, they could be 10, 15, 20 years old, but no one has updated what they've actually done. Some were so generic that they could be applied to anybody who was breathing. There was no quantitative information that was in that description. Some of them didn't have anybody that would sign it, so it was like anonymous. There was no accountability, no kind of measurement whatsoever.

SPEAKER_00:

So I can tell you, John, that's probably more common than most people think.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but so I had to rewrite them. And here's the secret for writing a job description. You can make your best attempt to try to do a definition, but take that attempt to the people who are doing the job and ask for their input for the job description. What would they consider relevant? What would they do in terms of describing what should be measured and a matrix that should describe performance? Don't do it yourself. Do it collectively. And you'll be surprised what happens as part of that result. You'll hear things like, I've never had this opportunity before. Thank you. And I don't think this should be part of my job. It should be part of somebody else's position because of their background. The clarity of dealing with your staff, you can't miss it because that job description is like one of the easiest uptakes that you can use to improve your job as a leader.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's pretty straightforward. Without clarity, you cannot have accountability. And without accountability, you can't have culture.

SPEAKER_01:

Culture is that magic piece of it. And another element of culture is to be able to evaluate talent. Leaders inherit their supervisors, their managers. In our football terms, we're talking about inheriting the assistance. Some are great, but unlike a college, that you can change it, you're trying to reinforce the culture and you're trying to help find people that can create that change in the environment. If it's broken, and usually that's how you get your opportunities, you're trying to make it better.

SPEAKER_00:

And unlike a football coach as a manager, you just can't replace your entire staff.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh no, it's not how it works. So you have to train them. You have to help them with their alignment. You have to help them grow into the position if if there's some development or maybe correct some of the errors that are more systematic or operational based rather than their personalities. But if you also stay honest to your capacity, not everyone's an expert within their fields. And some of them can be there for a long time.

SPEAKER_00:

So John, if it's in human resources long enough and in the business world more than long enough, to understand that longevity by itself does not equal leadership.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep. Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

So another element of staff is hiring with intent. When it is time to hire, most supervisors don't actually do it very well. They rely on feelings and resumes that don't really tell the whole story.

SPEAKER_00:

So this is why rule number one about job descriptions matters so much. A clear job description becomes your anchor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And candidates should be able to speak directly to their expectations. And beyond skills and the things that leadership must bring as far as a mindset, they have to tell that candidate what their growth potential is and understand what drives them in order to be hired.

SPEAKER_00:

So I'll step back to a podcast we had earlier talking about AI. With AI, you could perhaps create the perfect resume, but that doesn't guarantee a perfect fit. But if you get an individual with a high motor, high character, they can grow into the role and elevate the team.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. So now that kind of brings us into more of an open-ended question. When you ask candidates, tell me about a challenge you faced and how you handled it, you're not looking for a rehearsed answer. You're listening for ownership, resilience, and innovation.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's exactly what Coach Signetti does. He listens for motivation, not just accomplishments. He wants people who are hungry and those that want to elevate the team. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And he has hired people who have a lack of direct experience, but really they have a high motor and a willingness to learn. And they've become some of his strongest performers. Leaders do need to develop listening skills to hear the difference between someone who wants the job and someone who wants to contribute to the organization. And when I think about someone who wants to contribute and understanding looking at a player who's actually has the metal to do the job, I'm willing to bet that this coach looks back at his dad and his brother. But his dad was a very famous coach at the IUP football program in Pittsburgh. And at the university, he he was working since 1982. He had 13 NCAA Division II playoff berths. They won 14 West Division titles and two trips to the national championship. So that Apple didn't fall far from the tree. He had a skill set that his brother used and he used, and it creates that culture at the same time. So when you think about culture, he's developed it from his days as a kid to being an adult and now implementing it on a grander scale. It's such a testimony to family.

SPEAKER_00:

So, John, your next point shifts from evaluating others to evaluating where you choose to work.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, good point. Early in my career, I took whatever job I could get. But after earning a master's degree, I became intentional in terms of the jobs that they would offer me something in terms of stability, growth potential, and actually had a mission that I could believe in.

SPEAKER_00:

Choosing an environment where you can thrive.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. And I started in the manufacturing world in the Midwest, but as manufacturing firms left the Midwest, I realized that that kind of industry was not stable. So I shifted industries looking for more stability going forward. I thought that higher education, healthcare, or Fortune 500 companies that valued engineering and facilities management was where I wanted to go.

SPEAKER_00:

So you know, John, that's a great parallel to Coach Signetti's time with Nick Saban at the University of Alabama. He learned from the best. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Saban's program was the pinnacle, in my opinion, of understanding discipline, standards, and culture. Signeti clearly absorbed every word. And as leaders, you need to do the same thing. Choose the place where you want to work. Understand how culture evaluates you or defines you. And if that environment actually drains your skills and your talent and your abilities, maybe you're in the wrong place.

SPEAKER_00:

Some industries are inherently more stressful than others. Some roles carry more emotional weight. And leaders need to understand the environment they're stepping into.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. That's the point. And where you work and the stress level is going to matter, where your growth, where your long-term success is going to matter, that those are key indicators that you're actually involved in your career, that you're being reflective. You can be a great leader, but in the wrong environment, and you're going to struggle. It's just the challenge. That's why culture is important when you're looking at working at another company or working in another organization.

SPEAKER_00:

So we'd like the audience to pause and reflect for just a moment. And want you to think about these questions. One, do you agree with your job descriptions, those current job descriptions you have now? And do you have the talent needed to meet the work that those folks need to produce for you? Number two, do you have exposure to leaders who truly have their act together? Great role models. Leaders worth learning from. And number three, is your current leadership team the kind of example that will be effective, not just today, but in the future?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And and these questions matter because one of the biggest challenges for new supervisors is trying to fit in. They mimic what the other leaders are doing without asking whether those behaviors are actually effective. It's that fitting in kind of a tendency that most new people end up doing because that's the safest way to keep the job at the beginning of the process.

SPEAKER_00:

So let's talk about doing your homework. Signetis logic, do your homework. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Before accepting the job, talk to the people who work there. Understand the culture. Look at the organization's stability. Don't guess. Research. You've done that throughout your career, John. Yeah, I have. And every career move I made was intentional. I didn't get it always right, but I looked at the organizations and how they valued engineering and facility professionals. I would reach out to those industries and use my resources and things like the glass door software to understand the company that I was interested in in terms of culture, leadership, and employee experiences.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, John? That's a leadership skill in itself. Evaluating not just talent, but evaluating the environment you're stepping into. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

And so let's try to put this in and wrap it up a little bit. There's one lesson that I hope you walk away with from this podcast, is that leadership is a craft. It's something you study, you practice, you refine, and you commit to. Just like Signetti did throughout his career, whether you're leading a football team, a facilities department, a hospital unit, a manufacturing organization, or any kind of job, if you want to define it, the fundamentals don't change.

SPEAKER_00:

So I was telling John before, I lived in Indiana for 14 years. My daughter's a proud graduate of Indiana University. We used to go up to Parents Weekend, it was a basketball school. It wasn't a football school. Football just was a name on a side of a stadium. So what what's going on here? Clarity. That's what Coach Signetti is talking about. Clarity, accountability, evaluating talent, honestly, hiring with intention, choosing environments that support your growth. And these aren't abstract ideas, they are daily disciplines.

SPEAKER_01:

And if you you look at that very simple sentence there, just that description, it reduces stress. When expectations are clear, when roles are defined, when culture is intentional, the emotional load of leadership becomes manageable. You're never going to avoid stress. Stress is about being alive, but stress grows in the gaps. The gaps between what people think the job is and what actually is required. The gaps between what leaders expect versus what they communicate.

SPEAKER_00:

And you know, John, when those leaders close those gaps, everything changes. Teams become more confident, communication becomes cleaner, performance becomes consistent, and leaders themselves feel much more grounded. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And leadership isn't about being perfect. It's about being deliberate. It's about doing your homework on your team, on your organization, on yourself. It's about choosing to lead with purpose and understanding that you're reacting to chaos. That's the key to whether you're going to be successful or not.

SPEAKER_00:

He didn't rebuild a program with trick plays or shortcuts. He rebuilt it with fundamentals, with discipline, and a very clear identity. Leaders can do the same. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think that whole concept of being involved and that ownership and accountability, I think that is part of what we've really wanted to do with this podcast. And I hope that this can lead to confidence and reducing stress, and most importantly, that you find a way to build a culture, one that is a winning culture. And I think you'll see that this lesson from a football coach is a wonderful lesson for us as leaders. So if you like what you've heard, I've written a book called Building Your Leadership Toolbox, and we talk about tools like this. And it's available on Amazon and Barnes Noble and other sites. The podcast is what you've been listening to. Thank you so much. It's also available on Apple, Google, and Spotify. A lot of what we talk about is with Dr. Durst and his MBR program. If you'd like to know more about Dr. Durst, you can find out on SuccessGrowthAcademy.com. And if you'd like to contact us, please send me a line. That's wando seventy-five periodjw at gmail.com. And the music has been brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you. Drop me a line. Tell me what's going on, what you like, and what you would like to hear about. It has always helped us to create content. Thanks, Greg. This was fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks, John. As always. Next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.