Coach John Beam of Last Chance U: Running a Football Team is no Different from Running a Fortune 500 Company
Matty Kerr is co-creator with John Brancaccio of The Working Experience. He is also a filmmaker and published author. Listen to our podcast on iTunes and Spotify and visit our website: theworkingexperience.com for videos, merchandise and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, and Twitter.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Coach John Beam for The Working Experience Podcast. Coach Beam was featured in Season Three of the Netflix docuseries Last Chance U. The skills he uses to be one of the most successful coaches in the history of junior college football are, he tells us, exactly what you need to be successful in the business world. You need to teach people, manage people, organize people, and establish a culture of success.
“Running a football team is no different from running a Fortune 500 company.”
“I was around winning.”
“Bring in people who complement your skills.”
Coach John Beam is the head coach at Laney College in Oakland, CA and was featured in Season 3 of the Netflix Series Last chance U. In 2020, Coach Beam completed forty years of coaching high school and college football. His Laney Eagles won the State Championship in 2018 and he was named California Community College Football Coach of the Year. Under his leadership, Laney College has consistently had winning seasons, winning two league titles and going to six bowl games. He is the only coach in California history to be recognized as the High School State Coach of the Year and the Junior College State Coach of the Year. In 2014 he was inducted into the Bay Area Multi-Ethnic Hall of Fame.
Coach Beam played football and was all conference his freshman year at San Diego Mesa College with offers to play at other schools. However, he blew out his knee sophomore year and had to have full reconstructive surgery. His coach told him that he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing so he was tasked with helping coach the offensive line.
Coach Beam: “I said, sure I’ll do that. And I loved it. I really enjoyed what I was doing. And from there it just made sense.”
He was now on a new path, one he had not planned but that is what the universe threw him. He ended up coaching at San Diego for two years and knew that is what he wanted to do.
Successful people adapt to new situations and new positions.
The Working Experience: “What was the shift like, going from playing to coaching?”
CB: “You know, it was tough. Because literally I was just playing the year before and now I was working with these young guys…it was interesting. It was tough to get people to understand what to do and how to do it. I knew how to do it but that didn’t mean they knew how to do it. So I had to figure out ways to get them to understand how to do the techniques. So it was a lot of showing and having them mimic what I was doing and so you learn to be a better coach and how to explain it, how to break it down so they can understand it. And then you have to figure out how to get ten people to understand it because we all learn differently. I learned to change my teaching style to meet the needs of each individual player.”
To be a successful coach and a successful CEO, you have to know how to bring out the skills in your people. Solid training is essential. However, you have to be able to communicate. Not everyone can do that.
TWE, “Being a great player would not necessarily translate into being a great coach.”
CB, “No, I don’t think so. I think sometimes if you’re a great player, you just do things naturally and instinctively that other people have to think about. And I by no means was a great player. I think that I was a hardworking player. I think I was one of those guys that maximized my ability but I had to have great technique to do it.”
Never think talent substitutes for hard work.
Vision is key. Being a successful coach means seeing the whole field. Being a successful manager means seeing the whole department. Being a successful CEO means seeing the whole company. So many things have to happen to make a successful company.
CB, “As a great player you might not see the whole field, the whole game. If it’s football and you’re a running back you might just see the line blocking for you so you can do what you have to do, which is run. But you don’t see what the quarterback is doing or what the receivers or what the line backers are doing or the people in other positions. There are so many things that have to happen to make a great play.”
Coach Beam came to Oakland to coach for the Laney College Eagles as their Offensive Coordinator, or so he thought. He was moved over to Defensive Coordinator, even though he had never done it before.
CB: “It was trial by error. You learn as you go.”
Successful people adapt. Successful people have the ability to learn. Successful people have the ability to take the skills they already have and apply them to new situations.
As Coach Beam moved up the ladder, from Position Coach to Coordinator to Head Coach, his view had to broaden; he had to see how all the pieces fit together. It is the same in business.
“Coaching a football team is no different from running a Fortune 500 company. You start as an intern, you learn certain facets of the business and as you move up the ladder you need to know how the whole thing works. There are all these pieces that you have to assemble and make then work together. You’re view broadens.”
As the Athletic Director, Coach Beam also has to manage a budget.
CB: “I have a quarter of a million dollar budget. I’ve overseen the assembly of $25 million facilities. So, in essence, I am running a small company.”
As the head coach or CEO, you cannot do everything. Thinking you can, that you know everything is just ego; it is foolish. I don’t care how smart you are, you don’t know everything. You need a team.
CB: “You have to bring in people that not only you trust but who also complement your skills. And you need to surround yourself with people who complement each other’s skills. If you have great people skills but are not so great with organizing or you don’t have great computer skills, find people who do. I don’t know how to make the formulas on a spreadsheet work so I have someone who can do that. Not everyone can be going a hundred miles an hour. You need people who can sit back and look at things. You need big picture people and detail people. You have a hundred bodies you are trying to make one.”
Whether it’s a company or a football team or a non-profit, every organization needs to work as one body.
Coach Beam has coached over one hundred players who have made it to Division 1 schools and over twenty players who have made it to the NFL, six of whom went to Super Bowls. Why has Coach Beam been so successful?
CB: “I was around winning.”
While at San Diego Mesa College he was around winners, very high caliber, high performing coaches such as Mike Martz, who went on to become the offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, winning the Super Bowl with them in 1999. He saw what Martz did to create a successful program.
It is all about culture.
CB: “Winning is a culture. Success is a culture. There are football teams that just never win. The Patriots win, they are always really good. They are an organization that understands winning. The Raiders are always struggling. Why is that? It’s inbred. You have to change the dynamic, you have to change the culture so that they know how to win. You also have to know how to lose. To not let it crush you. You learn as much from a loss as you do from a win.”
You have to establish from the outset that your expectation for your department or company or football team is success. You have to believe that and your people have to believe that.
And make it true.
