Grit. Dream. Love.For fans of American football, this is a great time of year. After almost six months of inactivity, preseason is finally heating up and teams are beginning to take shape. The regular season is less than a month away.Another annual occurrence to go stoke the flames for fans: HBO, in conjunction with NFL Films, has begun airing its weekly "Hard Knocks" series. Every year they pick a different team to "go behind the scenes" and follow during training camp.It's great television -- part reality show (which fringe players will make the team and which will get cut), part comedy, part drama. My family (even those who are not the biggest football fans) loves it and it is appointment viewing in our house. This year, the show has chosen to follow the Detroit Lions. Perennially in the cellar, the club is trying to turn its decades long losing culture around with a fiery head coach, former player Dan Campbell, who is beginning his second year with the team.Campbell is not everyone's cup of tea. At first blush, he comes across as a stereotypical emotional meathead football guy who likes to channel his inner high school gym teacher as much as possible.But as I watched the initial episode, I began to warm up to him. The man is being tasked with changing a well entrenched losing culture from top to bottom. He trying to instill a positive, winning attitude with everyone throughout the organization.Anyone who has tried to do this knows this is no task for the meek and soft spoken. It requires infectious energy, enthusiasm, relentless laser focus and the courage to connect with people of all different types of backgrounds to make change stick. Frankly, you have to be a little off in the head to think you can do it....That's what I think makes this guy endearing. He is not afraid to put everything out there and try. And if you are familiar with the Detroit Lions (a team who once set a record for consecutive losses spanning two seasons), you know there is some serious headwind to be navigated.With a job this big, Campbell did something that most good leaders do -- he assembled a coaching staff of equally fiery ex-players and leaders who were aligned with him and can help evangelize the message.One of those coaches, Duce Staley, gave an impassioned speech to the team during the first episode that stuck with me. He shared his three keys to being successful: grit, dream, and love.Grit is an easy one to understand and embrace. Not only is football a violent sport, but when you play for a team like the Detroit Lions, you lose more than you win. You need to be extraordinarily resilient to bounce back, continue to work hard and persevere. There is a reason there is a popular TED Talk on grit -- it is a quality that has been scientifically found to be in all successful people who accomplish hard things.Dream, too, makes sense to preach to the team. If you are used to losing or failing, it is easy to accept it as a reasonable outcome. You cannot fathom anything else but failing because that is all that you know.But when you allow yourself to dream, you give yourself permission to envision outcomes you never thought were possible. Dreamers think big -- they say "why not?". Think about it -- you cannot change a culture without first having a dream. The final key was more interesting to me -- love. One of the great things about American football is that it is the quintessential team sport. On every play, 11 players have different jobs to do -- and must do them flawlessly in order for the play to be successful. Sure you can have talented, star players, but they are only as good as their team enables them to be. So the great teams are the ones where each player knows their teammates are committed to doing their jobs on every play, and trust they will each do their part to help the team. They are aligned and work in unison toward the short and long term goals they set for themselves.What happens with these successful teams? They learn to love the process of working together toward a common goal. They love the feeling of camaraderie they build throughout the season. They grow to unquestionably trust each other. Great teams allow themselves to be vulnerable and love one another and the culture they have built.While it may seem strange to have love as a key to success for a bunch of young football players, I have been fortunate to have seen this happen on a number of occasions over the course of my career. Love can have a powerful presence in cultures. And as we begin to be more open minded about employees and their overall well being, the role of love is something that I believe is needed to be discussed by leadership teams more openly as a value in their organizations.If a bunch of meathead football players can do it, you have to ask yourself and the leaders within your organization "why not us?"After just one episode of this season's "Hard Knocks," I'm not ashamed to say that I am a fan of Dan Campbell and his staff. While they still need to execute the plan and win games on the field, they certainly seem to be trying to build a foundation for an improved culture. And if you happen to catch this series, I'm confident you will find yourself, like I expect to find myself, quietly cheering on the Lions whenever possible throughout the regular season. I hope you also happen to quietly read some of the articles I picked out for you (with love, I might add) this week. Some good stuff there to get you going. Have a great week everyone.XOXODave