Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Leadership Matters


Years ago, when the Chicago Bulls were rattling off multiple championships during the Michael Jordan era, then-GM Jerry Krause said, "Players and coaches alone don't win championships; organizations win championships." He was roundly ridiculed for this; it was seen as a snotty attempt to take credit for all the championships, especially as the one player on the teams Krause didn't acquire was Jordan.

Whatever his motivation for saying it, he was right. Hundreds or thousands of decisions led to those championships, and while Michael Jordan was perhaps the most significant piece to the puzzle, let's remember that he played for many years in the NBA before and after those championships.

As a leader, getting people to follow you requires more than mere authority. A leader must demonstrate that s/he means what s/he says; that decisions are not arbitrary nor written in sand. Many folks new to management want their subordinates to like them, but that's not required (or even advisable, in many circumstances). Most people want their bosses to simply be fair and consistent and to make some sort of sense.

Woe betide the Cincinnati Bengals, then. Yahoo Sports lays out the details, but in brief, WR Chris Henry was released early this year after punching a college student and breaking the college student's car window with a beer bottle. At the time, owner Mike Brown seemed done:

"His conduct can no longer be tolerated," Brown said at the time. "The Bengals tried for an extended period of time to support Chris and his potentially bright career. We had hoped to guide him toward an appropriate standard of personal responsibility that this community would support and that would allow him to play in the NFL. ... But those efforts end today, as we move on with what is best for our team."

Given that this was not Henry's first (or second, or third...) serious problem with the law, the decision made tremendous sense. But now Brown has flip-flopped:

Henry signed a two-year deal Tuesday with the team that let him go after he was arrested for the fifth time, a decision that seemed to mark a change in philosophy for owner Mike Brown. Instead, it was an aberration. The Bengals took him back at Brown's behest.

This isn't about the moral issue. I'm not passing judgment on Chris Henry, though clearly he needs some kind of help, and continuing to enable him isn't going to fix anything. This is about the message being sent, and it says a few things:
  • Problem players can continue to be problem players and will likely get multiple chances, even if told otherwise; as such, there's no incentive to start behaving
  • Players who don't have these problems should expect no reward for staying out of trouble
  • Whatever management says today could change tomorrow; believe nothing
The Bengals are going to be a mess. Mark my words.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stuff like this pisses me off. These big shot players come and get this huge paycheck and think they can do whatever they please with no consequences. All that happens is they get looked over and people pretend whatever they did never happened. They need to start focusing on the players behavior. What kind of message is this sending to children?

Christopher D. Heer said...

Well the message is that if you're good enough at doing something that few people can do, then misbehavior will be overlooked.

This is not limited to sports; you see it in the entertainment industry all the time too. It really only happens in fields like that where there are only a handful of people that can do something -- you'll never find, say, an accountant that could get away with this stuff.

But fundamentally my issue isn't with Henry's behavior per se; nor is it with a team that wants to employ such a person. (I think those decisions need to be made on a case-by-case basis.) My issue is that the Bengals owner made a big deal about getting rid of Henry because of the problems, and then took him back anyway.