Petrino and Guillen---What are you thinking?

What do the names Ozzie Guillen, Bobby Petrino, Stan Van Gundy, Jim Tressel and Sean Peyton have in common? If you guessed these are all guys who have multi-million dollar contracts to coach a simple kids’ game then you are on target. The question becomes how do these coaches make decisions that clear thinking rational people would have no difficulty in knowing that these behaviors range from totally inappropriate to border line criminal?

The answer to this question is they lose perspective. Some blame can go to the American sports system that kisses the feet of winning coaches and athletes while castigating those coaches who do not lead their teams to the promise land. Additionally, generating huge sums of revenue for their teams magnifies the coach’s perceived value to those who hire and fire while providing leverage to their “representatives” when contract time rolls around. Tack on the constant adulation of the media and the desire of the press to have the ‘inside story” and big time coaches quickly can develop a nasty case of self-importance.

But also realize that what this all comes down to is power and how leaders deal with the unique situation where they have an abundance of power. While these coaches grab the current headlines in USA Today and Sporting News, many non- sports leaders have abused their position in many different ways that were much more egregious. Remember President Clinton, John Edwards, Bernie Madoff and Kenneth Lay (Enron), all of whom demonstrated a serious abuse of the leadership responsibility that accompanied their positions of power. Realistically many individuals, who have no intent on abusing power and have all the right motivations when they move into a leadership role, lose perspective and forget that they got to where they are because they were able to secure the trust of all their followers.

Sports leaders, because of the nature of athletics and the fact that their success is measured every time one of their team crosses the boundary line for competition by having that scoreboard indicate success or failure, may be more vulnerable to rationalizing unacceptable behaviors based on misdirected focus on winning games. Unbelievably coaches break rules, alienate segments of the community, engage in criminal offenses, lie to their bosses and their teams, denigrate individuals (players, opposing coaches and programs) and ruin their families because their sole purpose is to put a W on the scorecard. They lose perspective on their own importance and the importance of a kid's game.

For all the entire headline making coaches who lose perspective there are tons of others who do great things and help a multitude of individuals in many different ways. Many do not fall into the pitfalls of ego driven leadership and become great models for the right way to do things. All of us in sports need to accept our leadership responsibilities and remember why we chose to be coaches or sports administrators. I believe that Guillen, Petrino, Van Gundy, Tressel and Peyton all entered the coaching profession for the right reasons; unfortunately the bright lights blinded them along the way. Remember as your career develops: don’t let the bright lights interfere with your values and principles that have you headed down the right path. Follow your principles and in the long run, you will be a much bigger winner.

Bountygate---Where were Coach Peyton and GM Loomis?

Last week more information surfaced on the New Orleans Saints “bountygate” program where Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams incentivized defensive players for “knocking out” key opponent offensive players. As the NFL looked into the pay for injury program, they discovered that Head Coach Sean Peyton and General Manager Mickey Loomis both were aware of William’s motivational efforts. Without question most rational people would balk at the thought of trying to physically injure another human being in the pursuit of winning a game and yet Loomis and Peyton turned their heads and ignored the despicable incentive program that clearly violated their leadership responsibility.

Why would talented and successful executives accept a program that flies in the face of good judgment and basic humanity? Quite often I have seen leaders give responsibility to subordinates to do a job and then absolve themselves from the processes that are implemented. This is a sure fire way to put yourself as a leader into an extremely vulnerable and dangerous position. Because someone else may have direct supervision of a program, you as a leader cannot accept the belief that you do not have the ultimate responsibility for the actions of the project manager. Every leader needs to realize that people are human and that some of your followers, irrespective of what you do, will make bad decisions and that you MUST deal with those bad decisions in a timely and appropriate way.

Peyton and Loomis both acknowledge that Williams “bountygate” program was wrong and that they were aware of it. However neither saw fit to do anything about it because they were more concerned about the short-term result of winning football games. All leaders needs to understand that not everyone in the “leadership cabinet” will have a big picture and understand the long-term implications of certain decisions. Quite often people who are in significant positions under the leader are motivated to be successful and will be focused on an immediate result with no real feeling for the “down the road”.

Leaders cannot be naïve and believe that everyone under their direction is going to “do the right thing”. So while many leadership books will encourage leaders to “not micromanage” their people, realize that you are the ultimate authority and need to know what is going on in every area of your responsibility. By being engaged with your organization and engaging your followers in a meaningful way, you will know what is going on and be aware of any potential areas of concern. Leaders who insulate themselves from the day to day operations are making a huge mistake. When you find out that something is amiss, address it immediately. When leaders look the other way, they lose credibility among all their constituents and promote a very bad climate for their organization. By ignoring unacceptable practices, the leader basically is fostering a philosophy that anything goes as long as it works and you don’t get caught. That philosophy is reminiscent of old time comedian Flip Wilson’s line, “A lie is as good as the truth, if you can get somebody to believe it.” I do not think any leader wants to be viewed as a subscriber to the Flip Wilson philosophy.