The Limitations of Football as Metaphor

 

Is sports overrated as a metaphor for business, and life? A friend of mine, an American expatriate living in Holland, believes that it is:

“I often share your insights with my colleagues over here in The Netherlands. One of your strengths is that you often find appropriate metaphors for your pieces. However, I think the sports metaphors aren't your strongest effort, if you are thinking about the international market, which I think you should seriously consider. Frequent usage of sport (especially US sport) confirms the suspicion that US business is testosterone-dominated. While I hold no illusions to the contrary, a bit more subtle/universal examples may expand your readership.”

Most Americans would have little issue with the notion of their favorite sports being testosterone-driven. Yet Bill Walsh, the great 49er coach who died last week, seemed to have reservations about the emotional makeup of many of his players, even as they were winning three Superbowls. Walsh is quoted in The Bases Were Loaded (and So Was I): Up Close and Personal with the Greatest Names in Sports, by Tom Callahan (page 62): "Some play football well because they are incredibly cruel people. Part of it may be steroids and their insidious effects.... But a lot of it is just simple brutishness.... I went into a hotel parking lot once where one of our players was under a car being beaten up by two drug dealers. One of our leaders. He was trying to buy cocaine for a team party.”

President Theodore Roosevelt had a balanced perspective on this matter, a century ago:

"I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master." – (Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children)

Michael Vick 1 - What was the Falcons Mistake

My first reaction to the indictment of Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick for running a dog fighting operation was disgust, as a person and as a dog lover.

My second reaction was unease, of a professional sort. My soon to be published book, Hiring Secrets of the NFL, begins a chapter titled “Character Matters” by quoting Atlanta Falcons owner (and Home Depot founder) Arthur Blank: “One the terms I’ve learned to be sensitive to is risk and reward. Now when I hear it in a character context, I don’t want those players on the team”.

What lessons should Arthur Blank learn from this disaster? What could the Falcons have done differently? The answer, surprisingly, may be nothing.

It is simplistic to suggest that the Falcons need to mend their approach to assessing player character. Quoting Arthur Blank on the importance of character seemed safe enough when I was writing the book late in 2006. Home Depot’s corporate culture was a significant contributor to its success, and the Falcon’s General Manager, Rich McKay, built a Super Bowl champion in Tampa Bay by valuing a players character as an enabler for his realizing the potential of his talent. The Falcons have avoided drafted players with legal or character issues, like the Cincinnati Bengals, with nine players currently in the legal system.

As for Michael Vick himself, the Falcons do not seem to have been enablers for his bad behavior, which sprung up in mid-career like a tree rotting from the inside. Vick made the Pro Bowl twice his first four years in the NFL, and was rewarded by the Falcons at the end of the 2004 season with a record 10-year contract worth $130 million. He was considered the NFL’s most exciting and marketable player, though questions remained about whether a running quarterback could win a Superbowl, or even stay healthy.

Vick’s legal troubles began in March 2005, when he was sued by a woman who claimed she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease from him. In January 2007 he was briefly accused of attempting to carry a water bottle with a hidden compartment for marijuana onto an airplane, though Vick was cleared of any wrongdoing based on tests of the bottle. These two incidents, together with Vick making an obscene gesture to Atlanta fans following a November 2006 loss, marked Vick as a problem child in the making.

The April 2007 police raids and July federal indictment of elaborate dog fighting operations on Vick’s Virginia estate moved Vick from a problem child to a likely moral monster. But did Arthur Blank know of this? Almost certainly not, given his concern for his and the Falcon’s public image in Atlanta.

Should Blank have made it his business to know that Vick was running an illegal interstate dog fighting ring? How would that conversation have gone? What checklist of felonies and infamies would Blank have had to review with his employees to satisfy himself that they were not criminals?

It remains true that organizations that tolerate superstars who are personally productive but organizationally disruptive rarely attain world class performance. But as with any risk, the best you can do is to minimize risk exposure, not eliminate it.  

Hiring Secrets of the NFL

 

(Adapted from the preface of Hiring Secrets of the NFL, to be published by Davies Black Publishing, August 2007, in stores September 15th.)

How can football teams and companies maximize the chances of selecting future stars? This book is an attempt to define the rules of success for talent selection in the NFL and corporate ranks.

Football has much in common with the corporate world. Success in both results from complex plans aggressively and precisely executed. In both, it is challenging to select personnel with the appropriate balance of raw ability and accomplishment, and difficult even to conclusively define what experience is critical to success in the position. Yet mistakes are costly in both football and corporate human capital.

The origins of this book are interesting. It did not require much research or interviewing, but sprung nearly fully formed based on my work and interests over the course of my career.

I am an executive recruiter, a headhunter, who has spent twenty years experience consulting to advanced technology businesses on executive search, organizational design and strategy. I am also a writer focused on globalization and the B2B economy. For the past five years, I have written a monthly column The Commerce Chain, for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, syndicated through McClatchy’s online service. I have also write strategic white papers for B2B vendors seeking to optimize and digitize the workflow of their industry.

Always a sports fan, my fascination with the NFL draft grew over the years. Between recruiting calls, I found myself surfing web sites dedicated to NFL Mock Drafts and prospect evaluations several hours a week, first in the months before the draft, and after a couple of seasons, all year long.

Occasionally I would admonish myself for wasting time. I hardly watched NFL games on TV anymore, yet was fascinated by the interplay between pre-draft projection, draft selection and career performance.

One day it hit me: trying to predict the performance of NFL prospects feels familiar because it has so much in common with my day job, helping companies hire executive talent. I specialize in searches for executives who can help companies in rapidly changing industries, particularly those attempting to leverage Information Technology for strategic advantage. The business model and/or position are often new, and predicting success is even more difficult than usual.

This book is about how to build champions, in football and business. The first eight chapters each focus on a critical success factor for selecting talent in the NFL and its application in business. The final chapter outlines a model for applying these principles in business to improve the efficiency, speed and results of corporate hiring.