Dear CMO:
I realize there are members of your extended team over the Atlantic who may not be intimately familiar with “American Football”, so I apologize in advance for any American ethnocentrisms that may manifest itself in this note. I’m sure there’s a FIFA analogy to be had somewhere, but I’d be the last to find it for you. Substitute at your convenience.
For those who aren’t familiar, and to further illuminate the subject for those on the team on our side of the world, the above photo is of LeVar Arrington. Former Washington Redskin, and now former New York Giant. “Mister Nickels, school of hard knocks.” Known in the Redskin press guide simply as, “The Beast.” The guy who sent Troy Aikman blissfully and semi-consciously into retirement. The best linebacker in the NFL. Currently unemployed, injured, and at the ripe old age of 27, contemplating retirement.
LeVar appears to be the physical embodiment of unlimited potential. A frustrated leader, a benched starter, a star player backing up a nobody and wondering why he’s not on the field making plays. A victim of politics? A round peg in a square hole? I don’t know. If it’s the former, it’s a shame; if it’s the latter, fix the hole.
I bring up LeVar because he’s a powerful metaphor. That, and I’m a Redskin fan, and once a Redskin, always a Redskin. But back to the metaphor thing. LeVar evokes memories of people, projects and even companies with which I’ve been associated in years past. I can recall two instances where I walked away from a job thinking, “what a shame… this company could really be something IF…” Ever worked with a guy who was loaded with creativity, passion, charisma… but who didn’t get along with the boss’s boss? Ever seen a project that was a license to print money that was spiked or pidgeon-holed because it “wasn’t invented here“?
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Key Takeaways:
> It’s our job as manager of people to find ways of extracting the right performance out of the right people. When you’re faced with a 260 lb. diamond in a bit of rough, it’s your job to figure out how to make it (or him) work in the system, harness the passion, and then let the bullets fly. Sometimes you have to find the right system to get the most performance out of a team. Sometimes it happens all by itself.
> Team chemistry is more important than individual performers every time. Don’t get me wrong. Graveyards are full of indispensable men. But this is no excuse for not finding ways of integrating those indispensable men into a cohesive group. If it can’t be done, it can’t be done — but it needs trying. But that’s OK. You’ve got the time. That’s your job as a manager.
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Back to Robert Ardrey again, who raises a fascinating point about territory defence which I find a very thought provoking parallel for “the office”. Most observed species will prioritize the defence of their exclusive territories from interlopers of their own kind before they will defend their young from attack by natural predators. I’d rather make sure another male competing for my piece of turf is shown off than stop a snake from eating my young. I can always have more young — but my ego’s a bit fragile. That’s how important intra-species territory defence is. Is there a parallel in the modern enterprise, football franchise or not? Maybe.
So the rhetorical questions to all of us is, “how do we channel our own inner LeVar?” Who or what does the LeVar metaphor fit? Can you integrate and harness a super player or a ground breaking new project, or is the inertia of “not invented here” going to drag it to the ground?
Regards.
Copyright (c) 2007 Stephen Denny
PS: Rumor has it that while he’s still in rehab for the Achilles injury, he might be signing with the Rams. Update us all if you know differently. And I’ve always wanted to blog on LeVar. But, like avoiding politics, I try to keep my eye on the marketing ball here.
And now comes out that Terrell Owens didn’t even bother to learn the Dallas Cowboy playbook. Simply amazing! (For Eight or ten million a year, no less!) And it seemed that the Cowboys bent over backwards to try to bring him into the system. (Even in the playoffs, QB Romo had to tell TO where to line up and what patterns to run.) No wonder Parcells retired. No wonder the Eagles cut him from the team. No wonder the 49ers let him go. TO seriously screwed with the chemistry of 3 different in four years.
I’m not saying that Arrington is quite in TO’s league of being a disruptive a**hole, but he’s close.
If I were managing a project that had somebody like TO on it, I’d keep him —if it’s possible and often it isn’t — away from other people.
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(Your security field is showing letters again.)
Roger: what a great comparison — TO was the poster child for ‘disruption’ on a team; all distractions, all the time. The thing about Arrington — unless I’m completely off base, but I’m fairly well read on the ‘Skins — is that he wasn’t a TO. He was a leader in the locker room, the public face of the team, a superbly gifted athlete, and (dare I say) a positive influence that clashed with the Washington brass and then blew out his ankle in NY.
If I can get an insider to comment, I will, but that’s what makes this a strange situation.
TO I understand. Arrington seems like a walking series of unfortunate events.
As hoped for, here’s the insider commentary from the ultimate insider, Jason La Canforna, of the Washington Post. (His blog, Redskin Insider, gets, on average, around 300-500 comments per post. Apparently, I’m behind). His Arrington response:
“Hey boss, thanks for checking in. Hope you had a great weekend.
I think you have a solid take on the situation. The bottom line is that Lavar was a throwback to the old ways – where Snyder (the owner -ed) had a clear star system in place and certain favorites in the locker room, and LaVar was tops on that list.
These guys weren’t nearly as high on him as Snyder and Vinny (head of personnel -ed) were, and he got the huge contract prior to Williams (defensive coordinator -ed) and the others coaches coming on.
These guys wanted badly to establish a new culuture in this defense after it had been soft for years. People looked at the D as being more about big names – Smith, Deion, LaVar – than really grit, comraderie and execution. And Williams made bucking that trend his prmry immediate goal. LaVar was emblematic of the old ways – fair or unfair – and when he got hurt and others played well, that was it.
They had the 3rd best D in the NFL without him and some D coaches viewed LaVar as too much of a showboat or a “me guy.” But his teammates loved him and no doubt the personal beating he took in 2005 – with the obvious benchings and all – rubbed a lot of players the wrong way. But it did accomplish one thing – no one was above the team, no one was making too much money to be benched and no one was assured playing time because of their contracts or pecking order with the owner.
LaVar got caught in the crosshairs at the wrong time, and I felt bad for him. But the injuries in the end were the ultimate decider, and his inability to stay on the field didi him in for good with this regime. Williams still cares for him – a lot of the really bad blood was between LaVar and Dale Lindsey (former linebacker coach -ed) – and is rooting for him to get back to himself.
Anyway, hope that helps and thanks again for checking in.
Cheers.”
Good stuff. Thanks Jason for the back story!
Jason posted the other day on Arrington’s situation at length after speaking to his agent, Carl Poston (in the supermarket, we’re told).
For those who are interested, here’s the link.