Barry's Blog

This Sunday when millions of viewers tune in to watch Super Bowl XLI from Miami, chances are good that they will witness similar, and instructive, leadership styles from  the Colts' head coach, Tony Dungy, and the Bears' Lovie Smith. These two coaches have remained close friends over the years as Dungy, after securing his first NFL head-coaching job in 1996 with Tampa Bay, gave Lovie Smith his first job in the NFL as an assistant in charge of the Buccaneers' linebackers. 

Both Dungy and Smith stand out in the National Football League's scream-and-holler culture, where they both believe that they can get their players to compete more fiercely and play more productively by calmly giving directions to players and treating them with respect. An article a few days ago in The Wall Street Journal pointed out that their laid-back leadership style doesn't mean that they aren't demanding or have high expectations for their players. Mr. Dungy has a grading system that counts players' "loafs" (not running at full speed, failing to hit an opponent when he could have, etc.), and it's hard to get through a game without getting at least one. Smith, when he became the Bears' head coach three years ago, implemented a similar system to Dungy, and told players he wanted them to lift more weights and eat better because he wanted a slimmer, faster team. And when Smith gets angry, he is known to give what his players call the "Lovie Look," which they admit is a warning, and more frightening than a littany of angry words!

While executive "screaming" is not as common as it was a few years ago, some of the recent leadership changes at a few of the nation's largest companies remind us that it is still an often used style to get one's way across. Frank Blake, Home Depot's new CEO, is far more mild-mannered than former CEO, Bob Nardelli, and Disney's Robert Iger is at least perceived as fair, compared with his mercurial predecessor, Michael Eisner.

When business executives ridicule and scream at employees, they don't realize how often it results in lost productivity, discouragement of innovation, and a talent drain at their companies, says James Clifton, CEO of the Gallup Organization. "There's a big difference between saying 'you made a stupid mistake' and screaming 'you're really stupid,'" says Gary Hayes, co-founder of New York consultant Hayes Brunswick. He worked with a New York law firm where a senior partner flung heavy law books across the room at an associate. "The associate told me it was all right since the partner intentionally threw to miss - not to hit him," says Mr Hayes. "But the associate soon moved to another firm."

For some executives and coaches, screaming is their means to show that they are in charge, and it may be the behavior that  is expected from their bosses. The Colts' Mr. Dungy says he didn't get some jobs earlier in his career because he was considered too laid-back and polite, and didn't believe being a great coach "required him to sacrifice his family or his faith." In an interview years ago, one NFL owner asked him if he would make the team the most important thing in his life, and he said no. "I figured I probably wouldn't get that job, and I didn't," he said last week at a press conference. "I think your faith is more important that your job, family is more important than your job. We all know that's the way it should be, be we're kind of afraid to say that sometimes."

The Colts and Bears play "tough, disciplined football, even though there's not a lot of profanity from the coaches," says Dungy.  "There's none of the win-at-all-costs atmosphere. I think for two guys to show you can win that way is important for the country."

So who said we couldn't find something encouraging and redemptive from the Super Bowl this weekend?

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow

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