GOOD NEWS: Attracting and Retaining Talent
Good News: An enewsletter for donors and nonprofits
on strategic planning, governance, fundraising, and executive leadership.
“More often than not, individual talent masks the limitations inherent in all systems.”
Attracting and Retaining Talent
Why the New England Patriots Keep Losing and What Your Foundation or Nonprofit Can Learn from Their Decline
As the NFL descends from a sport to a display of life-threatening injuries and racial injustice, it is a rare encounter to meet someone who has never heard of the National Football League or New England Patriots.
Even casual observers likely know about the success and breakup of coach Bill Belichick and recently re-retired for now quarterback Tom Brady.
The most rabid fanatics have dissected intensely how a one time football dynasty is now a cautionary tale of decline and hubris reminiscent of the most instructive Greek and Roman tragedies.
Here I offer five things that your foundation or nonprofit can learn from the post-Tom Brady, 43-42, can't win or even make a playoff game New England Patriots:
1. On Field Talent Is Nearly Everything
Whether on the field or at the venue of a service provider, there is no substitute for talented individuals making great plays. No coach ever threw a touchdown pass. So attract and retain your front line employees with exceptional compensation and working conditions. People know when they are paid well and considered as critical assets positioned to succeed. They also know when leadership thinks of them as cogs to be churned through and replaced with the lowest cost part. The Great Reshuffling isn’t happening where all workers are valued in ways that go beyond statements. If you want to attract and retain talent, examine how you are treating your most valuable asset, the individuals actually providing the service your organization offers.
2. Chief Executive Leadership Is Overrated
The Great Reshuffling also isn’t happening where executive compensation is proportionate to median employee salaries and where chief executives work and live like many of their employees. Over investment in chief executives comes at the cost of positive employee morale and having the resources to spend on other talent needed throughout an organization. It is not lost on players and other coaches that Head Coach and General Manager Bill Belichick is the highest paid coach in professional sports while being lauded for his reputation for minimizing player contracts with a "next man up" mentality.
3. Systems Are Not Substitutes for Great People
Connected to over-reliance on chief executive leadership and under-valuing workers is the over-reliance on systems. It is often said that Bill Belichick's "Patriot way" is the key to victory. One need only look at what happens after talented individuals depart and the same systems remain in place. Tom Brady celebrated winning another Super Bowl and consistently made the playoffs with another team. Bill Belichick’s pre and post-Brady teams lose more than they win in a joyless environment. More often than not, individual talent masks the limitations inherent in all systems.
4. Nepotism and Cronyism Cause Institutional Rot
Rather than seek the most diverse and talented group of coaches, Belichick surrounds himself with family and friends. Like-mindedness and familiarity are the coin of the realm. Not only does this create an inside and outside group dynamic, it stifles ideas and makes necessary dissent nearly impossible. Once who is saying what becomes more important than what is said, excellence that relies on candor and debate disappears. So do Super Bowl rings. Family and friend hires should be the extraordinarily rare exception, if they ever happen at all, not business as usual.
5. The Only Constant Is Change
Football is not the same game it was twenty or even five years ago. Belichick’s forever tenure now surrounded by loyalists make it nearly impossible to stay grounded in reality and connected to an ever-changing world. Independent, new voices are necessary to bring the best, current thinking to the table. Without robust internal and external idea generation and interrogation, leadership creates an echo chamber that is doomed to remain behind the curve. A cult of personality rather than a marketplace of ideas emerges.
There is much more to say about the rise and fall of Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Not treating ordinary people doing their jobs with disdain and routinely obfuscating the truth come to mind.
Whether you are a football fanatic or reader of Aeschylus, Euripides or Seneca, consider studying the timeless lessons related to empire rise, decline, and hubris in order for your foundation or nonprofit to thrive.
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
The Allure of Greek Tragedy (4:26 minute watch)
"Regardless of how you feel when you watch poor Oedipus, never has there been a more salient reminder that no matter how bad things get, at least you didn't kill your father and marry your mother."
Watch Here
Coaches and Player Attrition (21 minute listen)
"I'm concerned about who is teaching these players and how much institutional knowledge might leave this offseason from the roster itself."
Listen Here
Roman Empire Decline (5 minute read)
"It is also hugely significant that the state and the imperial house gradually withdrew from ownership and direct management of economic assets, principally by selling off their landholdings to private owners, whose tax position was relatively favorable. The rich became richer and the poor certainly did not – the gap seems to have widened and the socio-economic pressures were aggravated, particularly on the ‘middling’ urban residents who now seem to have a smaller share of the benefits of Roman rule."
Read More Here
