When is it that you pull the plug?

When is it that you pull the plug?

I have always used sports analogies because they are a microcosm of the world. Even though I have mostly dealt with basketball, swimming, track and field and baseball, I follow other sports as well. Football is one of them although it is not practiced too much in Puerto Rico except in some of the American high schools.
As many football fans know, the New York Giants were recently eliminated from the playoffs with their loss to the New England Patriots
It is very common for the coach to be fired when a team that is expected to make the playoffs, doesn’t make it but the Giants didn’t fire their coach.
For example, the Buffalo Bills, eliminated from the playoffs long time ago, as soon as the season ended fired their whole coaching staff. The fact that they beat the Indianapolis Colts 30 to 7 on their last game of the season didn’t help much. Their final record was 6 wins and 10 losses.
Another interesting case is the Tampa Buccaneers coach, Jon Gruden. This guy led the Buccaneers to a super bowl victory in 2002 but this year, after starting with a 9- 3 they failed to make the playoffs. He went 60-57 in seven seasons as head coach of the Buccaneers, including the playoffs and leaves as the winningest coach in Franchise history.
This is a very important lesson that applies to everyone in sports or business. You are as good as your last victory. You can’t rely on past wins to hold you over if you start losing.
Mike Singletary is also a very interesting case. He was fired after his team, the San Francisco 49ers lost to St. Louis for a 5-10 record. This team entered the season as the favorite in their division, the NFC West and guess what; they lost their first five games for a 0-5 record and broke even the rest of the season.
Three other coaches were fired for non performance, Wade Phillips (Dallas), Brad Childress (Minnesota) and Josh McDaniel’s (Denver)
The blood bath isn’t over yet by the way.
I loved the way Mike Singletary assumed responsibility. In today’s world we don’t have many people assuming responsibility for anything. Most simply look for excuses and it is everyone’s fault except their own.
“You know what; I will put it this way: a personal failure. I am the head coach of this team and obviously wanted us to do better, felt that we could do better,” Coach Singletary said after the game on Sunday. “There are some obvious questions that I hoped would be answered as the season went on, and obviously were not answered. When that happens, you end up out of the playoffs.”
“I take full responsibility for every unanswered question”.
This guy deserves another chance, maybe with another team.
As I mentioned earlier, the Giants didn’t fire their coach. John Mara just announced that even though his New York Giants failed to make the playoffs, Coach Tom Coughlin’s job was safe.
“I am obviously disappointed we didn’t make the playoffs” Mara said, “Everybody in this locker room is disappointed. But that doesn’t mean you blow the whole thing up. He is still the guy we want as our head coach”.
Wow, don’t you think that this coach, after getting a vote of confidence, won’t give his life next season in order to make the playoffs. Wait and see how they make the playoffs in 2011-2012.
In today’s world of instant gratification, of most people eating their marshmallows, where it is no longer “what have you done for me lately” but “what have you done for me yesterday or this morning?” Mara and the Giants are not blaming their coach for the team’s problems (obviously he is not the one that turned the ball over an average of 2 times more per game than the New England Patriots, the players did that) but the point is that it is great to see a team looking at the long term and not the immediate term.
So, now we jump to the world of business. How long will you stay with an employee, executive or a salesperson, to let them develop in the job and develop their skills before you let them go?
Are you willing to “keep trying” with someone who you believe can and should become a star performer?
Or, would you bend to the methodology sports team use and some businesses that demand that you produce results right away or you are out the door?
This is a very difficult question. During my seminars I say that a business should “hire slow and fire fast”. I don’t mean fire right away, but after a reasonable period of time where the employee is given support, training and counseling to make sure that everything that could be done is done.
I do have to recognize that there are examples of organizations that have stuck with their management and the results have been very positive.
The best example ever I think also comes from the world of sports.
After 13 years as a coach, the best he did was a third place in a regional tournament. The next three years after that, his record was 16-10 and 16-9, respectable and then a 14-12, not exactly a super performance.
Well, the pressure was on to fire this guy, many alumni openly asking that he be fired. Be aware that this team had championship expectations and after fifteen years, this guy hadn’t even gotten close to a championship.
What would you have done? Would you have pulled the trigger? Taken a chance with a “name” coach? Would you have believed this man’s performance over 15 years was enough proof that this guy is a loser?
I know that many of my readers are teachers that teach management, marketing, social studies, psychology etc., well, ask the question in your class to see what responses you get.
If you decided to fire him, you would have fired John Wooden, basketball coach of UCLA.
The next ten years, he won 10 NCAA championships, a record that will probably never be broken. During those dozen years, his teams lost a total of 22 games but won 335 of them. He had several two or three perfect seasons when they didn’t lose one single game.
Maybe in today’s “faster, quicker, right now, I want it now” world, it is time we sit down, use our brain, take a deep breath and remind ourselves of the need to understand people, carefully analyze situations before acting irrationally and then hope you make the best decision.
When do you pull the plug? It isn’t easy.