Redskins Leadership Lessons Redux – The Video

Regular readers may recall that I ran a post last week on the leadership lessons that can be learned from not doing what Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder is doing with his organization. In the category of “doesn’t happen every day,” I got a call from a producer at DC’s Fox TV affiliate to ask if I’d do an interview on what I was hearing from fans about the situation. Fox 5 ran the piece on a few of their broadcasts following the Redskins’ Monday night loss to the Eagles this week. Roll the tape:

The original post cited nine things that Snyder and his EVP of football operations Vinny Cerrato are doing that leaders shouldn’t do.  When I went to the Fox studio to do the interview, the producer told me that when she mentioned to her colleagues that I’d come up with a list of nine things, the universal response was, “Only nine?”

It turns out that they were right. There are more than nine. Two new ones that emerged this week are treating your customers like criminals (as reported by the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg on how Redskins security ripped up the sign of a fan who was trying to send a message of love to her husband in Afghanistan) and playing the blame game in public (see this article on Redskins EVP Vinny Cerrato arguing that he gave Coach Jim Zorn a playoff caliber team).

I will make a promise that I’m not going to turn this into a Sports blog. I’m done (for now anyway) with what we can learn from the Redskins. Thought you might be interested in the rest of the story (so far). 

Comments

[Rodney Johnson]

Scott, it must be frustrating being a Redskins fan - so my "good luck" wish goes out to you and all of the fans. I've been actively working in an area that I refer to as "Silent Problems (problems that are being avoided, neglected or going unnoticed)," I'm wondering what you believe is the reason "why" these problems are being avoided. Silent problems are the most difficult and challenging problems to solve, simply because there are so many emotional components to the problem. I'd be willing to state that if we were able to complete a silent problem assessment of the organization, we'd get to the heart of the real problem, a place where sustainable progress could be made.

[Terri Malone]

The first post you did, Scott, on Redskins leadership was so spot on...it rang true with real life leadership situations I've experienced in the workplace. In fact, I've coined a term (not sure if it's already been coined!)...if you've been emasculated in your leadership position, you've been "Zorned".

[Dan McCarthy]

Scott -
Wow, how cool is that? Nice job. Being a long suffering Buffalo Bills fan, I can relate. We're not too happy with Mr. Wilson and company these days.

[Scott Eblin]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Never imagined that my 2:36 seconds of fame would be NFL related.