The 8 Man Rotation: The 2014 Season

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The 8 Man Rotation:
A Look At Sports and HR
The 2014 Season
By
Steve Boese
Kris Dunn
Lance Haun
Tim Sackett
Matthew Stollak

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Table of Contents
Foreword by Paul Hebert
HR Planning, Strategy, Data and Leadership
Big Data – On the Basketball Court Today..In Your Office Tomorrow? – Steve Boese
The Analytics Takeover Won’t Always Be Pretty – Steve Boese
The Silver Hammer: Three Reasons to Come Down Hard On Your First Big
Leadership Test – Steve Boese
The Juergen Bomb: Three Reasons Why A New Leader Makes A Strategic Firing –
Steve Boese
Germany, Spurs: Welcome to the Machine – Steve Boese
“I’m Gay:” Notes On How One Leader Got Potentially Disruptive News Right… -
Kris Dunn
DATA & MONEY: Run a Vasectomy/March Madness Promo at Your Company Next
January… - Kris Dunn
Want to Be A Great People Manager? Don’t Watch the Ball… - Kris Dunn
Leadership Isn’t What You Read in Books… - Kris Dunn
UAB Football is Dead: Great Leaders Make Great Enemies – Kris Dunn
HR’s September Call Ups – Tim Sackett
On the Billion Dollar Bracket – Matthew Stollak
Staffing and Career Considerations
Choosing Your Benchmarks Wisely and the Legacy of David Stern – Steve Boese
Is “In What Month Were You Born?” A Valid Interview Question? – Steve Boese
It’s Tough to Succeed a Legend – Steve Boese
You Have to Get Lighter As You Get Older – Steve Boese
To Fail This Often, You Have to be Pretty Good – Steve Boese
Prepare to be Disappointed – Steve Boese
Do’s and Don’ts of Accepting Offers of Employment: NBA DRAFT VERSION… -
Kris Dunn
Googling Candidates: Ray Rice Version… – Kris Dunn
Hiring Back an Employee Who Left You – Tim Sackett
The Organization with the Most Expensive Selection Mistake Is? – Tim Sackett
Prospective Employee Camps – Tim Sackett
Success is Relative – Tim Sackett
Should Your “A” Players Recruit For Your Organization? – Matthew Stollak
Yield Ratios, NASCAR, and the National Guard – Matthew Stollak

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Training and Development
How Far Are You Willing to Go to Get Better? – Steve Boese
Why There Won’t Be Youth Football in 20 Years… - Kris Dunn
Success vs. Development – Tim Sackett
Performance and Talent Management
HOT SPORTS TAKE: What is More Important Than Culture? – Steve Boese
What Richard Sherman Reminds Us About High Performers – Steve Boese
Why Do Old Coaches Get Fired? – Steve Boese
When Things Don’t Work Out – Lessons from the New York Knicks – Steve Boese
Diverse Teams Can (Literally) Better Take the Heat – Steve Boese
The Obligatory World Cup Post – Steve Boese
The Value of Keeping the Team Intact (NBA Edition) – Steve Boese
Talent Attraction: The Real Reason to Keep Top Talent – Steve Boese
How the NBA can Teach You (Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Talent
Management – Steve Boese
Great Players Win Early – Steve Boese
The Performance Curve – Steve Boese
If Richard Sherman Took A Pre-Employment Assessment, Here’s What It Would
Show… - Kris Dunn
MONEYBALL: Is the Talent World’s Most Undervalued Asset Old People? – Kris
Dunn
Managers as Coaches: The Key is Confrontation… - Kris Dunn
The Ghost of Athlete Past – Tim Sackett
3 Ways To Make Your Office More Productive During March Madness – Tim Sackett
The Managers as Coaches Myth – Tim Sackett
Total Compensation
The Best Sports Related Job Ever – Tim Sackett
Tiger Woods Returning To Work – Tim Sackett
Employee and Labor Relations
BULLY IN THE WORKPLACE: IS HR Getting It Wrong Most of the Time? – Kris
Dunn
2 Sure Things When the Owner of Your Company is Outed as a Racist… - Kris
Dunn
Auburn Football and HR: Why We Write New Handbook Policies to Police
Morons… - Kris Dunn
When to Allow Someone to Resign Instead of Firing Them… - Kris Dunn

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This Industry Sees 1/3 of its Alumni Develop Cognitive Disorders…. – Kris Dunn
Right to Play – Tim Sackett
I Don’t Want To Work With A Gay Person – Tim Sackett
Are You “Entitled” to One Mistake? – Tim Sackett
Baltimore Ravens Failed HR 101 – Tim Sackett
I’m Not White Enough – Tim Sackett
Special NBA Summer League Section
NBA Summer League Part 1 – The Relative Value of Talent – Steve Boese
Stuff the HR Capitalist (aka KD) Likes – The NBA Summer League… - Kris Dunn
My Weekend with the 8 Man Rotation (Featuring How Pro Hoops Misses On Talent
– Just Like You…) – Kris Dunn
YEAR-END PERFORMANCE REVIEW: The Outcast, The German, and the Guy with
a Heart Condition… - Kris Dunn
Finding “A” Talent is Overrated – Lance Haun
Quick Lessons Learned From the 2014 NBA Summer League – Matthew Stollak

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Foreword
Do not read this book!
It’s not accurate. For years the authors of this book have been putting together what
they consider their best written posts from their blogs trying to intelligently tie sports
analogies and HR commentary together. I can tell you they only hit that goal on the nose
about 98% of the time. Can you live with reading a book with a 2% error rate? I don’t
think I can.
And why should you take any advice from these guys related to sports. I know for a fact
not one of these authors has ever coached a professional sports team. Not one! Sure,
one guy spent some time with a college team – but he didn’t play – just helped coach.
And yes, they are rabid fans that take a trip to Vegas each year to watch players who
won’t even make the professional ranks play. I mean – who does that? Crazy people,
that’s who.
Sure they have a huge amount of experience in HR and the combined readership for
their HR blogs is somewhere north of the population of China but that shouldn’t sway
your opinion of them and make you think you should read this book. This book is full of
sports metaphors and lingo that the average HR person won’t understand. It’s filled with
smart-ass discussions on how sports and HR intersect and overlap. It will make your
head spin and your stomach nauseous. Do you really want that?
Not to mention it will ruin your relationship with other HR folks. After you read this
book you will know more than your peers. You will be different. You will think better,
smarter, faster. You don’t want that do you? You just want to keep your head below the
log when the shooting starts right? I know you – and you don’t want to be challenged.
I’m telling you… reading this book will seriously affect how you practice HR. You will not
be the ever again if you read this book.
Here’s the bottom line. And this is mostly fact… the HR people who read the previous
versions of 8-Man Rotation are no longer in their jobs. Yep…they read this book.
Learned from the entertaining and well-written articles on sports and HR and they left
their jobs. Yeah, sure, they did get promoted and moved on to more challenging
assignments with greater visibility, pay and benefits. Now, some might see that as a
positive but I think it just goes to show that reading this book puts ideas in people’s
heads. Ideas that make a difference. Ideas that change things.
And that is scary stuff.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t read this book. Just go on your merry way. Keep doing what
you’re doing and don’t challenge the status quo.

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Remember – your boss probably read last year’s edition and see what it did for her?
Do you want that?
I didn’t think so.
--Paul Hebert

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CHAPTER 1
HR Planning, Strategy, Data and Leadership

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Big Data – On the Basketball Court Today, Tomorrow in Your
Office?
Steve Boese
Originally Published on February 14, 2014
Super piece over at Grantland the other day titled The Data Flow Continues: NBA D-
League Will Monitor Player Heart Rate, Speed, Distance Traveled, and
More, about some of the steps that the NBA, (and its affiliated minor league the D-
League), are taking that leverage wearable tracking devices to monitor player
movements, player vital signs, and evaluate things like player fatigue levels and stress
during the course of play.
These new devices, ones that go beyond the already in-place sophisticated video
technology that records player actions like direction of movement, speed, acceleration
and deceleration, and move into more precise measurements of a player's biological and
physical status and condition, seem to offer NBA teams a rich and copious set of
information that can inform in-game strategy, (Is LeBron really tired, or does he just
look tired?), and off season training and conditioning plans.
But of course the potential backlash for the NBA and its teams is that no one, not even
highly compensated NBA players, will be terribly excited about not only having their
actions tracked, but also their physical reactions tracked as well.
But if we move off of thinking about this kind of physical tracking as something that is
limited to jobs or activities like playing basketball we could easily see how this kind of
technology and data collection and mining approach could have applications in other
domains.
Wouldn't you like to know, Mr. or Ms. HR/Talent pro, how a given manager's team
members physically react when they are in a performance coaching session, or getting
any kind of feedback on their work? Do the team member's hearts start racing when
their boss enters the room or begins one of his soliloquies? Do certain team members
react and respond differently to the same managerial techniques? And wouldn't that
information be valuable to feed back to the manager so that he or she could better tailor
their style and approach to fit the individuals on their team?
I know what you are saying, no way are employees going to agree to be wired up like
subjects in some kind of weird biology experiment. Too intrusive. Too much potential
for the data to be lost. Too many chances for the data to be held against them.
The NBA players are probably going to make similar arguments, but eventually they will
succumb.
I will leave with a direct pull quote from the Grantland piece*, and as you read it, think
about how naturally you could substitute 'organizations' for 'NBA teams'.

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Bottom line: None of this stuff is going away. Data of all kinds are already piling up at a
rate that is overwhelming NBA teams, and the pace and variety of data available will
only increase. Teams are going to have to change hiring patterns, and likely hire
additional staff, to mine anything useful out of all this information. And the holy grail, to
me, remains what these tracking devices can tell us about health — about preventing
injuries, predicting them, monitoring players’ training loads, and keeping them healthy.
*
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-data-flow-continues-nba-d-league-will-
monitor-player-heart-rate-speed-distance-and-more/

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The Analytics Takeover Won’t Always Be Pretty
Steve Boese
Originally Published on March 31, 2014
Seems like it has been some time since I dropped a solid 8 Man Rotation contribution
here on the blog, so to remedy that, please first take a look at this recent piece on
ESPN.com, 'Fears that stats trump hoops acumen', a look at the tensions that are building
inside NBA front offices and among team executives.
In case you didn't click over and read the piece, the gist is this: With the increased
importance and weight that a new generation of NBA team owners are placing on data-
driven decision making and analytical skills, that the traditional people that have been the
talent pool for NBA team management and executive roles, (former NBA players), are
under threat from a new kind of candidate - ones that have deep math, statistics, and
data backgrounds and, importantly, not careers as actual basketball players.
This excerpt from ESPN* gives you a feel for how this change in talent management and
sourcing strategies is being interpreted by long time (and anonymously quoted) NBA
executives:
Basketball guys who participated in the game through years of rigorous training and
practice, decades of observation work through film and field participation work feel
under-utilized and under-appreciated and are quite insulted because their PhDs in
basketball have been downgraded," the former executive, who chose to remain
anonymous, told ESPN NBA Insider Chris Broussard.
One longtime executive, who also chose to remain anonymous, postulated that one
reason why so many jobs are going to people with greater analytical backgrounds is
because newer and younger owners may better identify with them.
"Generally speaking, neither the [newer generation of] owners nor the analytic guys have
basketball in their background," the longtime executive told Broussard. "This fact makes
it easy for both parties to dismiss the importance of having experience in and knowledge
of the game.
The piece goes on to say that since many newer NBA owners have business and financial
industry backgrounds, (and didn't inherit their teams as part of the 'family business'), that
they would naturally look for their team executives to share the kinds of educational and
work experience profiles of the business executives with which they are accustomed to
working with, and have been successful with.
The former players, typically, do not have these kinds of skills, they have spent just about
all their adult lives (and most of their childhoods), actually playing basketball. A set of
experiences, it is turning out, no longer seems to provide the best training or
preparation for running or managing a basketball team.

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But the more interesting point from all this, and the one that might have resonance
beyond basketball, is the idea that the change in hiring philosophy is coming right from
the top - from a new generation of team owners that have a different set of criteria upon
which they are assessing and evaluating talent.
Left to tradition, hiring and promotion decisions would have probably only slowly begun
to modernize. But a new generation of owners/leaders in the NBA are changing the
talent profile for the next generation of leaders.
The same thing is likely to play out in your organization. Eventually, if it has not happened
yet, you are going to go to a meeting with your new CHRO who didn't rise through the
HR ranks and maybe is coming into the role from finance, operations, or manufacturing.
In that meeting your 19 years of experience in employee relations might be a great asset
to brag on. Or it might not be.
And you might find out only when you are introduced to your new boss, who has spent
her last 5 years crunching numbers and developing stats models.
*http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10673335/some-executives-fear-reliance-stats-keeping-ex-
nba-players-front-offices

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The Silver Hammer: Three Reasons To Come Down Hard On
Your First Big Leadership Test
Steve Boese
Originally Published on April 30, 2014
I probably don't need to re-hash the Donald Sterling v. the NBA (and the World)
narrative once again for you, by now you have heard the important details of the story.
But just to re-set, and set up this piece, you need to know two things.
1. Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers was just suspended from the NBA for
life for making racist statements, fined $2.5M, and is going to be forced by the other 29
NBA team owners to sell the Clippers.
2. This disciplinary judgement was handed down by NBA commissioner Adam Silver,
whose name may not be terribly familiar to you, and is not that familiar to even many
NBA fans. Silver just became the Commissioner about three months ago when he
succeeded former commissioner and NBA legend David Stern, who had a 30-year reign
leading the NBA. Stern in many ways became synonymous with the modern NBA, and
while not perfect, will probably be remembered by history as one of the two or three
greatest sports executives of his time.
Adam Silver, the new person in charge, had to not only deal with the Donald Sterling
situation, he also had the added challenge of this very public and high-profile problem
being the first true test of his leadership. And in this test, Silver elected to mete out the
harshest and most significant punishment that was possible according to the NBA
constitution. Silver could have suspended Sterling for a fixed time period, like one year,
could have fined him less than the max of $2.5M, and did not have to elect to push for
Sterling's removal as an owner. But instead Silver went heavy, and in his first leadership
test, (at least one that involved a disciplinary decision), he made a pretty bold statement.
That statement was essentially, "There's a new sheriff in town."
Here are three reasons I can think of why it makes sense for a new leader to come
down super heavy in their first big leadership spot:

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1. Old-school territory marking - A new leader, especially one succeeding a highly
successful and influential predecessor, has to make sure the rest of the team knows who
is running the ship now. One of the best ways to send that message is with really bold,
decisive actions that help to instill confidence in the team. I have read lots of accounts of
the NBA/Silver decision, and not once have I read "What would David Stern have
done?"
2. If the decision is a "Should he/she stay or go?" one, you should almost
always pick 'Go' - One of the biggest challenges for the new leader is evaluating the
team around them. And it is usually obvious who needs to go, and most of the time the
leader will know it in their gut but don’t do anything because they don't want to shake
things up too soon. It’s hard to face that there is some house cleaning that needs to be
done before the new leader and team can move forward. Or they might think that with a
new approach or style that the person can be coached. This almost never works out. A
new leader is better off cutting bait nine times out of ten. These kinds of tough decisions
can also open up opportunities for other members of the team who may have been
languishing under the former regime, feeling stuck or blocked by folks that needed to be
(gently) moved along.
3. It's easier to lighten up later, than it is to get tougher - Did you ever have a
teacher or coach or manager or even one of your parents that was kind of easy-going
and took a laissez-faire kind of approach? The type of leader that generally liked to keep
their hands clean, avoided most unpleasant confrontations, and tried to guide you more
so than lead you? But later when there arose some kind of situation or screw-up where
the leader really had to get tough, crack the whip, bang the hammer, (you get the idea),
no one really took them seriously since they were always more of a friend rather than an
authority figure? The point being it is almost impossible to pivot from 'nice-guy' to 'tough
guy' once your reputation as a nice guy is established. It is much, much easier to ease off
a little bit over time, once the team sees you as someone that is not afraid to make
tough, sometimes unpopular decisions. Good luck trying to go the other way.
What do you think, about Silver's decision here and about how new leaders stake out
their position in general?

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The Juergen Bomb: Three Reasons Why A New Leader Makes A
Strategic Firing
Steve Boese
Originally Published on May 28, 2014
A couple of weeks back (see previous piece) I riffed on NBA Commissioner Adam
Silver's decision to crack down amazingly tough on (disgraced, probably racist), soon-to-
be former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling following the release of audio
tapes that revealed once and for all time how horrible a person is Mr. Sterling.
Commissioner Silver went full nuclear on Sterling - fining him the maximum allowable
amount according to league policy, banning him for life from the Clippers and all NBA
matters, and moving (along with the 29 other league owners), to force a sale of the
Clippers by Sterling. You can check out my piece linked above for the full take, but
essentially I think Silver's response to this first real leadership test was spot-on, and in
particular, because it set a decisive tone for his leadership style and approach moving
forward.
Fast forward to last week, and we have another pretty high profile leadership (this one
mixed in with some tasty talent management) situation from the world of sports -
specifically from the United States Men's National Soccer team. In case you missed it, US
coach Juergen Klinsmann made news when he dropped US soccer star (and the National
team's all time leading scorer), Landon Donovan from the squad of 23 players that will
compete in the upcoming World Cup. While Silver's handling of the Sterling mess has
been universally lauded and wildly popular, Klinsmann's decision to essentially fire
Donovan from the National team has been met with plenty of second-guessing, and is
certainly not popular with several of the remaining (and influential) team members. This
was a tough managerial decision around talent, and since my job as part of the 8 Man
Rotation crew is to help you break down the connections between sports and your job
as an HR/talent pro, here are three reasons I can think of why it makes sense for a
new leader to make a strategic fire a la Klinsmann:

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1. The obvious one - dropping a veteran, established talent that seemed 'safe' by just
about every stretch of the imagination signals out to the rest of the team (sports or
otherwise), that the new leader is really in charge, and more importantly, has the security
and management support to make tough decisions. Much speculation about Klinsmann's
decision to drop Donovan from the World Cup squad was that the coach wanted to use
that spot to give a younger, less experienced player a great developmental opportunity
for what seems to be Klinsmann's true goal - mounting a serious challenge in the next
World Cup in 2018, a competition which the then 36 year old Donovan would certainly
not factor.
2. A strategic fire can often shake up a content workplace. The US team has
been sort of running in place for the last few World Cup cycles. Sure, they have the
occasional moments of success and games that make you think they are finally going to
be serious contenders at elite competitions. But then they inexplicably fall to some lesser
opponents, fail to seriously compete when facing the world's top teams, and generally
seem comfortable just qualifying for the World Cup. Klinsmann does not want to reward
that kind of status quo, that decade of mediocrity. The remaining players simply need to
play better, or Klinsmann will find replacements. Dropping a former star, who still may
be able to contribute, signals that performance standards across the entire organization
are going up. The other players might think, "Crap, if he was willing to cut Landon, he
definitely will drop me if I don't start scoring goals."
3. The leader takes ownership of overall team results - especially if the results
are poor. The primary reason in sports that coaches like to 'play it safe' and 'go by the
book' is that they don't want to accept blame for failure, since they 'went by the book',
whether it is in player selection or game strategy and tactics. In American football, the
vast majority of coaches will punt the ball away on 4th down when the data clearly show
that running an offensive play to try and keep possession of the ball is almost always the
better statistical move. But if the coach plays it safe, and the team loses, he/she can
usually shift blame to the players or some other external circumstance. Make 'risky'
decisions like unexpectedly cutting a star player like Donovan and have them not pan
out? All the blame, or at least a large part of the blame, will land on Klinsmann's
shoulders. And I think that is a good thing, more coaches/leaders need to be willing to
claim responsibility for failure (and accept the consequences too).
Ok, that's it - I'm out.
Go USA. Try not to lose to any country with less than 1% of our population this time.

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Germany, Spurs: Welcome to the Machine
Steve Boese
Originally Published on July 14, 2014
The German men's national team won the World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Argentina
yesterday, completing a march to the title that at times seemed almost incredible
and surreal, (their 7-1 demolition of host nation Brazil in the semifinal), and absolutely
workmanlike (the title match, their group stage tussles with Ghana and the USA).
But no matter how any individual game for the Germans developed, in the end they were
always able to find the right combination of talent, strategy and tactics, and individual
moments of inspiration and excellence needed to raise the most prized trophy in all of
world sports. For US fans, continuing to warm up to the highest levels of a sport that
almost (it seems) every American child has played at least some in the last 20 years,
watching the German team in this World Cup had to be at least somewhat reminiscent
of the recent San Antonio Spurs NBA Championship.
While there were certainly some differences between the two team's achievements, the
similarities, at least to me were pretty clear, and might (apologies in advance to anyone
already sickened by 'What can we learn about career management/leadership/workplaces
from LeBron James returning to Cleveland' posts), I as a member of the 8 Man Rotation
feel obliged to call out a few keys to both of these victories, and to take a stab at what
broader application might be found therein.
Talent and system are not the same as culture, (and are more important) -
Tim Sackett had a great take at Fistful of Talent last week about 'system' hiring and it is
well worth a read. Both the Spurs and Germany 'play the right way', i.e., organize their
players and approach the game in a particular way in that each player understands their
role, and how it contributes to the overall goals of the team. While each team has
recognizable and extremely successful individual players, (Duncan and Parker on the
Spurs, Muller and Klose for Germany), none of the games and the strategy ever seemed
to be about these individuals. From beginning to end each team approached and played
the games as a team. Not once in the NBA Finals or in the World Cup late stages did I
recall hearing any commentator say something like 'The Spurs (or Germany), will only go

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as far as player XYZ takes them.' It was always a team effort, not one that relied on one
or two talents. In fact, many of the players on the Spurs for sure, probably only succeed
because they are in the Spurs system, and they have found the right fit for their talent.
In the long run, discipline and belief trumps emotion - In the pre-game of the
World Cup semifinal the home team Brazil had cranked up the emotional meter to 11 -
they had 70,000 fans behind them, they 'felt' like it was their destiny to win on their
home soil, and even held up the jersey of their injured and unable to play star Neymar in
the pre-game line-up. It would have been easy for Germany to succumb to that
emotional and psychological pressure, and give up and early goal or two. Instead, the
German side stuck to their plan, withstood the first 10 minutes or so of Brazil's efforts,
and then set on a goal scoring flurry not seem ever before in a World Cup semifinal.
Similarly, in the final game of the NBA Finals, the two-time defending champion Miami
Heat jumped out to an early lead against the Spurs, only to find the Spurs back to just
about even by halftime, as the Spurs system and discipline proved more that Miami could
match. When you have a system, and the right talent that has bough in to the system,
then the lesson is to stick with it, don't panic when your opponent seems to have the
upper hand, and double down on what you know will be successful in the long game.
Most of us are really bad at evaluating talent - The Spurs had the NBA's best
regular season record. The German side are full of top-level players from the world's
most famous clubs. Yet neither was favored to win their respective championships prior
to the final series or game. The Heat, with best player in the world LeBron James, and
Brazil with their history of success (and home nation status), were expected to lift the
trophies that ended up being held by the Spurs and Germany. We kept looking for
excuses why the Spurs or Germany could not win (the Spurs were too old, Germany had
not won the World Cup in 20+ years, and never outside of Europe), that we let
ourselves be fooled. Even the leaders of these great teams might not understand talent
completely. The World Cup winning goal was set up and scored by two players that
were not even in the starting team of 11. I think this is is often the same thing that
occurs in day-to-day talent assessment and evalution. We are trained to look for the
reasons why someone won't or can't succeed, instead of focusing on the things that they
are talented and strong at, and thinking about ways to leverage the skills they have.
Bottom line - Spurs = Germany = a great way to think about how systems and strategy
lead you to find the right talent you need to succeed.

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“I’m Gay:” Notes on How One Leader Got Potentially Disruptive
News Right….
Kris Dunn
By now, most of you heard the breaking news earlier this week - University of Missouri
Linebacker Michael Sam declared to the world he was gay, setting up the chance that the
NFL will have it's first openly gay player in history. Sam's projected to be a 3rd to 5th
round draft choice and was defensive player of the year in the powerhouse SEC, so it's
hard to see where he won't be on an NFL roster when the NFL regular season rolls
around in September.
I'm not qualified to talk about many of the issues surrounding this, but I wanted to put a
light on someone who got it right related to Sam over the last year - Mizzou head coach
Gary Pinkel.
Let's take a look at some notes from ESPN related to Pinkel's reaction to Sam coming
out before Mizzou's regular season*, and how the team reacted with that leadership:
As it turns out, Pinkel had set up small groups designed to help the players get to know
each other, which was one important mechanism in Sam feeling comfortable enough to
share who he was.
"Periodically throughout the year, Pinkel said, each Missouri coach will invite
about 15 players from different position units to his home for "cross-over
dinners."
"They'll all come over, having dinner at my house, and I'll stand up and say, 'I'm
Gary Pinkel, I'm from Akron, Ohio,' and I start talking about my family, everything
about my family. And everybody unloads everything about themselves. It's
remarkable."
Sam was at an assistant coach's house when he told his teammates he is gay.
"In August he was in another group, and I got a call from the coach right

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afterward that Michael told the whole group that he's gay," Pinkel said. "That's
when I first heard of it."
Nice. Small groups, a leader OK with others leading each other. But Pinkel was on the
brink of losing his job:
"Michael Sam's sexual orientation probably wasn't the most pressing thing
weighing on coach Gary Pinkel's mind at the start of the 2013 season. He was
close to losing his job after going 5-7 in an injury-plagued 2012, a year in which his
team looked as if it had no business playing in the SEC. That Pinkel, who is 61,
from Akron, Ohio, and widely known as being an old-school coach, had no
experience on how to handle an openly gay player when Sam came out in August.
Duly noted. As a kid who grew up in Missouri, there's no question his job was on the
line, which makes his reaction to the news an even better story for leaders everywhere.
Pinkel didn't overreact.
"Pinkel knows players. He knew that Sam was widely respected, popular and one
of the best players on the team. He knew he had a strong senior class full of
leaders. He told the Tigers that if they wanted to be successful, they had to come
together and protect their family members, everybody from the freshmen to the
coaches to the video staff."
He leaned on his captains, and in the days after Sam came out to the team, he
met with them daily, asking, "How's the team doing? What's going on?"
Again, allowing and expecting others to lead. Showing them he expected it. Nice. But
the coach changed in the midst of possibly losing his job and having a national story on
his hands. He loosened up, rather than trying to rule the situation with an iron fist.
"Pinkel changed, too. Faced with so much pressure, he let it go and loosened up.
The most noticeable difference was at practice. At the urging of the seniors,
Pinkel allowed the team to play music during warm-ups. In all of the years that
any of them had known Pinkel, he'd never had music during warm-ups. The
change allowed the players to be more relaxed and comfortable.
Pinkel trusted his team. He never asked them to keep Sam's announcement a
secret, even though he knew if the news had leaked, it would've been a big
distraction. He just told them to respect each other and protect each other.
"Coach Pinkel didn't have separate meetings pointing out how we should handle
it," senior offensive lineman Justin Britt said. "I think he kind of let us learn as we
went along."
Ponder this. Pinkel was about to lose his job and has a potential huge distraction
dumped on him before the season. But rather than try to control it, he went the other
way, trusting everyone around him. Mizzou responded with a magical season, going to

21

the SEC title game, finishing in the top 5 nationally and cementing Pinkel's security as the
Mizzou coach for years to come.
Did that happen by chance? I think not. The team responded to Pinkel's cool and took
his lead. In doing that, Mizzou showed the world how to handle diversity and had the
best season in the history of the program.
That's leadership. Go Mizzou.
*http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10443289/missouri-blueprint-nfl

22

DATA & MONEY: Run a Vasectomy/March Madness Promo at
Your Company Next January….
Kris Dunn
Heads Up - This is not your normal March Madness post about lost productivity. Your
employees don't need tourney brackets to screw you out of an honest day's pay - they're
waaaaaay more creative than that.
Nope - this post is about how you combine March Madness, economic, medical coverage
and bedroom issues that interest your employees into one big "marketing meets HR"
extravaganza.
You need to mark your Calendars for January 5th, 2015, at which point
you'll launch a "Vasectomy/March Madness" special.
I'd like to think I'm a leader in this area. Once we had the second kid, it was time to
decide if we were done or not. We were done. I went to a urologist to explore the
male side of family planning.
My urologist was a immigrant from South America. As part of his vasectomy package, he
actually told us he had to talk with us as a couple. Then he unleashes this (imagine
Columbian accent):
South American Urologist - "Now Mr. Dunn, are you sure you want to do this? I have to
ask, because I see more and more men in their early 50's coming back with a young

23

second or third wife who expects children. At that point, they're looking to reverse the
vasectomy. I don't want you to be caught in those circumstances."
Me - "I'm sure, doc. Have you met Mrs. Dunn? She's sitting right here."
What an ass. But the deal got done. It also coincided with the purchase of our first big
screen TV and conference tournament weekend in college basketball, when there's like
100 high-end games on in a single weekend. I was a leader in this area. It's now a trend -
from CNN*:
"A major clinic in Ohio reports it performs 40 or 50 more vasectomies a month before
and during the 68-team basketball tourney. We do have (in March) typically about 50%
more vasectomies than in other months," said Dr. Ed Sabanegh, chairman of the
Department of Urology at the Cleveland Clinic. A lot of patients come in and say, 'I have
to have this during March Madness, you have to talk to my wife about it. Tell her what
my limitations are and that I need to be on the couch."
Here's your opportunity HR - you launch a special next January and focus on your long
term employees that look to be about done having kids and remind them of the
possibilities. The women probably wish the husband would take care of it. The
husbands are worried their macho level - or maybe the third wife in 13 years. You bring
them together by reminding them of the possibilities of the vasectomy/March Madness
combo. Maybe you throw in additional PTO and a platter from Chick-fil-A.
The wife wins because it's handled. The guy wins because he gets to watch hoops. You
win because you're creative, and let's face it, your medical plan doesn't need more
covered dependents or pregnancies.
That's win/win/win where I come from.
*http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/16/us/march-madness-vasectomies/index.html

24

Want to Be a Great People Manager? Don’t Watch the Ball…
Kris Dunn
Originally Published on August 7, 2014
I've got a simple post today. It starts with sports and rapidly moves off that. Hang in
there.
You know what separates good and great coaches in team sports from average
ones? They don't watch the ball. Regardless of the sport, the best coaches are the ones
who spend 80% of their time watching the activity off the ball. They figure the guy with
the ball is going to react to what's going on and do what's necessary. But the people
without the ball? That's where the action is.
Off the ball is where you have people reacting to what's going on in front of them, behind
them, to what they hear - all in an effort to be prepared and be in position to make a
play when the opportunity presents itself. There's a world of activity going on off the
ball, but almost all fans and many average coaches focus almost exclusively on the ball.
You want to be a great manager of people? A great coach in your organization? Find the
equivalent of "off the ball" for the people you manage and coach.
Examples:
• A direct report's prep (or lack thereof) to talk to an influential person in another
department at your company.
• Abruptness in email communication that doesn't fit the culture of your company.
• Giving "gifts" of time and effort in an organization that your direct report doesn't have
to - because it's good for them, you and the company - and almost always gets
repaid.
• A direct report's ability to give feedback to people up and down the organization in a

25

way that makes everyone feel like she's looking out for them rather than telling
them they suck.
There's a million examples, so let your mind flow.
Real coaches don't watch the ball. They coach off the ball. In sports and in companies.
Be a baller as a manager. Don't watch the ball.

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Leadership Isn’t What You Read in Books…
Kris Dunn
Is Leadership something that can be learned? Or are people born leaders?
Your answer probably depends on your definition of leadership. If you believe that you
can gain knowledge related to leadership by listening to the various leadership gurus,
reading books on leadership and watching/emulating Patton Jack Welch,
then you probably believe that leadership can be learned. Or at the very least, those
resources can take the leadership abilities you have and improve them within a certain
range based on your genetic limitations.
I tend to agree that everyone can learn how to be a better leader, although I'm not sure
if what we're talking about in most situations is really leadership. It feels more like
upper-end how to "manage" to me, which is valuable, but seems to fall short of the
mark. Why do I feel like that? Probably because when you see someone operating as a
true leader, we often sit back and say, "WOW". I'm not talking about Bob's charisma in
the all-employee meeting. I'm talking about a lifestyle that shouts out "Leader!", and it's
something you can't fake or learn from a book.
Check out the following description of how Magic Johnson led way back when he was in

27

high school (via Jackie MacMullan writes in "When the Game Was Ours", hat tip to True
Hoop)*:
"Magic's congeniality was a gift and a blessing to a school that was struggling to
maintain order in the wake of the redistricting. There were incidents throughout
Johnson's tenure at Everett between white and black students, yet the gifted
young ballplayer defused much of the tension by coaxing his friends into becoming
like him -- colorblind.
He showed up at parties held by his white teammates, even though he and his
friends were often the only blacks in attendance. He convinced his white friends
to listen to his soul music and coaxed the principal into setting aside a room to
dance during free study periods. He organized a protest when no African
American cheerleaders were picked for the school's squad, even though their
talents were undeniable.
"For all his basketball skills, the biggest contribution Earvin made to Everett was
race relations," said Fox. "He helped us bridge two very different cultures. He ran
with the white kids, but never turned his back on the black kids. He broke down
so many barriers. He was so popular the students figured 'Hey, if Earvin is hanging
out with these guys, it must be okay.'"
It was an Everett tradition that after the first practice of the season, the players
ran around the basketball court until the last teammate was standing. Two years
in a row, that person was Earvin Johnson. The summer before his senior season,
Johnson's teammates Randy Shumway informed Fox that he was out to beat
Magic. The two ran around the court for more than a half-hour as their
teammates dropped by the wayside. After 45 minutes, both players were panting,
clearly exhausted, yet neither was willing to quit. Fox was contemplating how he
should break the stalemate when he noticed Johnson whispering in Shumway's
ear. The two did one more lap together before Magic announced, "That's it,
Coach. We're calling it a draw."
"Earvin could have outlasted him," said Fox, "but he knew it would be better for
team morale if he didn't."
Can what Magic displayed way back in the day be learned? I think not. It's in his
DNA. No book can teach you that...
*http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/18735/the-magic-johnson-school-of-
leadership

28

UAB Football is Dead: Great Leaders Make Great Enemies
Kris Dunn
Originally Published on December 4, 2014
In case you missed it, UAB Football is dead.
Technically, the UAB President and the university made the decision to shut down the
Division 1 FBS program, which went 6-6 this year and is bowl eligible.
Reasons provided by the leadership of UAB state that the program lost too much money
and wasn't sustainable, but most people think it is a power play by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Alabama System.
For those of you outside the state, the University of Alabama System, which includes
campuses in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville, is controlled by the same
board. The University of Alabama you know is the one in Tuscaloosa (Roll Tide - hard
for me to write that, but it's the best identifier for those outside the state I can
provide). But the campus in Birmingham is thriving and is the 2nd biggest employer in
the state of Alabama.
The people who believe the Board of Trustees made the call say they're doing it to keep
UAB down - to ensure UAB always plays second fiddle to the flagship campus in
Tuscaloosa.
Me? I think that's true, but the bigger lesson is that the Board of Trustees made the call
because they were influenced by a time tested truth - Great Leaders make Big
Enemies.
Allow me to explain.
The UAB athletic program was founded in 1977 when Gene Bartow was hired as
UAB's first athletics director and men's basketball coach. They started from
scratch. For those of you that don't know, Gene Bartow is now in the basketball Hall of
Fame - a big deal. Bartow was well regarded enough that he was the guy that replaced
John Wooden at UCLA when Wooden retired - that's also kind of a big deal. Lucky for
UAB, Bartow was shocked by the booster scene in SoCal, the expectations created by
Wooden's historical success at UCLA and more. He knew that he wasn't long for that

29

job and was in play, available to be recruited away for the right opportunity.
The fact that Bartow left UCLA to found an athletic program and basketball program
from scratch says a lot about who he was. He had some rebel in him. That became an
important part of the UAB story, and contributed to the death of the UAB Football
program this week, which I'll explain as we roll along.
Leaders aren't scared of creating something from scratch. Bartow obviously
was a leader in that sense.
UAB athletics, and specifically UAB Men's Basketball, shot up the chart. They drew
15,000 to their first men's basketball game and advanced to the Final 8 of the NCAA
Tournament 6 years after the start of the program. They were on fire.
Leaders get great organizational results in a short period of time. Bartow did
this better at UAB than anyone else in the history of Division 1 athletics.
My first job out of undergraduate was being a part of the UAB coaching staff from 1991
to 1994. It was a great time and introduced me to the city I now consider home -
Birmingham. Check out the pic above and you'll see the gang from that time at
UAB. Young KD is suited up, first guy on the second row. Working with Coach
Bartow was more complex than I expected. That's OK - I was just getting exposed to
the world of work and thought things should be a lot simpler than I now know they can
be.
From the start, Bartow was ready to fight to grow his program if he had to. Enter the
natural enemy - the University of Alabama (Flagship Tuscaloosa Location).
Leaders pick fights as necessary to grow their program. Bartow did this - it was

30

in his DNA.
Bartow's view of the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) was negatively influenced by his
view of the aforementioned Board of Trustees structure. Like today, the board was
dominated by Tuscaloosa supporters, and he had paranoia about that. How's the
paranoid saying go? "You're not paranoid if they're really out to get you." In addition to the
board structure and everything that means, Bartow was routinely fired up by recruiting
wars with Wimp Sanderson at Alabama. Bartow had multiple recruits that were flipped
and ended up playing for Sanderson in Tuscaloosa, and of course, Bartow felt there was
foul play including money changing hands, etc.
I've since met Coach Sanderson and he seems like a great guy. And if there's anything I'll
say about recruiting, it's complex and complicated everywhere - including UAB.
Through the years, Bartow became increasingly vocal about his views of Tuscaloosa. If
he would have lived and participated in today's social media world, I'm not sure he would
have survived the fallout from his views and enjoyed the same long career that he did at
UAB.
Leaders make big enemies because their vision is big and they have incredible
drive.
When I think about the death of UAB Football, I have to think about Gene Bartow. First
up, he was obviously the type of leader that could build something great from
scratch. He wasn't perfect, but what he built in a short period of time was incredible. A
basketball school in Birmingham? Are you kidding me? As a hoops-first guy, he was way
ahead of this time in understanding that he needed football to get to/stay in the big time
world of college athletics.
So he gave birth to a football program, and nurtured it from club, to D3, to D1
status. Tuscaloosa seethed as that was built. He didn't care. Leaders that matter rarely
care who gets their feelings hurt if the greater good is served.
Leaders eventually fade away and enemies kill their families if they don't have
the right successor.
As I look back at the history of Gene Bartow, he built something that's hard to find
anywhere else. It came from the ground up, and was unapologetic in it's ambition and
purpose. Unfortunately, the vision of leaders burns hot and enemies are created. UAB
never had a successor in multiple leadership positions who had the same passion for
what was built - a fact that's evidenced in a new president's willingness to kill the football
program and neuter the vision of UAB Athletics. As a result, UAB will downgrade their
conference affiliation (involuntarily - it takes football to play with the big boys, or even
the medium-sized boys) and all sports will be negatively impacted.
UAB's going back to a conference like the Sun Belt. Which is perfect for Tuscaloosa -

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UAB will never be a major threat in any sport due to the conference downgrade. This
wasn't always the case - just look at the history of UAB Basketball (beating the Tide in
1993 in the only head to head match up, arranged by the NIT) and the fact that the
football program has had some great moments (beating Nick Saban when he was at LSU,
etc.).
At the end of the day, killing UAB Football goes back to Gene Bartow. Great
leaders make great enemies.
Would I change anything that Bartow did? Hell no. I would change the succession plan
that followed him.
The void allowed the enemies created by the growth process to come in and kill a family
member (football) and disable the rest (all other sports due to the conference
downgrade that's coming).
You're not paranoid if they're really out to get you. RIP UAB as a player in big time Division
1 athletics. Your founder willed you to prominence. The successors weren't strong
enough to keep the wolves at bay.

32

HR’s September Call Ups!
Tim Sackett
Originally Published on September 5, 2014
For those who aren’t big Major League Baseball (MLB) fans you probably don’t know
what the “September Call-Up” or “Expanded Rosters” mean. Each year on September
1st, as the MLB season goes into its final month, the league allows teams to invite players
from their minor league teams and the roster number expands from 25 to 40. For teams
who are out of the playoff race, this allows them to give some younger guys an
opportunity to perform on a larger stage. For those in playoff races, or teams that have
already solidified a playoff berth, the extra players allow them to rest some regulars. For
playoff teams these extra 15 players can’t play in actual playoff games, only in the final
regular season games.
Ok, Tim – why the hell should we care about Major League Baseball’s September Call-
ups?
In any HR shop I’ve ever worked in, or with any HR Pro I’ve ever had a conversation
with, Succession Planning is always an issue HR Pros struggle with in their
organizations. Many times sports shows us there is a way that it can be done. You just
need to find a way to tailor it to your environment, and I think the MLB gives us a
window to how a competitive organization attempts to get this done.
Succession is difficult and costly, there is no way around it. If your organization is truly
trying to do succession and not spend money, it won’t be pretty and it probably won’t be
effective. To really know a person has the ability to step into someones shoes when
they leave, you have to see them actually do the job. In most organizations this just isn’t
an option. How many of us have the ability to pull out a high performer from their
current position, and put them into a new position, while the other person is still in that
position? Not many of us! It’s just not a reality most of live in.
Baseball’s September call-ups is one strategy that you might be able to use within your
organization. While pulling someone full-time into a new position, might not be

33

something you could do, could you do it for 30 days? Before telling me you can’t what
would you do it that same person had a medical issue and had to be hospitalized or
home-bound for a month? You’d make it, you’d get by, that’s what we do in
organizations. The team would rally and make it work. So, giving someone a 1 month
succession stint into a new potential role – full immersion – would actually give you
some decent insight to whether or not the person could actually handle that role in the
future, or at least show you some great development needs that have to ensure success.
Is it perfect? No – but that’s why it works. We don’t get perfect in HR – we get good
enough and move onto the next fire. We don’t get million dollar budgets to formalize
succession and have a bench full of high performing talent to just step in when someone
leaves our organization. It’s our job to figure out succession, while we figure out how to
keep the lights on at the same time. I love the September Call-Up – gives me insight to
the future of my team, shows me how someone performs in an environment that doesn’t
pigeonhole them forever, and let’s me know if they show some potential for The Show!

34

On the Billion Dollar Bracket
Matthew Stollak
Its my favorite week of the year....spring break combined with what should be national
days off - the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday and Friday.
I'm sure many of you are researching heavily trying to put together your winning bracket
for your office pool. Others are going to adopt a "Go By The Gut" approach.
Every year many sites sponsor a prize for the top bracket. This year is
different. Quicken Loans, in conjunction with Warren Buffet, are offering a $1 billion
prize (If you win, you can take $25 million a year for 40 years or a $500 million check
right away) if you are able to put together a perfect bracket. That means one has to pick
all 32 opening round games correct, all Sweet 16 games, the Elite 8, the Final Four, and
the championship game - 63 games in all.
Is Buffett taking a risk?
The odds of putting together a perfect bracket are 1:9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (9
quintillion to 1). To win the $400 MegaMillions jackpot is just a mere 1 in about 258.9
million.
Most (if not all) brackets will be finished by 6 p.m. on Friday.
But, let's say the truly unlikely happens and one gets to the National Championship game
with his/her perfect bracket intact?
Buffett says he isn't worried about individuals fixing the games.
However, if $500 million was on the line:
• How do you not hedge (i.e. if you pick MSU to win it all against Michigan) by placing a
bet on Michigan just in case? Would your mortgage your house? What kind of
loan could you possibly get to bet against your pick (just to be safe)? 1 million? 5

35

million? 10 million? More?
• Would you offer every player on Michigan several million dollars to throw the game?
I'd like to see someone get to that point just to see what kind of scrutiny and pressure
would be put on that result.

36

CHAPTER 2
Staffing and Career Considerations

37

Choosing Your Benchmarks Wisely and the Legacy of David Stern
Steve Boese
Over the weekend I had a brief Tweet exchange with the HR Capitalist, Kris Dunn, and
another Fistful of Talent colleague the very underrated R.J. Morris about the legacy of the
very recently retired after a 30 year run Commissioner of the NBA David Stern.
The gist of the conversation regarding Stern was this: By most measures of internal
comparison, i.e. taking where the NBA was in terms of hard metrics like revenue,
franchise values, player salaries, international growth, etc., Stern presided over a long and
sustained period if incredible growth for the league. By every internal standard, the NBA
is in a far, far better and more financially successful place today than it was when Stern
became commissioner.
But Stern has his critics too, and rather than dig into all the specific and sometimes subtle
elements of his stewardship of the NBA, let's focus on just one. Namely, that while Stern
did, by most accounts, a superb job of growing the NBA, it is still far, far less popular and
financially and culturally massive (at least in the USA) as the National Football League.
The NFL is the proverbial 300lb gorilla of modern American sports. It has widespread
appeal, its game telecasts rank among the most popular TV programs week in and week
out, the the culmination of the season, the Super Bowl game, has become such an
important and ubiquitous event that there are fairly serious proposals that the Monday
following the game be designated as a national holiday.
The NFL is #1, by every measure that matters, and when holding up the NBA to that
mirror, well then the Association falls short, a distant second really, (and possibly even
third behind Major League Baseball), and consequently then Commissioner Stern must be
judged as not having really been such a transcendent sports business leader.
But I think that comparison is a little unfair, and perhaps even a little premature, (even as
Stern retires). I think if we let the evolution of both American professional sports, and
societal and global trends play out a little longer, I think this kind of comparison, or
benchmark of basketball to American football will end up looking quite a bit different,
and Stern, long gone from the scene, will have to be credited for at least some of these
developments.
To me, the NBA is like Apple Computers, in the latter part of the 90s. The NFL, the
behemoth, is Microsoft of that same time.
Back then, Microsoft was the undisputed leader in personal and corporate computing
technology, was led by a legendary and visionary Bill Gates, and simply dwarfed everyone
else in its space with its vise-like grip over almost every interaction you had with a
computer. Apple was still interesting, quirky, made a different kind of computer that had
its adherents, but never was seen as a serious threat to the MSFT ecosystem.
And then something called the iPod came out and things started to change. You know

38

the story and I don't need to go into all the Apple innovations and the subsequent (or
concurrent) missteps from Redmond, but suffice to say the technology world in 2014
does not look anything like it did in 1998 or so.
So back to my NBA and NFL take, and the need to give Stern some room before we all
start deciding about his legacy.
I submit that about 15 years from now the NBA will be almost, if not more popular (in
America and globally), than the NFL for the following reasons:
1. Basketball, and by extenstion the NBA, is largely an urban or city game. The game is
mostly played and celebrated, in America's big cities - New York, Chicago, Boston, L.A..
And America (and the rest of the world) is becoming a more urban place as well. As
more people migrate to the larger cities, the city game, basketball, will continue to thrive,
often at the expense of football, a game that requires expansive grounds on which to
play, lots of expensive equipment, and the type of space not easily found in a big city.
2. Basketball is a global game, played all over the world, while American football is played
(seriously) pretty much only in America. As the world shrinks, cultural and sporting
phenomena like the NFL, that have only single-country relevance, will eventually become
somewhat marginalized over time. While the NFL dominates the American sporting
landscape, it hardly registers anywhere else in the world. The NBA, with its global reach,
and high number of non-American players is far ahead of the NFL in this regard. Just
witness the growing popularity of English Soccer here in the US as a small example of this
trend.
3. The talent supply chain is constricting for the NFL. Due to its violent nature, more and
more parents are electing to keep their kids out of full-contact football. Every football
player gets injured at some point in a season, and as the NFL has learned, many of these
injuries can have incredibly serious and devastating repercussions. The recent
concussion-related lawsuits, settlements, and high-profile former players revealing their
stories of traumatic brain injury are beginning to cast a longer and longer shadow over
not just the NFL, but the beginnings or feeder systems for their talent. This will play out
over time, surely, but even today if you were the parent of a very talented and gifted
athlete, would you steer him toward a violent sport like football where he is likely to
have at least a few concussions over time, or a sport like basketball where the injury
risks are much less?
4. At the top, I said this was going to be a 'quick take', turns out I was wrong. Sorry
about that.
5. The NBA understands social media and new media in general. This is certainly
subjective, but if you look at how the league and its teams have embraced digital and
social over the last few years, you see an organization that is more forward-thinking than
most others. This is a by-product of the NBA's long time strategy that elevates and
promotes its star players and personalities. Think about it, only the most ardent NFL fans

39

can name more than a handful of players on their favorite team, and even less would be
recognizable. If the new world of media and commerce is about engagement and
connection, then the NBA is in a much stronger place than the NFL, where the vast
majority of players are faceless and anonymous.
I probably could keep going on this, but I think I have made enough points for now, and
besides, I have to get on a plane. But the bottom line to me, taking us back to the
question of David Stern and his legacy I think we have to let some of these cultural and
global trends play out a little longer before we dismiss Stern (and the NBA) as being
somehow inferior to the NFL. Compare the NBA of 1984 to the NBA of today and then
no question, Stern was a great leader and executive. Compare the NBA of 2014 to the
NFL of 2014 and sure you could say he fell short, but I say we need to let these shifts
develop.
Apple wasn't Apple back in 1998. But the world changes, sometimes faster, sometimes
slower than we like or anticipate. And being on top of the food chain, even if you have
been there awhile doesn't guarantee you that spot forever. Just ask Microsoft.

40

Is “In What Month Were You Born?” A Valid Interview Question?
Steve Boese
Check out the chart below, a birth month distribution of about 240,000 professional
soccer players taken from a database that tracks player signing and transfers and was
compiled by David Bauer:
Notice anything strange in the pattern distribution?
How about the unusually high (relative) percentages of professional soccer players born
in the first quarter of the year, particularly in January (11.3%), and the relatively lower
percentages of players that were born at the end of the year (down to a low of 6.5% in
December).
It might not seem like that much of a disparity, but consider a similar chart that shows
the birth month distribution of the entire population of the European Union, (below),
and you can see some striking differences.
As you can see from the total EU chart, people are born more or less consistently across

41

the months of the year, with only small differences in percentages born in the highest
percentage months.
But professional soccer players? They show a striking and increased likelihood to be born
in the first three months of the year.
This phenomenon is attributed to the traditional soccer (and other sports as well) youth
development process that groups players of the same age (Under 10, Under 16, etc.), for
training and competitions.
The theory then is that at those younger ages the physical size and skill differentials
between an Under 10 year old player born in January and one born in December are
really large, and noticeable. The player born in January then receives more attention,
better coaching, more opportunities, etc., as he/she is simply deemed a better prospect
than the player born in December. This then plays out again and again over time resulting
in more of the 'early year' born players making it to the professional levels.
No one knows if this is really true and explains the birth month disparity of professional
soccer players compared to the overall population, but it does seem at least plausible.
So circle this back to your HR/Talent shop. Does this kind of analysis make sense for you
to consider? Is there a similar performance effect that can be seen in other types of
occupations besides professional soccer based on birth month distribution? Are
comparatively "older for their grade level" people likely to turn out to be better at more
than just playing sports? Do you care about the birth month of a candidate or an
employee?
I don't know. I guess it seems unlikely. But even so there is still a takeaway from this data
which is this: If you want little Junior to grow up to be a pro soccer player, you may want
to plan around a January birth date, (if it isn't too late).

42

It’s Tough to Succeed a Legend
Steve Boese
From the sports world yet another enduring and timeless lesson in talent and career
management. Here is the headline - Manchester United sacks manager David Moyes.
Some backstory.
Manchester United is one of the most well-known and successful soccer clubs in the
world. They are the defending champions of the English Premier League, (arguably the
best league in the world), and regularly compete at the highest levels of European club
soccer in the Champions League. At the end of last season, Manchester United's
longtime and legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down, capping a stellar
managerial career with his 13th Premier League title in 26 seasons at the helm.
Ferguson was (and will probably will always be, given the nature of English soccer), by far
the most successful club manager of the Premier league era. For USA readers who might
not be familiar, think of Ferguson as some kind of combination of John Wooden, Vince
Lombardi, Phil Jackson, and Red Auerbach. Except even more successful and globally
famous.
The kind of legend with the track record of exemplary performance that is tough, if not
impossible to replace. No matter who stepped in for Ferguson, even Ferguson's hand-
picked successor Moyes, it was going to be an almost impossibly difficult pair of shoes to
fill.
When someone has been so astronomically successful, over such a long period of time,
and achieved legendary status in the organization and industry, then no matter how
prepared and talented the successor is, it is going to be almost impossible for them to
match (or even approach) the standards that have been established before them.
Succeeding a legend, in sports or in any business really, is such a risky, dicey proposition
that it makes sense for super talented people to avoid it at almost any cost, tempting and
enticing as it may seem.

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Again, taking it back to the sports angle: Can you name the coaches that succeeded John
Wooden, Vince Lombardi, Phil Jackson, or Red Auerbach?
The answer is, 'Of course not.' No one remembers them because the combination of
almost impossibly hard to match performance standards and the huge shadow that their
legendary predecessors cast proved to be a combination even previously successful and
competent performers, (like David Moyes), could not overcome.
Trust me, you DO NOT want to try and succeed a legend.
You want to be the person that succeeds the person who succeeds the legend, just after
they fail.
Postscript: This isn't just a sports phenomenon. Ask Tim Cook how things are going at
Apple these days.

44

You Have to Get Lighter As You Get Older
Steve Boese
Recent buzz around NBA circles, (no, this post is not ANOTHER one just about
basketball, I promise - just hang with it for a second), has been the off-season weight loss
of superstar player LeBron James, (see the new, slimmer LBJ from a crop of one of LBJ's
Instagram pics for some visual evidence).
The general line of thinking around LeBron's trim down this off season is that as NBA
players get older (and LeBron is not 'old' in the normal sense, but he does have 10+
years in the NBA at this point), carrying less weight helps to keep knees, ankles, backs,
etc. less likely to break down over the course of a long season. It is a pretty simple and
obvious realization for basketball players and anyone else really - the less bulk you are
dragging around makes it easier on the other parts of the body that are tasked with
hauling that bulk. And for us non-NBA players, being lighter makes it infinitely easier to
just navigate daily life - hustling through airports, getting in and out of your car, tossing
the ball around with little Timmy or the frisbee to your adorable little dog. Being lighter
just helps sometimes.
But I think that advice, You have to get lighter as you get older, doesn't just apply in that
literal, physical sense, it also has some value in a mental/emotional way as well. We are
not just carrying around with us the physical accumulation of all the bad decisions we
might have made at the buffet line or the donut shop, most of us our lugging around a
pretty sizable collection of guilt or resentment or disappointment or even clinging for
too long to some kind of romanticized version of the past that was probably never that
romantic back then, and is certainly not ever coming back even if it did exist once. At
work, we might be carrying around the excess weight of outdated processes, legacy
technologies, and a history of 'that is the way we do things around here' that may no
longer have value or relevance to what you and the organization really needs today.

45

Letting go of things, both physical as in a weight loss or with cutting loose material
possessions like cars or houses or old clothes, or simply dropping bad habits as a way to
move forward is not some kind of new idea or concept, and certainly not one I claim any
specific insight towards. It's been talked about and done for ages. But I do think in some
ways modern technology and social networks and our tendency to want/need/have to be
always connected, makes letting go a little bit harder than it used to be. It seems like
sometimes the digital connections (combined with the ease of which most of us can be
contacted via these networks), make getting lighter harder than in used to be, and harder
than it should be. Someone is always out there on the the end of their iPhone and is
either trying to actively hold us back or is just making it more difficult to move forward
because we know they're watching. And that kind of stinks.
But putting that aside, I also wanted to mention that LeBron looks really happy in most
of these latest 'Slimmer LBJ' pictures. And while it is easy to say that LeBron should be
happy all the time, after all he is a mega-rich superstar athlete, he is underneath it all a
person like anyone else. He probably isn't happy all the time, even if most of the rest of
us can't relate to that. He also, like most of the rest of us in our careers, need to make
changes and adjustments to prepare for the next phase of his career that he is moving
towards, one where he will soon be an aging player that needs to adapt to remain on
top.
If getting lighter as you get older and to move forward works for the most famous
athlete in the world it will probably work for you too.

46

To Fail This Often, You Have to be Pretty Good
Steve Boese
Originally Published on November 12, 2014
Quick post from the Western NY satellite office of The 8 Man Rotation - wanted to
point out an important NBA milestone that happened last night: Lakers star Kobe Bryant
set the record for most missed shots for an NBA career.
From the ESPN piece* on the 'achievement':
Kobe Bryant made history Tuesday, setting the NBA record for missed field goals.
The Los Angeles Lakers star set the mark with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter of a 107-
102 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. He missed a 14-foot fadeaway jumper from the left
side, giving him 13,418 career missed field goals, one more than Boston
Celtics legend John Havlicek
Asked about the record, Bryant, who scored a game-high 28 points on 10-of-26 shooting
and finished with 13,421 misses for his career, smiled and said he wasn't aware of it.
"Nah, I don't follow that stuff, man," he said.
How does he explain setting the mark?
"Well, I'm a shooting guard that's played 19 years," he said, shrugging and smiling.
He later added, "Like I said, 'shooting' guard, 19th year."
Wow, over 13,000 missed shots in a career, more than any other player. You would
think that this ignominious mark speaks pretty badly of our man Kobe. But before you
come down too hard on the Mamba, take a quick look at the next half-dozen or so
names on the 'Most career missed shots' leader board
John Havlicek - (Celtics legend from the 60s and 70s, Hall of Fame member)
Elvin Hayes - (The Big 'E', great scored and rebounder in the 70s, Hall of Fame
member)
Karl Malone - (The Mailman, Utah Jazz legend, possibly greatest power forward ever,
Hall of Fame member)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - (the NBA's all-time leading scorer, Hall of Fame member)
Michael Jordan - (probably greatest player of all time, Hall of Fame member)
I think you get the idea here. In order to be able to miss so many shots, you have to be

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an amazingly good and valuable player. Players who can't actually perform are not kept
around long enough to climb very high on this kind of 'failure' list.
The bigger picture takeaway from the 'Kobe has missed more shots than anyone' story?
That in many fields (sales, content marketing, natural resource exploration, showing price
pigs at the county fair....), failure might come just as often, if not more, than success. You
have to be out there competing, hustling, working it in order to fail so often. And your
best performers, maybe even you, are naturally going to fail, sometimes often. But that
might be ok.
I will leave this story with a quote from Kobe, asked to comment on over 13,000 misses
over 19 years:
"You've got to go out and figure that out and play and do the best you can,
and whatever happens, happens. You can't be held captive by the fear of
failure or the fear of what people may say."
If you are open, take the shot.
• http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/11862042/kobe-bryant-los-angeles-
lakers-sets-nba-record-missed-field-goals

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Prepare to be Disappointed
Steve Boese
8 Man Rotation favorite: Dennis “German Rondo” Schroeder
The full title of this post really should be 'Prepare to be disappointed: The 2014-2015
New York Knicks', but I wanted to at least try not to scare away any potential readers,
particularly ones that get tired of the 8 Man Rotation 'Sports and HR' posts.
I promise this post isn't really about the Knicks or sports, not completely anyway.
The backstory:
I arrived back home at HR Happy Hour HQ at about 7:55PM ET last night and realized
that it was about 5 minutes before the tip off time for the Knicks, (my favorite NBA team
since forever, my favorite holiday picture from my childhood features a 5 or 6 year old
me sporting New York Knicks pajamas that Santa had bestowed), who were matched up
against the New Orleans Pelicans, (not a very good team, but better than the Knicks,
much like just about every other team so far this year is better than the Knicks).
As I quickly gathered up some snacks and a needed beverage, scurrying to be in my
favored easy chair for the start of the game the thought that popped into my mind was
that all I was really doing was preparing to be disappointed - the Knicks are one of the
worst teams in the league and have lost a number of close games recently, the kinds of
losses that really sting for longtime fans (and I suppose the players too). Heading into last
night's game, there was no logical reason to expect the Knicks would be able to defeat
the Pelicans, I didn't think they had much of a chance anyway, so all I was doing by
planning my evening, (partially), around watching the game was really just preparing to be
disappointed by the eventual Knicks loss.
OK, that was a lot of nonsense about basketball to get me to the point, so here goes.
I have ceased letting Knicks loss after loss bother me. Sure, I would rather they were
better; I would enjoy more frequent wins. But I get that this is not going to be a very
good year for them. And so as a hedge against the Knicks stumbling and bumbling, I have
adopted the much better (and much more fun to watch), Atlanta Hawks as my proxy

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team for the season.
The Hawks have a solid winning record so far this season, play an upbeat and
entertaining style of basketball, and, importantly, have never been a significant or hated
rival to my Knicks. They have always just been another team in the league, so supporting
them is not really traitorous to my team, but rather serves as a way for me to keep
invested in something I enjoy, (NBA basketball), while not allowing the terrible Knicks
team to ruin the overall experience of the sport.
So now the point (no one has kept reading until this point I am thinking).
The Knicks, and there relentless way of disappointing me and their other fans probably
represent a lot of our real lives too. Jobs that we really can't stand. Managers that are
always on our cases. Co-workers that let us down, (at best), or stab us in the back
(more likely). Significant others that just seem to do the same annoying things over and
over again. And if you have kids, well, I don't need to delineate all the ways they manage
to exasperate, frustrate, and yes, even disappoint us.
How do we deal with all that, with all that disappointment?
I think we have to find the version of the Atlanta Hawks in all these varying situations.
The part, even if it small or insignificant, that is pretty reliably positive. The element that
we can latch on to in a bad situation and take something positive from.
There is something about your crappy job that has value. Your slacker boyfriend
probably takes good care of your cat. There is likely at least one person amongst the
clowns you work with from which you can learn something.
This isn't about seeing the bright side in a given, bad situation, it is about seeing a
different side.
I am stuck supporting the terrible Knicks because they are my team. But I can still take
enjoyment from the Hawks, (up until they play the Knicks), without being a traitor.
And you can find something to love about your job while not betraying your very real
hatred for it.
Ok, that is it, I am out.
Note: It is halftime of the Knicks-Pelicans game. The Knicks are only down by 2. Maybe I
won't be disappointed after all.

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Do’s and Don’ts of Accepting Offers of Employment: NBA DRAFT
VERSION
Kris Dunn
Originally Published on June 27, 2014
I like hoops - a lot. So I consumed 5 hours of NBA Draft coverage last night. Wow.
What did I learn? I learned a lot about the right way to accept offers of employment. I
watched the draft with my sons (ages 14 and 11), and any time I watch things on TV with
my boys, they have to listen to the world according to Kris Dunn. They're lucky like
that.
Three lessons from the NBA Draft related to reacting to offers and marketing yourself as
a candidate:
1. First up, you really need to act like you've been there before. DO
NOT BREAK INTO A HUGE SOUL SHAKE ROUTINE WITH A PERSON
TWICE YOUR AGE. Also, if you're a parent of new grad accepting an offer,
resist the urge to helicopter in or do anything to jeopardize your kid's ability to
be taken seriously by his future employer.
Nik Stauskas, drafted 8th overall by the Sacramento Kings, failed this test. So did
his dad. That's Nik performing a planned routine/soulshake with a degree of
difficulty of 8.2 More importantly, the dude he's doing it with is his dad. And yes,
it ended with both of them throwing up 3-goggles. As a former caucasian guard, I
can tell you that the world will give you the latitude of the soul shake and 3-
Goggles if you make it in pro hoops. Your dad does not need to be part of the
process.
Reminds me of this article on Johnny Manziel where his dad is sharing stories of
togetherness with Johnny Football and is proud of their exploits that included
double punches in the nuts as a father/son activity.
Me thinks Dad needs to be the grown up.
2. Next - If you're good enough to be drafted in the NBA, make sure
your resume/video montage includes a large degree of self-
confidence. A GREAT WAY TO SHOW SWAGGER IS TO HAVE
THE DEEP HEAD NOD AS YOU TURN TOWARD THE CAMERA
LIKE YOU ARE BOUNCING TO AN ASAP ROCKY CUT. PJ Hariston
has it down.
That's confidence people. No doubts exist in PJ.
3. If the only employment that's available exists at a place you don't
want to work, resist the urge to curse right after the offer has been

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delivered verbally. Not a lot of basketball players want to work in Minnesota
these days, including Zach Lavine from UCLA. Watch his lips for the "f me.”
Whoops!
So to sum up the learning for the Dunn brothers from the draft:
1. I'm not soul shaking/3-goggling with you during the most important moments
of your life.
2. Understated Swagger isn't all bad.
3. Don't drop F-bombs on the phone when someone makes you a verbal offer.
My kids love having me drop the HR knowledge on them while we watch sports. DVR
and rewind has made it our own personal classroom.

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Googling Candidates: Ray Rice Version…
Kris Dunn
Ah yes, Googling candidates. Read enough HR Magazine or talk to employment lawyers,
and they'll tell you Googling candidates is questionable at best, as is looking at candidates
on social media.
You could get sued. You could factor things into a selection process that really shouldn't
be evaluated.
You know what's riskier than Googling candidates? Not Googling candidates. Just ask
your CEO. He wants you to go deep on candidates, to make sure a limited number of
freaks make it through.
Social media – and life in general as now indexed via the Googleplex – is
evolutionary. People make mistakes in judgment (what they share on social media) and
in life (what gets indexed by Google and more specific, database driven services like
Lexus/Nexus). You should be using every resource available to get all the info you can
on candidates.
Ask your CEO over drinks, and he'll tell you he wants you using those resources 10 out
of 10 times. Because the people who tell you doing so is a bad idea aren't responsible
for meeting your bottom line. They're vendors.

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Case in point, Ray Rice. Rice is the guy who infamously punched his wife out cold in an
Atlantic City casino elevator. He's just been cleared to play for any NFL team. At this
writing, no one has picked him up, mainly because all the teams have PERFECT
INFORMATION ON THIS CANDIDATE.
Your candidates? Perfect information doesn't exist. But you're a sucker if you don't use
what's available to get a vibe on people. Can that lead to discrimination suits,
etc? Yeah. But if your HR department is the one taking a look – not the hiring manager
– I like your odds of keeping that to a minimum.
Our country is founded on second chances, and most people get those. Ray Rice will
play somewhere, but he may have to sit out a year.
You probably hired at least 5 people last year out of every 100 hired at your company
you would have thought long and hard about had you deep googled them and did a social
media scan.
I trust your judgment – so does your CEO. And he wants you to Google the hell out of
every candidate you hire.

55

Hiring Back an Employee Who Left You
Tim Sackett
Originally Published on January 10, 2014
Did you see what happened last week on the college football carousel? The University of
Louisville hired their ex-coach, and current Western Kentucky Coach, Bobby
Petrino. For those who don’t know the Bobby Petrino story check out his detailed
coaching timeline on SB Nation* (it’s awesome!) – I’ll give you a five second tour:
I. Hired Head Football Coach at University of Louisville – doing great (2004)
II. Hired Head Coach NFL Atlanta Falcons (Jan. 2007) – didn’t do great
III. Leaves mid-season and takes University of Arkansas Head Coach job – did
good (December 2007)
IV. Head Coach Arkansas, has a motorcycle crash with a 25 year old female
assistant on the back that wasn’t his wife and that he was having an affair
with, and that he hired – Power drunk. (April 2012)
V. Fired as Head Coach at Arkansas – not good (April 2012)
VI. Hired Head Football Coach Western Kentucky University- did good
(December 2012)
VII. Hired Head Football Coach University of Louisville. (January 2013)
There’s a bunch of other luggage along the way that SB Nation points out which leads me
to only one question – Was it a good hire by Louisville to take Bobby Petrino back?
I asked a couple of my friends and fellow #8ManRotation authors this same question –
here are their responses:
Matt (akaBruno) Stollak:

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How much time off does a mercurial talent deserve before being brought back? Is Jim Tressel
looking at the Petrino hiring and thinking he is up next?
Similarly, how do Louisville Football Core Values** continue to exist when Petrino has blatantly
violated #1 and #2. Is it all about winning? What message does it send to staff and players?
Steve (Mr. HR Tech) Boese:
Even a cynic like me is surprised by this move. I guess the argument was he hit rock bottom and
now has done the football equivalent of finding Jesus or something, But it is also about
positioning, Louisville does not want to be a stepping stone job between the MAC and the Big 10
or SEC, (they are delusional about this, but I think it is true). So at some level they see this hire
as a the best they could do with that in mind. No successful power conference coach would
leave for Louisville so with Petrino they find the closest they could to that ideal.
Petrino going to Western Kentucky after his biggest screw up at Arkansas and before coming
back to Louisville also serves to give Louisville some cover on this. It is kind of like Western
Kentucky took at least some of the flak for letting the guy back in to the world of coaching and
at least in theory that will diminish the heat that Louisville is going to take. Kind of like Petrino
went to jail (getting canned at Arkansas), then got released to probation, (Western Kentucky),
and now the ankle bracelet has been finally cut off (back to Louisville).
Here’s my take:
The best hires that most companies will never make are the ones like this. He was great
for us. Went someplace else and had a meltdown. Now we won’t hire him back
either. For some reason, he was great with you. Don’t discount what certain
environments, certain cultures, etc. will do for someone’s performance. Bobby Petrino is
a broken man, coming home to where he had his most success. This might turn out to a
great hire for Louisville.
What do you think?
*http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/1/9/5288648/bobby-petrino-louisville-
scandal-timeline
**http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/06/louisville-footballs-core-team-values-include-no-guns-no-drugs/

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The Organization with the Most Expensive Selection Mistakes Is?
Tim Sackett
Originally Published on May 8, 2014
The NFL. This Thursday that NFL will perform their annual selection process on ESPN,
with their annual draft. Just like you, they have no idea what they’re doing, but act like
they figured out the secret sauce to great selection. The big difference between you and
the NFL, their mistakes costs them a lot more money! Check out this chart from
BI* on the NFL Draft Guaranteed Contracts:
This chart basically shows you that the best, or highest, first round pick will get about
$22 million guaranteed, while the lower third round picks will get $600k in guaranteed
money over the life of their contract.
How would you like that level of possible expense in your selection process!?
All that money, all that time, all that research, and the NFL draft is still basically a crap
shoot. The pick people, like you pick people. “Well, we really like Johnny’s football IQ
and he just seems so personable! What the hell, let’s pay him $15M!”
What!?!

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“Well, we know his ‘past performance’ in college. We know all his ‘performance
metrics’. We gave him a personality profile. We ‘feel’ like he’s a safe bet and potential
high performer.”
It’s really not that different from you picking a $50,000 per year sales
professional. Many organizations put as much into their hiring selections, as the NFL
puts into picking their draft selections. Obviously, the NFL has more resources to throw
at their process, so they probably have a few more bells and whistles. But, they have no
more success than you. The ones who do the best, like you, are not only concerned
about the ‘big’ hires/selections – your executive hires, their high first and second round
draft picks, but put as much research and resources into each hire. Making a great
selection in the 7th round might be as valuable, long term, as making a great first round
selection. Just as you making a great entry level sales hire, might be as valuable, or more,
to making a really solid Director level hire.
The learning on all of this? You can’t take hires off. There are no ‘throw away’ hires,
just as there are no throw away draft picks for great NFL teams.
• http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-draft-contracts-2014-5

59

Prospective Employee Camp
Tim Sackett
Originally Published on September 2, 2014
In athletic recruitment there are these things called ‘Prospect’ camps. Depending on
who you talk to these are either just coaching staff supplemental income, or serious
recruitment functions needed to get prospective student athletes on campus.
Whatever they are, they’re a little genius!
Here’s how the entire system works. Usually an assistant coach emails your kid, who has
a dream to play college athletics, that they are having a prospect camp and you’re invited
to attend, for $150. Two things just happened: 1. Your kid just got an email from a
college coach; 2. That coach insinuated that your kid is a ‘prospect’! Either way, there’s a
good chance you’ll bite and pay the $150.
A couple of things happen at these camps. Coaches actually invite players they really do
have interest in, and they invite anyone else who is willing to pay $150! So, a hundred
kids show up, two or three which have actual ability to play college athletics, and they go
through drills and modified games. You instantly know who has ability because the
coaches spend time with those kids. If your kid doesn’t have a coach talking to him or
her, they don’t have ability. It’s a real quick and easy way to set your own expectations.
These camps are a necessary evil of the function of recruitment. While most parents
don’t like them, they all pay the money and have their kids attend.
These prospect camps got me to thinking if we in HR could do this in our
organizations. Could we charge $150 to have potential employees come in and check us
out, while we check them out? We run them through some tests, show them our

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facilities, make them compete against others in their same job function, spend time with
our employees. At the end of the day, we offer a couple of them jobs.
Could it work? Maybe not for the average organization, but what about Google or
Apple or some other big organization that has thousands wanting jobs with their
company? I think it could work. The one issue we face is the expectation. “Well, I paid
$150 what do I get for this?!”
We would have to deliver $150 worth of ‘value’ in these Prospective Employee Camps. I
think that is probably the easy part. Think interview skills, resume skills, leadership skills,
some hardcore job function skills based on what they actually do. It’s part self-
development, and part dating game. People pay millions of dollars per to sites to find
their perfect romantic match, with most failing to do so.
Prospective Employee Camps might just be a way for your organization to set itself a
part from all the noise, and get candidates to come in that truly interested in (I’m willing
to pay to be here, truly) and want to be a part of your organization. I know, crazy idea,
but when you see it work in one area it just begs to be tried in another!

62

Success is Relative
Tim Sackett
It’s that time of year when college football coaches get fired because they weren’t
‘successful’.
This year’s unsuccessful coach of the year has to be Nebraska’s Bo Pelini. Here are
some of his stats:
- Won 9 games every year he has coached at Nebraska. Not averaged 9 wins. He’s won
9 games each year!
- 67-27 overall record – a +.700 winning percentage
That seems pretty freaking good! How many of you would take 9 wins each year from
your favorite college football team (Alabama fans you can’t participate!)? I’m a huge
Michigan State fan and we’ve been fortunate to have double digit win totals four out of
the last five years and we’re on cloud nine! If you asked me five years ago if I would take
9 wins per year for the next five, I would have bought it for sure!
Here’s what Bo didn’t do:
- No conference titles

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- No BCS bowl appearances
- At least 3 losses each season
99% of fans in the country would take 7 years in a row of 9 wins each year. Because
most of us will never come close that success on our best year.
That’s why success is relative.
Think of this with your own hires and employees. You judge success of your new sales
person on the results of the sales person that just left. If your new sales person sells $1
million worth of products, and the old guy sold only $750K, the new person is a rock
star. That same new sales person is judge against your all time sales person at $2 million,
and suddenly, they’re a piece of crap.
Nebraska holds their coaching hires against legendary Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
who won 13 conference championships and 3 national titles.
This is why comparing individuals in terms of performance never really works out
well. A better way is to determine what does ‘good’ performance look like in your
environment, no matter the individual. Also, what does great performance look
like. Then measure your employees against those metrics, not an individual who might
have been good or bad.
Most organizations struggle with this concept, because defining good and great
performance is hard. It’s easy to compare.
Don’t allow yourself and your organization to take the easy road. It doesn’t lead you to
where you want to go.
Do I believe Bo should have been fired? Yes, but not because of his won/loss record. Bo
wasn’t a fit, culturally, with Nebraska football. Bo had a short fuse and lost it publicly and
on the field way too often for cameras to see. This isn’t what Nebraska people want
from their coach. They’re extremely loyal fans, and don’t like to be embarrassed. Yes,
they want to win, but it’s not a win-at-any-cost fandom that we’ve been accustom to
seeing recently in major college athletics. Win, but win with pride and respect for the
history of the program. That’s tough. Nine wins per year, apparently doesn’t do that!

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Should Your “A” Players Recruit For Your Organization?
Matthew Stollak
Originally Published on June 30, 2014

Its long been mantra that great employees want to work with other great
employees. The organization can only be better when great employees see others
putting out quality effort. In "First, Break All The Rules," Marcus Buckingham wrote that
one of the critical 12 questions that measures the strength of an organization is "Are my
co-workers committed to doing quality work?"
Interesting news, then, from the NBA, as the star of the Chicago Bulls is shying away
from selling the organization to prospective players - in particular, talented free agent
Carmelo Anthony. According to Yahoo Sports*,
The Chicago Bulls are expected to pursue Carmelo Anthony in free agency. They just
shouldn't expect Derrick Rose to participate in the recruiting.
Rose told Yahoo Sports on Sunday that he doesn't plan to recruit Anthony – or any free
agent, for that matter – even though he likes Anthony's game and thinks they can play
alongside each other.
Rose's reason is simple: He said it's "not his job."
"My thing is if they want to come, they can come," Rose said.
The goal of every player and team is to win that world championship (though some
would rather make that max contract). Each player should be looking at how they could
make their team better. Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose's teammate, has been doing
everything possible to get Carmelo to come to Chicago**:

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According to several sources, including a teammate, Noah's All-Star Weekend
“conversation'' with New York Knicks standout Carmelo Anthony didn't end in New
Orleans. They had discussions via text the rest of the season, including the day after the
Bulls were eliminated in the playoffs by the Washington Wizards.
“I was kidding Jo that they were boys now,'' a source said in a phone interview Friday.
“  ‘Well, get your boy to come to Chicago.'  ''
Sources said Noah has been in Anthony's ear as often as possible, and he has told other
Bulls to push hard for Anthony this summer. But there is one condition: Backup big man
Taj Gibson can't be sacrificed.
So, what is the obligation of your superstar to sell your organization to prospective
candidates? Does he or she have any responsibility, particularly when fellow employees
are making a strong push as well?
*http://sports.yahoo.com/news/derrick-rose-doesn-t-plan-to-recruit-carmelo-
anthony-to-bulls-021144469.html
**
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24549864/report-joakim-
noah-has-been-in-carmelo-anthonys-ear-since-all-star-weekend

The 8 Man Rotation: The 2014 Season

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