Another Sunday, another loss for the Denver Broncos (and their fans). Another week of turmoil in Washington, and another downturn in economic indicators, the stock market and national morale.
Broncos Coach John Fox and President Barack Obama both should be sent to the locker room, right?
Hold on a minute. Other questions need to be answered, and the answers aren't that simple. For instance: Who put these guys in the game in the first place and set them up for failure, and were their enterprises already on the slippery slope toward collapse when they were hired?
Whether you are discussing CEOs, school principals, coaches or presidents, the rules for selecting successful leaders are the same. John Maxwell's Rule No 1 in his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is particularly valid as we look at both Coach Fox and President Obama. According to Maxwell, all leaders and managers have limits on their capabilities. These limits, or lids, restrict their effectiveness in critical situations. Maxwell's Law of the Lid states that, "Leadership ability is always the lid on personal and organizational effectiveness. If a person's leadership is strong, the organization's lid is high. But if its not, the organization is limited."
The Broncos' owner, Pat Bowlen, doomed the Broncos when he hired Josh McDaniel, a man with very limited leadership capabilities and a soaring ego. Bowlen assumed incorrectly that McDaniel had absorbed leadership capabilities by osmosis in his assistant coaching positions with the New England Patriots. Bowlen's selection process was without logic, based on unsound assumptions, and therefore fatally flawed. Today, long after McDaniel's exit, the team and Coach Fox continue to suffer dramatically from McDaniel's failed leadership; the legacy of Bowlen's decision lives on.
The same analogy applies to our nation and to President Obama, who is one of America's most gifted and powerful orators. He also has impressive campaigning prowess, and is reported to possess a superior intellect. During the present economic crisis, However, Obama has clearly demonstrated a shallow leadership lid. True, he inherited a failing economy, literally on the verge of disintegration, from George W. Bush, but he had a Congress that he owned until mid-term elections when many voters largely rejected his failed policies.
Whether hiring the head coach of an NFL franchise or electing the leader of the free world, the individual or group making the selection determines the relative success or failure of the organizational entity going forward. In Jim Collins' How the Mighty Fall, 10 of the 11 giant companies he analyzed that failed did so because those tasked with managing leadership succession made choices based on incorrect assumptions, bad data or faulty logic.
Sounds familiar. Bowlen's ill-advised, injudicious choice in selecting a coach without a thorough examination of whether the candidate possessed the leadership skills or a proven track record condemned the Broncos to failure in the pressure cooker environment that is the NFL. And in the case of the United States, the electorate's naiveté thrust a novice into office after collectively failing to ask the critical question, "Can this great orator survive and thrive, and lead this nation in the pressure cooker environment of both national and global politics?"
Leadership should never be about personality. Selecting our leaders should never be about whether we as the electorate like Barack Obama or as loyal Bronco fans were fond of Josh McDaniel. The question should always be has the job candidate delivered quantifiable results in a similar professional arena or endeavor? Those involved in the leadership selection process must have a clear understanding of the deliverables to be required from our leaders.
Our leaders must have demonstrated prior success in a similar leadership role. Josh McDaniel had never been head coach of anything. Barack Obama had never held a critical leadership position with bottom line responsibility for specific, measureable results. Whether it is a sports team, the United States government, or your own business, selecting leaders who lack demonstrable results in similar roles and circumstances will likely condemn the entity to short-term failure and ongoing negative outcomes that may continue for years after the leader's departure.
Those of us entrusted with leader selection had better get it right. |
