Working With Others

One of the toughest things a manager might have to do sometime in his/her career is to admit a mistake. When University of Minnesota Men’s Athletic Director Joel Maturi hired Tim Brewster as the head football coach, I thought it was a mistake to hire a head coach of a NCAA Division I football program who not only had no head coaching experience, but also lacked a track record as an offensive or defensive coordinator. When he was offered the job, Brewster was a tight ends coach with the Denver Broncos – the equivalent of a first line manager in the corporate world. With a 6-18 record in Big Ten play – and dismal late season performances both this year and last, you would think that Maturi would have the courage to acknowledge a mistake was made and send Brewster on his way.

Instead, this morning the StarTribune reported that Maturi is planning on offering head football coach Tim Brewster a contract extension! Here is Maturi’s primary reason:

“We need stability with the coach, with the coaching staff,” Maturi said. “And this should also bode well for the recruiting going on and for the future of Gophers football.”

I supposed you could make a case for a contract extension if there was a glimmer of hope that there would be some improvement in performance. But I’m not buying the stability argument.

The decision to extend this contract rewards less than stellar performance and that is a dangerous practice in any organization. However, the stability argument just does not hold water. Since Brewster took over there have been five different coordinators (3 defensive and 2 offensive) in the three years of his tenure. Having that much turnover in these leadership positions is generally not a good thing – and does not promote consistency or stability in the program.

Of course, the Gophers do play Iowa State in a bowl game on December 31, 2009, and Maturi did fire the previous coach after his team blew a huge lead in a bowl game in December, 2006. So stay tuned…

I had a wonderful initial coaching session with a new client yesterday morning at 7:30AM. Even though it is really challenging to get out of bed on these dark Minnesota winter mornings, I do enjoy the morning hours and meeting at a local coffee shop (that was the client’s choice) helped jump start the day. Nigel (not his real name) developed four clear and actionable goals and we got off to a great start.

It is not unusual to do a coaching session on a Saturday morning – I always accommodate the client’s schedule as best I can. What is a bit unusual is how this engagement came about. Normally, I’ll get a call from some one in human resources or from a senior leader in an organization to check out my availability to coach usually a senior manager or executive around some specific issue as part of their development. This time I received an email from one of the participants in one of my recent management development workshops. She wanted to know if I would be interested in putting together a “coaching package” for her husband that she could give him as a Christmas present.

As most you know, I’m am a minimalist and when it comes to gift giving, I am always in favor of the gift of an experience in lieu of stuff. So I thought this was a grand idea and told her that moving forward would depend on the fit between what Nigel was seeking as an outcome of the coaching and what I was skilled in providing. Nigel’s goals focused on leadership development, work/life balance, and generally getting better at working and playing well with others. He also had data about himself we could use (MBTI® and StrengthsFinder 2.0). His needs were directly in my area of focus, so I put together a coaching package of three 90 minute sessions and we just had our first one.

So if you are looking for an idea for a Christmas gift, think about giving the gift of an experience – a membership at a museum, tickets for a concert or the theater, and yes, even a series of coaching sessions. If you decide to give a series of sessions with a professional executive/life coach as a gift, here are several things to consider. If the answer to each of these four questions is “yes”, you may have discovered a great gift-giving option!

Is there a specific focus for the coaching?

In this case, Nigel had some very specific goals that he wanted to address as part of his personal and career development.

Is the person for whom you are giving the gift open to this experience?

While I know it is the thought that counts, your potential recipient may say that they’d rather have a root canal then meet with a coach.

Is there a good fit between the person getting the coaching and the coach?

Giving this kind of gift takes a little pre-work such as that initiated by Nigel’s wife. So while it may not be a surprise, it can be very meaningful if there is a good fit between coach and coachee. I was fully prepared to be the one to say that maybe Nigel would be happier with a different coach.

Is the price reasonable?

This is where the sage advice of caveat emptor (buyer beware!) applies. What you are looking for is a three to four session “package”. There are some coaches that will use this opportunity to create a lifelong (and expensive, to you or the person receiving the coaching) relationship. So be clear on what you are purchasing.

So do you still have some Christmas shopping to do?

It’s hard to work and play well with others if expectations don’t get shared. If both were still alive, today would have been my parents’ 70th wedding anniversary! They were married for 52 years and I was around for 41 of those.

When two people are in a relationship that long there will always be ups and downs and good times and bad. The longevity of any relationship really depends on how well those in the relationship find ways to make it work. One of the things that I noticed when times a got a little rocky between them was that they would forget to share their expectations of each other openly. Instead they just assumed the other knew what those expectation were. A case in point was usually the holiday season. Each would have expectations about what a great holiday season might look like, yet each would never share those expectations with the other. As a result, both were disappointed more often than not.

How many times have you experienced a situation where your boss assumed you knew what was expected or you were a member of a team that just left a meeting assuming everyone knew the assignment – yet those expectations were never openly shared.

Why are we so afraid to share those expectations openly, when not sharing them usually results in hurt feelings?

This obtuse title needs a little explanation. One of my favorite novelists is the late Canadian writer Robertson Davies. Perhaps his most famous work is the first book of the Deptford Trilogy, Fifth Business. The author explained the book’s title as a theatrical term – a character essential to the action but not a principal, “called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style.” In the spirit of full disclosure, Davies later admitted that he invented the term. However, I think it is a great term and my total immersion in the Minneapolis theater scene triggered a memory trace of Davies’ and the fifth business role in any production.

I also believe it has some applicability to organizations. In any organization, we typically know who the “leaders are because they are the ones with the titles – the principals as Robertson Davies would say. However, there are others in the organization – “characters that are essential to the action – whose absence would be extremely obvious. They are the ones who don’t just get work done. They are so tuned into the organization and how things work that they can really make things happen.

For example, I recently facilitated an off site leadership team meeting. We had an extremely successful session that would not have been nearly as productive if the person assigned to handling all of the logistics and meeting arrangements with the hotel were not there. Not only did Mary have things running like clockwork, she brought the whole event in under budget!

So take a minute to think about the people who play those fifth business roles in your organization and send me their story.