When everyone is accepting blame, maybe it is time to make a change.
Listen to members of the Detroit Lions explain the team’s woeful start to the 2015 season.
When offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi (grandson of the Vince) was fired, quarterback Matthew Stafford said, “Joe’s a stand-up guy and I really enjoyed working with him… It’s on everybody when bad stuff happens, and I can always be better too.
Head coach Jim Caldwell who piloted the Lions to an 11-5 record last year and into the playoffs, said of the team’s current woes: “Ultimately all of those things fall upon me. I’m ultimately responsible for those just in terms of whatever issues we have in protection — keeping our quarterback safe is chiefly amongst those.”
Even Martin Mayhew, the Lions General Manager, who rarely addresses the media, said, “Everybody's involved in what has happened thus far this season, especially myself," Mayhew said. "I'm responsible for our football operations, so it is on me what has happened this season… There's a lot of things we need to do to get better."
Geez, with all this acceptance of blame you would think the Lions are as penitential as Benedictine monks.
Reality dictates otherwise. The Lions have not won a championship since the Eisenhower era, or a playoff game since the first George Bush. The team went winless for an entire season in Bush II’s second term. In the Obama presidency, the Lions have gone winless in their only two playoff appearances.
Long suffering fans of the Detroit Lions – yes, the Lions do have loyal fans – want changes now. Not excuses. Sadly despite the blame accepting, nothing will change until the management team responsible for drafting the players, signing them to contracts, and coaching them on the field, is removed. Accepting blame is the easy part; making change – true change – requires guts and gumption. As well as responsibility!
While quarterback Stafford receives heat from fans, it is hard for him to play to his best when his offensive line allows him to be sacked multiple times per game. What’s more, the team lacks a viable running back alternative so Stafford must rely on his formidable arm… and even more formidable heart that prompts him to scramble despite knowing that he will be tackled hard.
So does any of this matter to anyone but a Lions fan? Well, watching a dysfunctional organization flounder does offer lessons for managers far from the gridiron. To avoid becoming Lionseque:
Evaluate talent. Hire people who can grow with you. Too often failing organizations hire for an immediate need when what they need most is a person who can do more than one thing. What’s more, look at more than a track record; seek to understand who they are as people and what they want to achieve now and in the future.
Develop your people. Throwing someone off the deck of a boat in deep water is not the way to teach someone how to swim. Yet how often do we see organizations hire talented people and provide them with little support and few resources? When you bring new people on board you need to groom them and provide them with opportunities to succeed.
Respect your customers. Peter Drucker wisely counseled, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”Spend time getting to know their needs as well as their desires. Find ways to connect with product offerings that satisfy as well as delight.
And it’s this last point where Lions have truly failed. Hope – “things will get better next year” – is the Holy Grail of the Lions fans. While many fans profess their disgust with the franchise, year after year the season ticketholders crowd Ford Field – a world class indoor stadium – with fervent hope that this will be the year, not for a Super Bowl but a winning record and a playoff win.
After all, as the grandfather of the now former offensive coordinator, Joe Lombardi put it, “Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing… Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
Winning requires more than the ability to accept blame; it requires sound management.
