Musings at Altitude

We saw two news reports today of famous coaches being fired or resigning.  One had been on the job for more than 3 decades, winning 2 national championships and being the second all time winningest coach.  The other had been on the job for only 5 years bringing multiple super bowl rings with his resume to the program and created great excitement for the first 2 years of his tenure; then things fell apart the next 3 leading to now.

In both cases, the muffled cries for change grew louder with each passing year till the options for the overseers of the sports programs at both schools had no choice.  Changes had to be made after yet another tough year for both programs.

Selecting the right leader is hard, but I think determining the time to transition out that leader is even harder.  Overseers want to believe that those great coaches and leaders can indeed take them back to the promised land.  In fact, we all want to believe that the successes of the past can be achieved once again if we just patiently wait it out.  But that rarely is the case.  Great programs slide from a 10-2 record to 8-4.  They certainly don’t slide to 6-6, or even worse, 3-9.

Great leaders take great talent to national championships.

Great leaders take average talent to constant competitiveness at the national championship level.

Great leaders recruit or attract great talent.

It’s not much different in business.