Leaders from Within

After my last post talking about Pirates of the Silicon Valley, then Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford in 2005, I thought it was again quite a weird coincidence that The Wall Street Journal had this piece on how NOT to scream at your employees is probably a better way to go in motivating and getting the most of them.

In the movie, I saw Steve scream (and do more) a lot, I have read about Andy Grove making employees cry at meetings and read about a few who other "title holders" who "manage" by belittling.

It was really refreshing to see that both the head coaches, Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy, of the two Super Bowl finalists this year - the first African-Americans to do so - have their values in place and are leaders from within, not through titles given to them.

The article by Carol Hymowitz is here (sub reqd)

If you don't have a subscription, then these paragraphs should tell you a lot:

"Both believe they can get their teams to compete more fiercely and score more touchdowns by giving directives calmly and treating players with respect."
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"For some managers and athletic coaches, screaming is a way to show they are in charge -- and behavior that may be expected by their bosses. The Colts' Mr. Dungy says he didn't get some jobs earlier in his career because he was considered too laid-back and polite and didn't believe being a great coach required him to sacrifice his family or faith.

On one interview, when an owner asked if he would make the team the most important thing in his life, he said no. "I figured I probably wouldn't get that job, and I didn't," he said at a press conference last week. "I think your faith is more important than your job, family is more important than your job. We all know that's the way it should be, but we're kind of afraid to say that sometimes."

Lovie Smith and he "aren't afraid to say it," and both run their teams in the same way, Mr. Dungy said. The Colts and Bears play "tough, disciplined football even though there's not a lot of profanity from the coaches, there's none of the win-at-all-costs atmosphere. I think for two guys to show you can win that way is important for the country to see."

On my prior blog on Bloglines (posts on which I hope to import into VOX here someday), I would have posted this under my series, The Endgangered Leaders. Are they?