First Comment

George Steinbrenner was known as "The Boss" in his time owning the Yankees. When he passed away last week, Steinbrenner took with him a complicated legacy as an owner who produced championships but a boss who could torment his employees. He was at the same time charitable (he had a saying that if more than one person knows about a good deed you've done, you've done it for the wrong reasons) and a criminal (made illegal contributions to Richard Nixon) but always interesting. Today the New York Post went through how to succeed the Steinbrenner way, but while they have praised the man and the team's success, it's also helpful to note that "The Boss" was not always the ideal boss:

BE FOCUSED From the day George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees for $10 million until he permanently stepped down last week, the former shipping executive had one all-consuming goal: to win. And he seems to have spent pretty close to every waking minute thinking about how to make it happen — just ask the minions who fielded his constant phone calls, endured his tirades and his meddling, and spoke of his obsessive attention to every corner of the organization. And his focus never let up, even in the off-season.

“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” he famously said.

That was just one of the pieces of advice put forth by the post article. The others included "work tirelessly", "don't be afraid to shift gears--even if you swore you wouldn't", "fire when ready", "be a boss, not a friend", "hire top talent, and pay them well", "demand results", "set clear goals", "never always criticize your employees in public", "pay attention to the little things", "don't give your stars preferential treatment", "build your brand", "have a heart OK", and "don't rest on your laurels". All of these are good advice for someone running a business and while George M. Steinbrenner III was very good at accomplishing some of these in a way that helps an organization, some of his actions certainly hurt his organization and his employees. A good balance is certainly needed for an organization to have successful leadership.

The Tampa Bay Rays baseball team has hit a rough patch. Although they held on to first place in the toughest division in baseball throughout the first few months of the season, they've been no-hit twice and lost their grip on the division. This past week their centerfielder, B.J. Upton lollygagged his way to the ball. For a team struggling to score runs, this was not the effort you want to see. Upton has been benched before for not hustling and this seemed to be another case of him just giving up on a play. When he got back to the dugout, 24-year-old Evan Longoria approached him about his behavior and the two went face-to-face and had to be separated by teammates. I wrote on a sports blog I post on regularly about this incident and about how it brings back memories to one sports writer of a young Derek Jeter, who had, at 24, called out one of his veteran teammates for showing up another teammate. This is seen as a great leadership skill in an organization--self-policing.

I bring this up because while this type of approach may work in baseball, it most likely has no place in an organization. If a co-worker is not pulling his weight or is trying to show up another co-worker, it should not be left to self-policing. Although a good measure of "that is not right" should come from everyone involved and whistleblowing is encouraged at times, the problem itself should be handled by upper-management and Human Resources. Employees can become embarrassed on confrontational when they are publicly called out. Instead, a manager should be doing the discipline--and doing it in a private environment. Publicly calling out a co-worker for a mistake or leaving an office to be self-policed may work in baseball but it is not a good way to handle an office.