Building and Leading Your Team
By Chad Chatlos, Managing Director at TurnkeyZRG
When we speak to coaches, directors of athletics and other executives who have been let go (or contracts not renewed), nine times out of ten they talk about how they missed on their staff hires. It may sound like an excuse or a “passing of the buck,” but they are actually being critical of themselves. Maybe they hired the right people but didn’t manage them the right way. Maybe they hired the right people, but made mistakes replacing them when they were promoted or moved to another opportunity due to their success. They may have hired the wrong people because they were too loyal to friends or trying to help someone out who wasn’t ready for the role.
A huge part of being an effective leader is finding, retaining and empowering great talent around you. It may be hard to believe, but that can sometimes be the easiest part.
Once you have built the team, the real work begins. Just a few things you should be thinking about as the Head Coach/AD/CEO.
On a daily basis you need to lead, inspire, and motivate your team.
Take their existing talents and develop them to the next level.
Incentivize and reward them for great service and performance.
Hold them accountable and properly review their performance regularly so they can continue to grow .
Do NOT be intimidated or jealous of your staff. Many leaders talk about taking pride in hiring “smarter people than themselves”, but then they don’t handle it correctly when someone on their team has a better idea, or gets credit for a certain success. They are “your” people, take pride in their accomplishments!
Do NOT let A+ talent be culture killers in your building. This can be easier said than done, especially for coaches. Does the star QB have the same rules as the third string LB? When players/employees make mistakes, is the punishment the same for all?
Be careful not to reward people with Titles. Before you know it, your organizational chart will be a mess and titles will mean nothing.
Do not keep people in the building longer than appropriate. When someone stops becoming an effective asset and has “mailed it in” or “starts coasting,” you need to take care of that as others will be watching to see how you handle it.
These are just some of the things you need to be thinking about. The important thing to remember is that these aren’t one-person jobs. You need to build effective teams so that duties can be shared, and you can have time to look at the big picture and to see what is coming around the corner.
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ABOUT TURNKEYZRG
Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model. For more information about TurnkeyZRG, visit www.turnkeyzrg.com.