The Randy Moss Dilemma
Ok, so I didn't blog at all during the entire 2007 NFL season, which was a shame, since that was one of the most interesting seasons in recent memory.
Looking back, one of the key questions was how the Randy Moss saga would play out. To recap the situation as of a year ago: Moss played brilliantly at Minnesota; arguably being the most feared receivers ever. Traded to the Raiders in 2005. There he stunk up the joint, and various reasons for that were offered: the Raiders were dysfunctional, Moss was lazy, was injured, or wasn't that good to begin with. In early 2007, he was traded to the Patriots for a fourth-round pick. Lots of controversy over that trade, and over whether Moss would be any good for the Patriots. Really. Look back at the written record, and you'll see opinions all over the map.
Well, the 2007 season came and went, during which Moss set a record for the number of touchdown receptions in a season, and helped take his team to the Super Bowl. So much for the controversy.
I wasn't sure myself how Moss would turn out with the Patriots, and I enjoyed, from an intellectual perspective, watching the season play out. As I'm fond of saying, I love following sports because it provides a window into real-world issues. Here, we had a case-study of character versus talent. The current thinking in sports commentary these days is that you should weight character over ability when hiring people. That a player might have brilliant talent, but if he has baggage it will come back to bite you.
We face this dilemma all the time in my company when trying to hire people. How much is pure production worth, as opposed to character, communication skills, and being a team player? I haven't found any easy answers to this question. I've worked with very bright but difficult people. Sometimes it turned out not to be worth it in the end, while sometimes they would propel our team to heights we never could have achieved with nicer, but less inspired people.
When is it worth putting up with the headaches that difficult people can bring? Beyond that, how do you integrate difficult people into the team, without disrupting team chemistry?
In Moss's case, it was pretty clear that most people were rooting for him to fail. Few of us have exceptional talent, but many of us can at least try hard and be a team player. It's comforting to us that those qualities should win out. And many times they do -- and sports has plenty of examples of that -- but many times they don't. In this case, the Patriots took a chance on Moss, and they found a way to inspire him without upsetting the rest of the team. I call that good management. They deserved their success.
Looking back, one of the key questions was how the Randy Moss saga would play out. To recap the situation as of a year ago: Moss played brilliantly at Minnesota; arguably being the most feared receivers ever. Traded to the Raiders in 2005. There he stunk up the joint, and various reasons for that were offered: the Raiders were dysfunctional, Moss was lazy, was injured, or wasn't that good to begin with. In early 2007, he was traded to the Patriots for a fourth-round pick. Lots of controversy over that trade, and over whether Moss would be any good for the Patriots. Really. Look back at the written record, and you'll see opinions all over the map.
Well, the 2007 season came and went, during which Moss set a record for the number of touchdown receptions in a season, and helped take his team to the Super Bowl. So much for the controversy.
I wasn't sure myself how Moss would turn out with the Patriots, and I enjoyed, from an intellectual perspective, watching the season play out. As I'm fond of saying, I love following sports because it provides a window into real-world issues. Here, we had a case-study of character versus talent. The current thinking in sports commentary these days is that you should weight character over ability when hiring people. That a player might have brilliant talent, but if he has baggage it will come back to bite you.
We face this dilemma all the time in my company when trying to hire people. How much is pure production worth, as opposed to character, communication skills, and being a team player? I haven't found any easy answers to this question. I've worked with very bright but difficult people. Sometimes it turned out not to be worth it in the end, while sometimes they would propel our team to heights we never could have achieved with nicer, but less inspired people.
When is it worth putting up with the headaches that difficult people can bring? Beyond that, how do you integrate difficult people into the team, without disrupting team chemistry?
In Moss's case, it was pretty clear that most people were rooting for him to fail. Few of us have exceptional talent, but many of us can at least try hard and be a team player. It's comforting to us that those qualities should win out. And many times they do -- and sports has plenty of examples of that -- but many times they don't. In this case, the Patriots took a chance on Moss, and they found a way to inspire him without upsetting the rest of the team. I call that good management. They deserved their success.
Labels: football
posted by Jim at
9:05 PM
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