Mr. Shanahan–What’s Behind Your Question?

Ask any major league starting pitcher with a high pitch count how he feels in the late innings of a game, and 99 percent of the time he’ll tell you that he feels great. In fact, he probably doesn’t feel great. He’s probably trashed. The pitcher responds the way he thinks he’s supposed to.  After all, he’s a warrior!

This was essentially what Mike Shanahan (football coach of the Washington Redskins) did with quarterback RG3 (rookie phenom Robert Griffin III) on Jan 6th in a playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. RG3 was clearly hobbled—barely able to defend himself. He was gimping around on the same leg (knee really) that he had severely injured earlier in the year.

‘You OK?'” Shanahan asked.  “And he [RG3] said, `I’m fine.'”   This exchange was late in the game.  At that point, even a grade school kid could tell RG3 wasn’t right. RG3’s response was no surprise—he was responding the way he was expected to. After all, even as a rookie, he was the face of the franchise and its unquestioned leader.

RG3 stayed in the game.  Minutes later he mangled his knee trying to recover a botched snap from center. RG3 was not only out of the game but possibly next season as well due to, among other things, a torn ACL.

Shanahan tempted fate.  He lost.

Shanahan’s assertions that he left RG3 in the game because RG3 said he was fine are ridiculous.  Shanahan has been coaching for—what—a gazillion years? He knew better. He knew that RG3 would say just about anything that would keep him in the game. In other words, RG3 responds the way he thinks he’s supposed to.

Even if the question came to mind, it should have never left Shanahan’s lips. In the end, however, RG3’s answer to Shanahan’s question proved to be the justification Shanahan used to keep RG3 in the game.

Let’s call this what it is, a lapse in judgment—a very costly one.  RG3 shouldn’t have been on the field—even if he’s our best player in the year’s most important game.

The lesson:  We’ll learn far more about ourselves as a result of asking this type of self-validating question than anything the person ever tells us in return.

The Chicken Coop

I recently had occasion to spend some time with Ken Behring.  Ken is an American success story— having transcended his humble beginnings in Wisconsin to become one of the nation’s wealthiest men.    The vast majority of Ken’s wealth was generated from real estate development, although he started out in Wisconsin (in large part) as a car dealer.

Ken’s public profile increased dramatically after he became majority owner of the Seattle Seahawks—perhaps that’s how you know of him.  Behring has since sold the team and has found a new passion—philanthropy. His philanthropic work is both impressive and inspiring.

Ken’s philanthropy has been enabled by his impressive business success. That success (no surprise) is a by-product of hard work and determination.

Ken tells of the time many years ago, while in his twenties, he needed an office for his first car dealership.  Low on resources, he got creative.  He decided to buy a farmer’s chicken coop and renovate it.  Yes, you heard right—his first office was a renovated chicken coop.

The chicken coop stunk to high heaven! Behring spent days scraping caked manure from every nook-and-cranny of the chicken coop.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.  The clean-up was a horrible job—one Ken later said he’d never do for anyone else.  Endless coats of paint, some linoleum on the floor, a few electrical fixtures and voila’ …a new office is revealed.

What drove him, Ken noted, was “the vision of what the coop would become”.   Of course, the coop was a means to an end.  By age 27 Ken had a million dollars in assets—an especially impressive feat in 1955.

Ken was all about results (mind-set #1).  When a chicken coop was called for…he got it done.

The thing that often separates us getting the result we desire are chicken coops—those things that are needful but distasteful.  What are your chicken coops?  Hiring a marketing specialist because you’ve proven you’re no good at it? Going the extra mile to make your new product release ‘just so’?  Forging a  business relationship with someone you dislike (but trust) whose talents are especially important to your company’s mission?

They’re ‘out there’—chicken coops that is!   The question is—will you built ‘em?