In case you missed it, Jim Tressel resigned as the coach of the Ohio State football team. He was a well-respected coach. His downfall involves the alleged cover-up of some violations of NCAA rules involving benefits to student-athletes. He denied doing some things that it turns out he actually did. This, as we all know, is an integrity issue.

I cannot defend Coach Tressel and I have never coached NCAA division one sports but I know enough to know the system is very flawed. Perhaps he was just doing what everybody else does and he got caught. Not the greatest defense but if the system is flawed maybe the system needs fixing too.

When you look at how people behave and operate in your organization you also have to look at how they are led (was Mr Tressel encouraged, or was a blind eye turned to his conduct) and how the system works (pay for performance with little regard for anything else)….these exist in many organizations.

I was with an executive last week who wondered why he was “perfect” for four years but now financial performance is down and he is on the hot seat. Good question…in this case it is because he was paid for results but his failure to build and plan for the future is now coming home to roost. He should have been held accountable all along but he was not.

Jim Tressel is probably not a bad person. Neither is the exec I mention from last week. But in both cases they have made some bad decisions and were not led as well as they might have been. Next time you discipline someone think about the system and how the are being led too.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 5th, 2011 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.