HOW THE GREATEST COLLAPSE IN NFL HISTORY REVEALS THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP LESSON.

‘The things that cause our most substantial pains have the potential to bring our most significant gains.’

I got extremely lucky.

On February 5th, 2017, I was underwater on deployment for my country.

Unbeknownst to me, the Atlanta Falcons were up 28-3 on the New England Patriots in the Superbowl.  Obviously, we all know that they went on to lose that Super Bowl in the most epic way possible. Luckily, I missed that game in person and got the final score from a naval message sent to our submarine.  I didn’t think that the Falcons would win that game but little did I know how they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory that day.  

I have been a Falcons fan for my entire life.  Actually, I didn’t know that I had a choice in the matter.  I was born in Atlanta and the team was already chosen for me.  Much of my life the team has been mediocre at best. In 1998 and 2016, lightning struck for my home team and as expected, they came up short.  Many people surmise that the reason that they lost was because of the overwhelming talent and will of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. That definitely played a major part in the win but I believe that it was so much bigger than that.

Fast forward to the present day.  The Falcons sit at 1-5 at the bottom of the NFC.  A team only two years removed from the biggest of stages. The coaching staff is a little different, the players are a little different, but overall, the team is pretty similar to the one that took the field to play in the Super Bowl.  How does a team so close to the crown fall so far so fast? Actually, it’s pretty common. Since 1988, close to 90% of the runner ups in the Super Bowl fail to even make the playoffs. Why?

On the pursuit of greatness, there is nothing worse than a little bit of success.

For the Falcons, like a lot of other teams so close to the prize; they were convinced that they had all they needed to win that game. They just fell a little short, they were right there, it was in their grasp.

‘If we continue doing what we have been doing then we will end back up here and next time it’ll be different.’ -every Super Bowl losing coach.

So the Atlanta Falcons, just like the teams before them, began preparing for the next season while remaining imprisoned in last season.  The little bit of success they experienced halted their progression as a team and organization. They were convinced that the things that garnered success for them in 2016 would ensure success for them in 2017.  There was very little consideration that the conditions that they would be facing would be completely different.

‘We only need to make a few adjustments and we will be right there again.’ A quote from one of the players on the Falcons once camp opened up for the next season.  Every player on that team was completely bought in to 2016. One big problem though; this was the 2017 season.

The Atlanta Falcons aren’t suffering from a lack of talent, bad coaching, or bad luck; they are suffering from an inability to evolve.

I’m not saying that the Falcons have remained primates while everyone else is able to use their thumbs to play Madden.  That’s macroevolution; what teams like the Falcons have failed to do is called microevolution.

[Nerd Break] Microevolution happens on a small scale (within a single population), while macroevolution happens on a scale that transcends the boundaries of a single species.

Evolution at this scale, is simply defined as the gradual and continued development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form.  The Falcons did not continue that gradual development. They were convinced by their little bit of success that they had done all they needed to succeed in the future. There was no consideration of the evolution of the other 31 teams in the league that would be dissecting every aspect of their performances to detect tendencies, find gaps in execution to exploit and not to mention the anger that’s driving them to work harder because they just want it more.

In leadership, we succumb to the same imprisonment and lack of evolution.  The strategies we utilized in 2005 garnered a significant level of success.  In 2019, those same strategies are woefully inadequate to move the meter of productivity.  The leadership style that I responded to in 1997 is incapable of reaching the Sailors that I lead today.  For me there was very little compassion or empathy as I engaged with my leaders. The leaders that did utilize compassion or empathy as a means of connection were cited as being weak and unproductive.  There was no room to be caring or considerate. Results were the only thing that mattered. A results only perspective is a short term myopic perspective that is unsustainable in an infinite game.

At the individual level, the leader tends to lean on the style that has been responsible for the most success.  I may have been extremely successful in an all male environment, but will that leadership approach work in a mixed environment?  I may have been successful leading in the manufacturing plants with my fellow workers but will the same approach connect in the boardroom?  The onus is on the leader to evolve and meet the needs of those she leads. She can never be so convinced that her way is correct that she shuns all of the signs telling her she needs to get off at the next exit.  He can never be so comfortable with the hammer that the only thing he ever sees are nails.

Allow the Falcons and all of the other runner ups in history to teach you that failure to evolve means that two years later you will still be trying to convince yourself and everyone else that you’re so close. Meanwhile, you’re 1-5, making every other team look like Super Bowl contenders.  Don’t let a little bit of success cost you your livelihood or even worse, the livelihoods of the people you are charged to lead.