What does it take to be leader in sports?
Buffy's Speech at Ithaca College Sports Management Awards Banquet
I'm going to begin this speech with an ending.
March 23rd, 1987. I was in my office late in Cleveland - close to 7:00 pm. It was becoming dark. I wanted to wait until my boss left because I didn't want to see him. He had given me my review verbally and it was horrible. He said I was a menace to the office. I tended to get everyone involved in my sports search projects to the detriment of the other search work we did. He questioned whether I would be a very good recruiter. I know he was irritated that I had gone over his head and found another partner willing to pay my salary to have me concentrate on doing sports searches.
His secretary, his right hand commandant, burst into my office. "Your mother is on the phone." My mother? It's 6pm in Chicago. She doesn't call my office at 6pm. "Hello."
In a breathless voice, she spoke slowly, "Your father's had a seizure on the hospital table and the doctor doesn't think he'll live the night. He asked that all the children come home right away. Call your brother and sister and have them come home tonight."
Fast forward. 4 weeks later I was in my parents' home in Chicago. I was watching the Family Circle Cup tennis event. I can't tell you who was playing. Life was standing still for weeks while my father was in a coma. The phone rang, "Hi, this is Honey. I think your father has passed."
It's over. No more breaths to breathe. No more shoes to tie. No more swings of a racquet. No more matches to schedule. No more trips to be taken. No more laughter. No more voice. No more shirts to buy, no more socks to wash. It's over. It's all over.
Oh, other people have had this same experience and a few of them are great leaders. You know them: Abraham Lincoln, Vladimir Lenin, Adolph Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi and even Pope John Paul. All lost a parent at a very young age. James MacGregor Burns says, "Most developed [from this experience] a dynamic will to succeed, a driving ambition that lasted their entire lives."
Couple that with Cleveland, Ohio author of "Primal Leadership" Daniel Goleman, who with his team has conducted hundreds of studies on corporate CEOs and other leaders and explains that good leaders have what he calls a high emotional intelligence. Because the brain, unlike the circulatory system, is an open-looped system it depends on external sources to manage itself. In other words, people rely on connections with other people for our own emotional stability. And I'm sure those who faced this kind of tragedy needed it even more.
In my near 20 years of executive recruiting for the sports business, I'm constantly asked to identify leaders, or those with potential to be leaders. I'm not surprised that many of today's leaders in sport shared some form of tragedy early in their lives.
Two of my favorites are the brothers Tim and Tod Leiweke. Tim is CEO of AEG, a conglomerate of companies owned by Phil Anschutz that includes the STAPLES Center, MLS Teams, a concert promoter, arenas and more and his younger brother, Tod, who is CEO of the Seattle Seahawks.
Their mother died when they were in their teens and two years later their second mother died. I often think that their emotional stability was gained through their work in the sports industry. As start up General Managers of indoor soccer teams in the early 80s, they both honed the skills of developing relationships with key civic and business leaders in a town, fan development programs to bring in customers - through birthday parties and whatnot. And strong bonds with their staffs in which Tim has produced more presidents of other teams under his tutelage. It's not surprising that Tim was one of the most successful executives in starting up the NBA team in Minneapolis - Minnesota Timberwolves; and Tod was recognized for his tremendous fan development programs at the Minnesota Wild. You can see that after a few years at the helm of the Seattle Seahawks which had wonderful talent that was not gelling together, Tod led them to the SuperBowl.
This same sense of loss early in one's career I believe catapulted twin bothers, Brett and Michael Yormark, into their leadership positions.
New Jersey bred twin bothers, identical twin bothers, type A personalities, were left to be raised by their mother at an early age. Not surprisingly both became salesmen, as a way to connect. Their biggest strength is befriending CEOs of major corporations, "like father figures" to them, and they play the role of the son the CEOs always wanted to have.
Brett has traveled through the NBA with the Detroit Pistons and New Jersey Nets before becoming a Vice President and head of the New York office of NASCAR. He built a sizeable staff and turned around the business that was losing money to making $100 million annually. He moved on to become the CEO of the New Jersey Nets where in a few short months brought in 82 new sponsors.
Younger brother, Michael, kept to the team side and after stints in Florida with the Florida Panthers and then opening the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL, Michael headed up business operations for the fledgling Tampa Bay Lightning. Bored by his fourth year of bad teams, no sizzle, Michael decided, just decided, he would call for a "Packing of the Ice Palace" - shortened to "Pack the Palace." Could he get all the leaders of the community, staff in the building to create a place of excitement and enthusiasm? And with that excitement, could the business side will the team to win? It's never been done. We always say the business follows the success of the team. But Michael, with his energy, enthusiasm, positive feelings, got everyone engaged and the team made the playoffs in its first year in years with no new players on its roster. He packed the Palace. And the Tampa Bay Lightning went on to win the Stanley Cup the next year!
If you had attended sports career fairs posted on our website, www.teamworkonline.com, you would hear much the same refrain. The sports industry isn't about playing games. This is intense. You take it up a notch. There are few positions, and you are asked to do your absolute best to see where you settle.
We have over 1 million records across all our TeamWork Online databases vying for probably 2,000 positions in sports. Do the math. Long odds. So what do you need?
- Passion: It will take a burning passion to be successful in the industry. You must really want it, and want to do well in it. Given a good education such as here at Ithaca College, and relationships with alumni known in the industry as solid professionals; now what?
- What's often accompanying passion is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a strong excitement of feeling. We want to be around people who like themselves - and like others who are with them. Because we're going to be spending more time with you than our family members. Step up the enthusiasm a notch.
- Salesmanship - we have over 100 jobs for entry level ticket sales available right now. Don't tell me there aren't jobs available. If you are a recent graduate, have had some sales experience at a retailer or selling pledges to your university, plus had an internship in sports and were a competitive athlete, you can have that entry level ticket job.
- Flexibility - I hear, "I want to be the GM of the New York Yankees." Don't hold your breath. Or, "I want to be an agent." Don't hold your breath. Be flexible to the kinds of jobs you could perform.
- Problem solving. Surely in your years of education your professors are trying to train you to 1) see a problem or opportunity; 2) thoroughly analyze it; 3) prepare a plan to solve it; and 4) implement your solution. You'll be needing that skill a lot!
When I was asked at age 23 to analyze whether Stan Smith, a Wimbledon tennis champion was helpful or hurtful to Wilson racquet sales, I evaluated the press coverage other Wilson players were providing. Through my limited research, most of the players delivered 3 - 4 times the press coverage value than what we paid them. Stan Smith delivered 25%. His contract was cut and he was never signed by another company.
When I was asked to put a price for Wilson signage on a tennis event on television, I literally sat watching hours of tape and with a stop watch wrote down how many seconds of coverage Wilson received. I found out how much a 30-second advertisement cost and figured out the relative value. This was 1977. Since then a company was started to do exactly that for sponsors.
- Networking: I received a call from one of my former recruits who was let go as a Vice President of Marketing from a very good company. He had an MBA from a prestigious college; worked for some very great brands. I asked what he would have done if he knew that at 45 he would be out of work. He said, he would have gotten to know and help others sooner in his career. In other words, had he not had blinders on doing his job, he would have spent more time helping young people into the business and then in turn they could have been there to help him when he was out of work.
That all said, let's look at what ever made you a good athlete. Those same traits will also make you a great employee in our industry.
- Diehard competitor - passion
- Ability to get along and work well with teammates - sell
- Vision to see the passing lanes - problem solving
- Cheering on your teammates - enthusiasm
- Understanding that life is a team sport - networking
I don't mean to make your life seem more self-centered than what it already is to what many are calling yours "the teathered" generation. On the cell phone calling parents. Hey, look-it, I do the same. My son has to call me when he arrives at school after driving OUR car there for 20 minutes. But your life, your career is a journey about getting to know yourself and finding the people and places where you can do your best work.
If I leave you with anything in my 30 years of sports, it's that I recognized at a young age that people were going to take me to wherever I was going to go. I had to know them, learn from them, learn who would help me or who could hurt me. Some of my mentors were also detrimental. People who give you the greatest joy can also bring the greatest heart break. But that's life; that's the journey. Through all the ups and downs, I learned my greatest strengths and found a path of happiness and success.
During that greatest heartbreak of my life - the death of my father - I learned that I needed everyone, and I wanted them to need me. I wanted to be the best teammate. Life was short, and I better get in it and on with it. Live each day as if it were my last. Be thoughtful in what I say to people. Give as many hugs as possible. As Seals and Crofts sang, "We may never pass this way again."
Speaking of music let me end this speech with a favorite song by Cat Stevens.
"Oh I'm on my way, I know I am, somewhere not so far from here
All I know is all I feel right now, I feel the power growing in my hair
Sitting on my own not by myself, everybody's here with me
I don't need to touch your face to know, and I don't need to use my eyes to see
I keep on wondering if I sleep too long, will I always wake up the same (or so)?
And keep on wondering if I sleep too long, will I even wake up again or something
Oh I'm on my way I know I am, but times there were when I thought not
Bleeding half my soul in bad company, I thank the moon I had the strength to stop
I'm not making love to anyone's wishes, only for that light I see
'Cause when I'm dead and lowered low in my grave, that's gonna be the only thing that's left of me
And if I make it to the waterside, will I even find me a boat (or so)?
And if I make it to the waterside, I'll be sure to write you a note or something
Oh I'm on my way, I know I am, somewhere not so far from here
All I know is all I feel right now, I feel the power growing in my hair
Oh life is like a maze of doors and they all open from the side you're on
Just keep on pushing hard boy, try as you may
You're going to wind up where you started from
You're going to wind up where you started from..."
[read more Buffy speeches...]
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Buffy Filippell has recruited over 350 executives in the sports industry. She has appeared as a featured speaker at Harvard Business School. Ask her any questions about employment issues by pressing Ask Buffy. No names, nor email addresses will be made public.
