Did You Inherit a Bad Team? Learn from Tebow.

You start a new job as a leader of people—a manager: entry-level, mid-level, or executive.  You “inherit” a group of people:  employees you did not hire.  They are already “trained” in their jobs—you did not get to train them.  They have gone through several managers before you came along.  They did not fare very well.  They have a reputation in the company as being of the “loser” variety.  Their “numbers” aren’t good if they are in sales; their “error rate” is not good if they are production people, and they are not very far on the “bar chart” of their goals this year.  What do you do?

We can take the lesson of Tim Tebow.  The quarterback came into a Denver Broncos NFL team that had a 1 and 4 losing record.  Since then, he has led them in 8 games.  His record with them is 7 wins and 1 loss.  How is this possible?   It’s a fascinating and uplifting story.  The sports reporters are all writing about it, and punditing on TV sports shows.  I think a New York Times writer said it best when he said that Tebow possesses in abundance the qualities of confidence, equanimity, optimism, and a presence that can’t be explained, but definitely can be felt.  These qualities are an asset in sports, but also in business.

Just this past Sunday, I watched Tebow’s game against my Chicago Bears.  I watched him give big respect to the vaunted Chicago Defense, laughing with Julius Peppers, and with Charles Tillman, who intercepted him!  He said he was honored to be on the same field with these celebrated guys—THAT’s sportsmanship!  But the score is 10-0 with a little more than 2 minutes left in the game, and I think, Tebow has met his match—he can’t pull this one off.  But then, he completes 7 out of 7 passes (in the previous 3 quarters, he was 3 of 16 or something awful) but here he comes—Tebow Time!  Chicago starts making mistakes after Tebow passes for a touchdown, which makes the score 10-7.  I tweet omg, it must be Divine Intervention (which is what Tebow thinks it is).  I almost tweet “If they win, I’m thinkin’ I should go to shul!” but I resist the tweet temptation.  Receivers for Tebow who had been dropping balls all game, suddenly make catches.  Is it a miracle?  Can he pull this out?  The kicker kicks a record field goal of 59 feet!  Is the Denver thin air in cahoots?  Tebow ties the score with 3 seconds left, and they go into Overtime!  Of course, according to some script, Denver kicks the winning field goal—51 feet.  I’m screaming with joy, alone in my room, even though I LOVE my Bears.  Tebow makes people root for him.  Jimmy Johnson, ex-coach of the Dallas Cowboys when they were GOOD, is really excited about Tebow.  He says he is the BEST player he’s ever seen who makes the players around him BETTER!  I so get it.

So if you inherit a bad team, take control, inspire them to be the best they can be, and never give up!  I guess a little Divine Intervention wouldn’t hurt either.