Mike Brown is considered a nice guy by practically everyone who meets him. He is kind to all and very few work as hard as he does.
As head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, he would often watch film of the team’s performance all night AFTER the game. He had beds at both the Staples Center where the team played as well as its practice facility in El Segundo. General Manager Mitch Kupchak said Brown was “very hard working, maybe one of the hardest-working coaches that I’ve ever been around.”
As a leader, Brown was dedicated, sacrificial, always prepared, paid attention to detail, and deeply cared for his players and the media. However, after a 1-4 start, Brown was terminated because of a failure to produce, to win. It is an unfortunate ending for a good man.
In an effort to be fully transparent with you, Brown’s firing strikes a chord deep inside of me. I try to be a nice guy and serve people well. I want goodness and mercy to follow me everywhere I go. I know a lot of leaders who feel the same. But the reality is, if we do not produce, it does not matter how nice we are. We will all be replaced.
Leaders know this is the case. We know all assignments are temporary. We know hard decisions are part of leadership. But each hard decision leaves my soul a little empty. This is the responsibility of all leaders, even nice ones. And I have also been the recipient of hard decisions.
What I want to see then if there is anything nice leaders can learn from Brown’s termination to hopefully avoid a similar fate. Here are the mistakes Brown made:
- Failure To Manage Time And Resources Well – Brown did not manage time well. During last year’s lockout-shortened season, Brown often had contact practices on game days while other teams merely had simple, low-impact shootarounds. He overworked his team.
- Failure To Build Key Relationships – Pao Gasol felt disenfranchised all last season because of trade rumors.
- Failure To Expand The Leadership Base – Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom, both considered quality team leaders, were traded.
- Failure To Own Results – During critical moments of important games last season, Brown often deferred to assistant coaches to run plays during timeouts.
- Failure To Develop Systems – Brown was constantly changing the team’s offense and substitution patterns. Therefore, any sense of continuity never had a chance to develop.
- Failure To Build Relationships With Top Performers – Brown never gained the confidence of team star Kobe Bryant.
I want all leaders to get better and succeed. Bill Hybels says, “Everyone wins when a leader gets better.” And he’s right. But I have a soft spot in my heart for leaders who are genuinely nice people.
Therefore, nice leaders please manage your time and resources well, build key relationships, expand your leadership base, own results, develop systems, and value top performers. If you do this, you may be a nice leader who finishes first.
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