Archive for February, 2008

Any Leaders Out There?

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

“Sports Under Fire” is the headline above the fold in today’s USA Today.

Apparently, the steroids/HGH issue has been stewing in the cauldron of public opinion so long that Congress doubts the ability of sports leagues and athletes to police themselves. Between the Roger Clemens issue and Congressional testimony by league commissioners, it seems that sports executives are spending more time on Capitol Hill than at their stadiums.

Like anything else in life and business, if there’s a vacuum of leadership, someone will fill it. If leagues can’t get the job done, are we supposed to rely on Congress or the FDA? To me, the mere thought of federal regulation of sports is pretty distressing.

Where there is adversity, there is often opportunity. If there is a leadership vacuum in this area, why not fill it!? Right now, there’s a window of opportunity for an athlete to take a leadership role in establishing the new ethical standard on the steroids/HGH issue.  Declare it’s wrong; ask your peers to join you; urge your leagues to take appropriate action; and set a higher standard for your sport.

Unfortunately, to date, no one has volunteered for this role. Why?

Peer pressure perhaps. Maybe a bit of guilt.

Either way, the first athlete(s) that steps up and accepts the mantel of leadership on this issue will enjoy the following:

  • The satisfaction of doing the right thing;
  • The ability to influence thousands of young athletes who look to their professional peers as role models;
  • The respect of fans (and ultimately, his/her colleagues); and
  • A place in sports history.

Sound like a good career move? You bet.

Posted by Ken Ungar.

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Posted in Athletes

Roger Clemens and Future Case Studies in Crisis Management

Monday, February 18th, 2008

“I did it, and I’m glad I did.”

“I did it, and I’ll never do it again.”

“I didn’t do it.”

An old-school politician taught me these three responses were the only answers to any crisis. Choose one, preferably the true one, stick with it, and you’ll be fine. Unfortunately, in the Roger Clemens sub-drama of the Mitchell Report saga, we’ve heard all three answers from different players in process.

At this point, the whole Clemens issue will serve as a “how-not-to” case study for every athlete’s publicist on crisis management. Why? Because fundamental crisis management rules have been ignored or botched.

First, communicate all relevant crisis facts on Day 1. Don’t let the facts dribble out day-by-day-by-day. Otherwise, you risk making a one-day crisis story a multi-day story.

The Clemens story broke over sixty days ago, and there’s still no end in sight. And, with each passing day comes a juicy new fact for the press to sink their teeth into. First, he denied ever injecting himself with steroids. Then, he admitted injecting himself…with Vitamin B12 shots. And, then, it was revealed that his wife took injections of HGH. Surreptitious tape recordings, dirty needles, betrayed friendships. You’d be hard pressed to write better fiction!

Second, quickly put the best team in place to handle the crisis. Have experts working for you who have “been there, done that” before.

Recently, Clemens’ crisis team hired Washington, D.C. law firm Covington & Burling to advise them on upcoming Capitol Hill appearances. It’s now being reported that Major League Baseball has objected to this representation, as this law firm has represented MLB in the past, posing a possible conflict of interest for the attorneys involved. Even something as simple as putting the crisis team in place has become part of the crisis!

Third, manage the flow of information to insure accuracy and an honest portrayal of the facts.

Since the start of Mitchell’s investigation, it seems that Clemens and his team have been in reactive management mode, falling from one tactic to another. Why did no one communicate with Mitchell’s investigators prior to release of the report? Wouldn’t Clemens’ appearance on 60 Minutes professing full disclosure be seen as conflicting with the seedy act of secretly taping a phone conversation with Brian McNamee? And, whose idea was the Capitol Hill hearing? What a debacle…

Stay tuned. Because no matter how the Clemens crisis ends, there will be material for crisis management textbooks for years to come.

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Posted in Athletes, Behavior

Can Someone Look Up to You?

Friday, February 1st, 2008

“If you want (privacy), you’re probably not in the right profession.”

Who said that? Was it the uber-cool celebrity quarterback outside the apartment of his supermodel girlfriend? Was it a headline-grabbing running back or the strutting, trash-talking, walking press-conference of a receiver?

Nope, it was New England Patriots center Dan Koppen talking to Fox Sports during the run up to Super Bowl XLII.

“You’ve got to watch what you do,” Koppen said. “Handle yourself and behave in the manner … your family and team would want you to. You’re in the spotlight. You don’t have a choice. You just are, so you really have to behave and be a role model.”

Athletes now face a 24-hour news cycle, a phalanx of copy-hungry pack of media outlets ranging from broadcast to print to web, plus hordes of cell-phone camera toting fans. Any athlete who acts as if their private life is truly private “outside the lines” is headed for trouble.

Modern athletes must act at all times like their mother is watching. The undeniable, unavoidable mantle of role model comes with the job, and forgetting that means risking all the hard work invested in getting to the top.

That isn’t a bad thing, for sports or athletes.

Instead it is a chance to embrace being a role model, both for your fans and your career.

The joy, the power an athlete feels when performing at a high level is the same joy and power the fans feed upon. It is part of a simple human transaction between competitor and fan. That emotional connection, rational or not, makes any sport more than the sport itself.

The need for that vicarious connection is strong, and the fans’ expectations of heroic feats follow the competitor off the field into daily life. Fans, whether right or wrong, expect the defensive back that punishes a receiver crossing the middle also to be a warm and charming ideal to their children on the sideline.

And just as the toughest competitor practices and practices to achieve effortless perfection on the field, the best strategy is to practice just as hard for the demands off the field, for playing the position of role model.

It can be as simple as creating a personal policy for autographs. You can choose between always having a Sharpie in hand and ready to sign or always having business cards to give to fans, promising them a signed photo if they will send you a stamped, self-addressed envelope. It can mean psyching yourself and always bringing a friendly persona anywhere you go in public, or unselfishly giving a bit of your on-field passion back to the community.

Rather than a burden, smart athletes embrace the expectations that go with being a role model. Smart athletes recognize that fulfilling fans expectations off-the-field will enhance their images — and reflect well on their sponsors and the sport.

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Posted in Behavior