My favorite NFL team is the Green Bay Packers.
Always has been. Always will be.
But that doesn’t mean that I agree with everything they do as an organization. One of the things that bothers me is when they deny coaches and scouts from interviewing for jobs with other teams.
I think there are a few rules in the NFL that allows teams to deny these types of interviews. I think if a coach or scout is under contract there are restrictions on their ability to seek other employment. And I think the job might have to be a true promotion opportunity.
I don’t know all the details. I’m sure there are more, but the Packers have denied coaches and scouts from opportunities they have seemingly wanted in recent years.
We Love Control
I think it comes down to the idea of control.
It must be some kind of human need to want to try and control everything that affects us. But the reality is that there is very little we can control in life.
When it comes to the business world, we want to control the people that work with us and for us. We see it as our business or we see them as our employees.
It gives us a sense of stability to be in control of what employees do and that includes their ability to continue working for us. Whether it’s what they want to do or not.
Not Good Enough, But Too Good To Let Go
With the Packers it’s kind of odd to see an employee that could find a better opportunity somewhere else held back. They’re not good enough to get that same promotion with the Packers, but the person is too good for the Packers to let go. Especially to the competition.
My feeling is that if you can’t make your organization appealing enough for people to want to stay then you’re not doing things right. You’re not looking at things the right way. You’re focusing your control on the wrong things.
As a businessperson you can focus on making your business more appealing to employees. You may be able to control people in the short-term, but that won’t work in the long-term. If you force them to stay they’ll resent you. They probably won’t work as hard. And they’ll eventually leave anyway and the job probably won’t be as appealing to the best people in the future.
Selfish
And it’s really just selfish.
It’s a focus on what’s best for you and not what’s best for those that work with you. And that seems to be a part of human nature that we have to fight in life and in business.
The best businesses that I’ve seen and have worked with are the ones that take the time to learn what their team members want in life. Then they look for ways to align those individual goals with the goals of the company.
In this way, everyone is working toward something positive. It might mean that some people will leave for better opportunities in the future. But that’s the nature of things.
In the Packers situation I think it makes sense to have a situation where people are competing for internal jobs, but also working to improves themselves in general because only so many can get those internal jobs, but they can also work to get other jobs with other teams.
In your business, it’s beneficial to help everyone on the team reach their ambitions. Whether that’s ultimately for your business or for another business.
Competition, positive competition. is beneficial for everyone in the long run.
Final Thought
I guess my final point is that you want to lift those around you up. You want to help them get to where they want to go. The old saying is that to get the biggest building in town you can either work on building the biggest building or you can try to tear down the other tall buildings.
In the long run, it’s better to work on building the best building and that means doing all you can to help those that work with you to reach their highest potential.