the    sides

I talked about the Dallas Cowboy situation earlier but this situation has too many leadership goofs to pass up.

Dean Spanos, owner of the Chargers fired Marty Schottenheimer today claiming the conflict between GM A.J. Smith and Marty to great to continue. To use his words – a dysfunctional situation.

Here are the basics of the situation – Smith and Schottenheimer have disagreed since day one as to what players to get and keep. Hard to argue with either one of their track records. Smith is responsible for turning Michael Vick into LT and Eli Manning into Shawn Merriman, Nate Kaeding, and Phillip Rivers. Let go of Drew Brees – a known – for the unknown – Phillip Rivers. They sent 15 different players to the Pro Bowl this year – either as starter or alternate. Shrewd, smart, and gutsy. Yeah for the GM.

Marty took a .500 team and has won 2 AFC West Championships, won 14 games this year, hired top-notch assistant coaches and infused a winning culture in San Diego. Talent may get you competitive but it’s coaching that wins games in the NFL. Yeah for the coach.

So who’s to fault? The owner.

1. He didn’t do what Jerry Jones did – hire people who are highly competent AND fit the culture. (I can’t believe I just used Jerry Jones as an example….somebody slap me.) Spanos just got two of the best qualified and competent guys in their position but forgot to ask if they could work together.

2. With one year left on Marty’s contract, no real contract extension was offered. That made Marty a lame duck coach. To the players – that’s not a huge deal. To assistant coaches – it’s life or death. So Cam Cameron takes off for Miami, Wade Phillips to Dallas and 5 assistant coaches left the Chargers this off-season. That’s what upset Spanos and Smith enough to fire Marty.

But what exactly did they expect to happen after they lame-ducked Marty? They wouldn’t sign any of those assistant coaches to extensions either, so Marty allowed those coaches to interview with other clubs that would give them an opportunity for stability. Marty knows all to well the cut-throat atmosphere of NFL coaching. Could he in good conscious allow his guys to miss opportunities for long-term security? No. And he didn’t. Since Spanos and Smith wouldn’t be stand up about it, Marty did.

3. The owner could have made a pro-active decision 2 months ago. He fires Marty then, he gets to keep most of assistants AND have either Cam or Wade as head coach. If Marty wasn’t good enough to give a contract extension with 14 wins, then why keep him in the first place? Was this a fear of failure move or just a great big game of “ego-chicken” with Marty?

In the meantime – they’ve lost major ground with free agency and the draft and having to rehire an entire coaching staff while the rest of the league is stable and moving forward.

How does this relate to us in the church?
In ways uncomfortable to talk about. First, hiring new team members that fit and have character is more important than competence. I think we over rate competence at times. If a guy has any track record at all in churches, I’m going to guess that he (or she) has some competencies. Even if they don’t – we can train that. Chemistry and character – what you get is what you get.

I can remember on one team when we made a hire and a voice around the table questioned the move. The question was then posed – do you trust the rest of the team to make the decision. After thinking that question over (and seeing the results of said decision) – that’s a horrible question. That is absolutely a horrible way to lead any organization – especially the body of Christ. If there is a voice around your leadership table that has questions and they are ignored or glossed over – why are they around the table in the first place?

A better question is – does the rest of the team trust the Spirit in that one person to hold off making the decision? They are around the table for a reason…to not listen is ramrodding a decision.

The ’system’ we use at Pinecrest functions this way. One person has a question – we’re pausing. The downside – it’s long. It’s grinding. It’s relationally intense at times because it demands authenticity and vulnerability. We use it with our youth team concerning volunteers. If one of my coaches has reservations about something – we pause. If you are around the leadership/decision making table, you are there for a reason. Speak. Be real. Let’s figure this out together.

Second, however bad the conflict is in public, you can bet it’s 10 times worse in private. By the time the Deacons/Elders find out about a staff conflict, the chances of it working out well is slim. At that point it’s more about damage control than anything else. By the time it hits the congregation – it’s all over but figuring out who is leaving and who is staying. Basically, the larger the circle of knowledge, the less chance of reconciliation and the more intense the conflict is in reality.

Think that may be why Jesus told us to handle conflict at the lowest level possible – (take out your speck and go to your brother, one on one)? Think He might have known what He was talking about? And yet as stiff as Jesus’ guidelines are on handling conflict, I’m amazed at how many churches blatantly ignore His words.

By not handling conflict biblically and redemptively, churches set themselves up for splits – just like the Chargers – and the longer conflict is avoided, the more likely it becomes personal and less about real issues.

Lastly, lack of pro-active decisions. The second law of therm-dynamics is a law – not a theory. Energy left alone will lose its energy, order left alone will degrade into chaos. By refusing to make pro-active hard decisions, leaders force themselves to make harder reactionary decisions that require more energy and damage control later down the road.

I’ll pick on me here. When it was clear that I wasn’t a long-term solution for any position at Grace, there was a discussion as to how we would tell the body. As tough as it was to tell Grace in March that I wasn’t going to be around and I would be looking for a new place to ministry – it would have been a complete disaster to wait until 2 weeks before I left. More importantly than that, we would have been lying to the congregation. We saved a truckload of hurt, anger, confusion, and chaos by making the decision pro-actively and early. (That’s not to say there wasn’t some of that to deal with anyway. Just saying relatively speaking – it was less than the alternative.)

[tags]church leadership, San Diego Chargers, Marty Schottenheimer, Dean Spanos, A.J. Smith [/tags]