Written by Is your organization at rock bottom? There is no trust, little communication, people are scared and confused, employees are bracing for the worst, employees and athletes trust nobody, and athletes are looking elsewhere because of the toxic culture that you have identified and are now trying to change. If your organization is in this position, I understand exactly where you are. You may find this letter helpful (I will use a head coaching role as the example):
Dear Team CEOs, Presidents, GMs, and Athletic Directors,
I am so sorry that your organization is going through this tough time: Recovery after an extremely toxic and abusive culture. It is an extremely difficult task that you have in your role, and one that most do not envy. I applaud your efforts of trying to move forward, reestablish trust, and ultimately do what is right for not only your sports program but most importantly your athletes. I also believe that you and your organization can make it through toxic recovery. Please think about these issues as you move forward:
Trust
You and your organization have felt betrayed. You do not want another toxic leader or culture to take over and hurt your employees, athletes, team, and organization. Your quick response is to bring on a replacement that you can trust or, in reality, bring someone on that you do not trust and want to micromanage because you do not want a repeat of the past. And you have some promising applicants that probably see how hurt your organization is, how all of your trust was trampled on, and that you will have difficulties trusting.
Your first move may be to bring someone on a short contract. Your organization not only is struggling deeply in the trust department after everything that took place, but do not want to set everyone up for failure again, especially athletes, institution, and the community. I think that continued open discussion with your top applicant(s) with the ability for everyone’s vulnerabilities to be aired and discussed, will lead to a positive solution on this front…Ultimately with allowing each side to trust one another and to have frequent discussions throughout their time at your organization about trust will go a long way. I am pretty sure that having a longer contract, but with year by year reviews (Especially in the trust, leadership, and culture areas) will solve most of these issues. I think open discussions without an agent, or another representative of the coach, leading the negotiations will pay dividends with this. This is truly a heart to heart situation. The selection of the new coach should not be based on their ability to lead the team to winning the next championship. The next coach should be selected based on their true leadership abilities, which will lead your organization to greatness.
Lack of Flexibility
Because of the lack of trust that you and your organization have, you will want to reduce or eliminate any further possible toxicity, abuse, and bad actors…so you will want to select the entire coaching staff and have them in place before you have a head coach selected. Your top head coaching applicants will immediately be frustrated with their inability to select coaches and ultimately maneuver as a coach themselves as you are showing them that they are not trusted, even before their first interview. Your fear is most likely that a coach being completely autonomous will lead to the same previous result of an extremely toxic and abusive culture. I am certain that an easy compromise can be found, whether it is about current staff that you have in place or staff that a new coach would want to bring in. I am sure having a trusting and extremely vulnerable conversation about this issue will bring both sides to a solution…Something to the end of that you have automatic refusal of any individual that he or she wants to bring on board and that anyone that was brought on board would be on a full contract but with a longer than normal probation period for anything leadership, culture, or values related. You would not be dictating who they can bring on board but would be building in a level of trust and comfortability that you desperately need. I am pretty sure that almost any quality coach and leader would see this and agree. They would also agree that there needs to be someone on their staff that is focused on leadership and culture, with observing, communicating, and helping implement positive change.
Athlete Recruitment
True coaches and leaders will believe that athletes will have problems committing to a program that does not have trust in their coach in the long term. I also see from afar that having a team go to the next championship is extremely secondary to the toxic recovery that your organization must go through. But with the recovery, will come the performance success. I see that there will be unique recruiting gems that will commit to your program because they see a new and fresh beginning, a program that is extremely supportive of their athletes and coaches, and where everyone can create success together. And I am sure that your top applicants will see the incredible opportunity ahead as well.
Now, I make many assumptions here and predictions of success, and that is because I truly believe that you and whomever you end up selecting will truly be successful for the athletes, organization, and community. I am confident of this success and that both sides can meet in the middle, as long as both sides are extremely honest and vulnerable during the coaching selection process in order to help implement the sorely needed positive change in your organization. I see your incredibly difficult situation and know what mountains that you and others will have to climb. And your efforts will dictate the future success of the program. It will not be remotely easy and everyone will be extremely critical of your every move. However, I am extremely hopeful for you and the team’s new direction and future success.