Magic Fans Make Some Noise…We did! We cheered until our lungs bled. I was at the game when the Orlando Magic lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals of 2010. I sat there watching Dwight and Jameer sitting on the bench as the Purple and Yellow team hugged and celebrated on the floor. My heart sank with the fifteen thousand other fans with knots in our guts as we knew that we’d lost again.
Will Dwight Howard stay? Will he go to LA? Will he go to NJ?
Here we have this giant of a man in Dwight Howard and millions of Floridians begging him to stay in Orlando. After all, this is Dwight Howard, not Lebron James right? Right? Obviously, Dwight was happy here! After all, who doesn’t like the weather in Florida?
Then it hit us like a sucker punch in the gut. Statements have come out that Dwight Howard’s not happy because he isn’t involved in the decision making process. He’s upset because he wants a ring and this small dinky town of Orlando simply can’t deliver it.
We’ll get back to that story in a minute, but as a business owner I have to take sides with Otis Smith on this one. In 2004, my business was primarily run by one of our founding employees, name Sue. She knew the ins and outs of the business and was fantastic at her job. Things worked out great for a while. Sue was happy. She was dedicated. As time progressed and we grew, we had to add on more people to be able to win.
I can remember that often times I’d allow her to help with the interviewing process. She was smiles and giggles and gave her approval. After the on-boarding process began, I would then give some work to our new employees. Often time it was some of loyal Sue’s tasks. I didn’t realize it at first, but Sue began to get disgruntled about wanting more and more say in what she thought should happen. We continued to grow and make changes and bring in more staff. When I thought everything was fine, Sue began to get a really negative attitude about how I was running the company. I noticed that she would sit stone cold at our meetings and lost her warm heart that she once had. The issue was that I was making changes and trying to find a way for us to win in business.
Nothing I was doing was personal. I was trying to find a way for us to win. She was an employee and not the owner of the business. As things progressed, I finally caught her in some serious back biting and slander and I confronted her. She would either need to apologize and straighten up or leave. She never faced me and decided to quit on the spot before I came into work that day.
Over the next few years, we built a “team” of people that cared more about working together and who care more about each other than their position. I never had realized it, but this woman and her demands were controlling my thoughts and actions for years. What will Sue think? Will Sue be happy? Nobody can replace Sue! That is where I was wrong. With in two weeks of Sue leaving the organization, we had a system where a couple of staff members worked as a team and we were even stronger than ever.
Now I realize that Dwight Howard is the defensive player of the year. I realize that he is the man of steel! I realize that he won the slam dunk contest and he swears that he loves Orlando. However, I believe there comes a point in time where someone’s either on your team or they are not. I’m talking emotionally and mentally. When they second guess the leadership and complain about decisions it shows that they care more about themselves than the other guys on the team.
If Dwight Howard were a team guy, he would know that Otis Smith, SVG, and the rest of the guys on the team want one thing. They want to win just as bad as he does. Winning doesn’t take 1 LARGER THAN LIFE STAR. It takes a team of dedicated, passionate, all joking aside, professionals. Just ask the Dallas Mavericks who beat a team with three stars. If Dwight Howard can’t focus on anything but himself and is hurting the team because they don’t know if he’s coming or going, it will probably be best to let him go sooner than later.
In business sometimes change has to happen. The best thing to do is tackle it head on and keep everything in the open. If someone doesn’t want to be on your team, then it might be time to let them go. Life is to short to let your business or organization be wagged by the tail. The team can and will survive and will eventually be better with a united team.
Quote:
The grass is greener on the other side, but it still needs mowing.
Question:
Is having “superstar” players on a team more important that the unity of the team? Can you have both? Does the Magic have unity with Dwight Howard or a “Big Baby” Howard.
