You know what none of the great leadership speakers, gurus, TEDx speakers, etc., will tell you about leadership?
Sometimes in leadership, even the best, greatest visionaries, have to do things they wouldn’t want anyone else to know about.
We got to see this in the past weeks with Tom Brady, the Super Bowl winning quarterback from the New England Patriots, with how he responded to the Deflategate scandal. Tom had a chance to be the leader we all believe leaders to be. Instead, he was the leader that most leaders are.
You don’t want to hear this.
Protecting the brand
Brady did what leaders do. He protected the brand. Whether you like it or not, New England, the NFL, and Tom Brady are the brand. He protected the shield. You really think he’s going to throw the brand on the sword for some equipment guy that no one will know in 30 seconds?
Now, don’t get me wrong. Tom Brady is a liar. He lied about not knowing anything about those balls being deflated. He knew exactly why and how those balls were deflated, because he gave the order!
Taking one of the team – and the brand
The NFL is a $100 billion business. The New England Patriots are the NFL. Tom Brady is the NFL, just like the rest the teams and players are. So, the NFL, the Patriots, and Brady all have a vested interested in “handling’”this with as little collateral damage as possible.
Throwing a couple of equipment guys under the bus and throwing the blame on them is collateral damage to protect the brand.
You know what happens when a giant multi-national company does something horribly wrong and there is loss of life or major damage? They find someone to shoulder the blame that is smaller than the brand.
People lose jobs. Sometimes they even go to prison. But the company, and the brand, lives on.
You’ll never see the multi-national CEO come out and take the blame for catastrophic events. They’ll have empathy, they’ll have compassion, but they will not take blame. This is real leadership.
You don’t want to believe that this is leadership, but it is.
How Tom Brady deflected a scandal
Tom Brady did for the NFL what great leaders do. He deflected a cheating scandal that could have cost billions of dollars to the brand, and placed it on the shoulders of some guy making $40,000 a year.
People can accept that story. Some dumb equipment manager was a super fan and just trying to help out “his” guy. It wasn’t Tom doing it, because Tom is a modern-day God!
