Business Books on Monday Night Football

September 10, 2007

Business Books on Monday Night Football

Filed under: Leadership — Todd Sattersten @ 10:05 pm

[ESPN Monday Night Football

Baltimore Ravens vs. Cincinnati Bengals

Transcript starting at 9:10 Central Time]

Mike Tirico: Here’s Michelle Tafoya.

Michelle Tafoya: Well, let’s talk about captains for a minute.

During the offseason, Caron Palmer’s dad gave him a copy of this book. It’s called It’s Your Ship and it’s by a naval captain who turned a mediocre ship into one of the best crews and best ships in the Navy. Now Carson read it cover to cover and he told me he took away two lessons from this.

Number One: If the people around you believe you care about them, they will follow you into battle.

and

Number Two: The leader must be above the group but of the group.

And his teammates must believe in him. They voted him offensive team captain for the season, Mike. He said that was the single greatest honor of his career.

Mike Tirico: More important than the Heisman Trophy, he said. Kind of surprised us all when he said it.

You’ve seen that all kick-off weekend, those Captain C’s, permanent captains, season-long captains by Roger Godell [NFL Commissioner], as part of the edict to increase the leadership and leadership awareness within each locker room. And the teams have voted for two captains. And we have seen alot of the familiar, big name players wearing those this week.

Tony Kornheiser: That was an Isman Brothers’ song- It’s Your Ship, Do What You Wanna Do.

[laughing]

Ron Jaworski: Where is your mind sometimes?

Kornheiser: Stuck in the 60′s, pal; stuck in the 60′s

A few comments:

Congrats to Michael. He is a friend of 800-CEO-READ and it is great to see him get some love on Monday Night Football
This PR hit follows a Peter King/Sports Illustrated piece that highlights the book as well, but only referred to it as “The Best Damn Ship in the Navy”. Seems like SI could invest in a little more fact checking to get the title right.
Kornhesier’s comic relief should have reference the Isley Brothers instead of the Isman Brothers.

Comments Off

KevinA.

Great article. For a leader to be effective, I believe that leadership and management must be twice-approved. The first approval comes from his superiors who have given their stamp of approval. The people under this leader will naturally gravitate to him as their guide, mentor and captain. This type of approval is only superficial, to some extent, esp. when it comes to interacting with the staff. However, in order for the leader/manager to have continued progress and success, he must then be approved by the staff/people he leads and oversees. Just because one is approved by management doesn’t mean he’ll win the hearts and support of the people he rubs elbows with each and every day.