“He went shopping? He can’t even tie his own shoes!”
I’m struck by this line every time I watch Home Alone. If you live under a rock, in the movie Kevin (8) gets forgotten (mind blown) when his entire extended family travels to Paris for Christmas (mind blown x 2).
Anyways, Kevin gets left and his parents somehow only realize after they’ve taken off from the airport. There are no flights until 2 days later, so Kevin has to fend for himself.
His parents are freaking out. How could Kevin, the youngest child in their family, possibly take care of himself? Kevin, is completely unperturbed by his predicament, and goes about his business. He buys a toothbrush, orders pizza, goes to the grocery store. He even does laundry (the most unrealistic element of the plot, if you ask me).
His parents are shocked when they pull credit card records and find that he has been shopping in their absence…hence the line “He went shopping? He can’t even tie his own shoes!”
I love this line because I think about this in relation to leading people (I can’t help it. An unhealthy by-product of doing what I do for a living is that I think about work all the time) and about all the times we underestimate what our people are capable of accomplishing. Here’s another real world example.
Recently, after dismissing their head football coach halfway through the season, Auburn University hired an interim head coach, Cadillac Williams. Williams is an Auburn football alum who was a running back during his time there. He played professionally for Tampa Bay and St. Louis in the NFL before beginning his career as a coach. At the time he transitioned, he was the running backs coach at Auburn.
And ya'll. As a University of Alabama alumna, it's sacrilegious to admit, but I loved him. He is an inspirational servant leader who took a failing team and got them to believe in themselves again. After his first ever college football win against Texas A&M, he was interviewed and his statement was completely “unprofessional”.
There were no stats, no strategy revealed. But oh my gosh it was authentic, and real, and had this Bama fan about ready to scream “War Damn Eagle”.
You can watch the whole thing here: Cadillac Brown Post Game Interview
My favorite line “I love serving these young men, man. This coaching staff, it’s bigger than me. It’s just not my show man. We are together. We’re family. So I’m excited.
When asked how he did it and how he injected energy into the team despite their rough season he said:
“Serve, discipline, believe… These kids, these staff. These kids just need a little love, need to be loved on, with discipline. They need to know it's ok to make mistakes. They're gonna fall, but this coach is going to be there to pick them back up. And regardless, we got their backs, they need to open their hearts, that’s all they did, to be honest with you.”
Stay with me.
Cadillac Williams was not selected to be the head coach of Auburn. Instead, they hired Hugh Freeze, the former Ole Miss coach with 21 NCAA violations (largely around recruiting violations) to serve as their full time head coach. Over Cadillac Brown.
Now. I asked my husband, an LA native (Lower Alabama that is), why Auburn didn’t choose to hire Cadillac, especially after he was able to turn the season around.
“Well, he just didn’t have the experience. They went for a known quantity.”
Remember Home Alone?
“He went shopping? He can’t even tie his shoes!”
How often do we do this in our organizations? We will go externally to fill a position in order to make sure the incumbent has “experience” while downplaying or discounting the experience our own team members have because they can’t even tie their own shoes!
Guess what? Those external candidates are leaving their organizations, because their managers don’t think they can tie their shoes either.
So, as we close 2022, and hit performance review season, consider the talent you have on your team today, and what would give you pause about their candidacy for the next level opening on your team.
That will give you a place to start developing them in 2023. Chances are, they already know how to tie their shoes, they just need a chance to show you.
Comments