How Eccentric Workers are One Man’s “Trash” is Another Man’s Treasure

Like 5.9 million other people in the world, I tuned into “The Last Dance,” the long-anticipated Chicago Bulls/Michael Jordan documentary that aired on April 26, 2020, on ESPN.  As a basketball junkie, I can’t get enough of MJ footage, but if you really dive into the material, the 10-part series tells us so much about more than just basketball. Four episodes in and we have already learned a ton about running a business, especially how to hire and team building. As someone who has spent their entire career in sales, recruiting, or a combination of both, I could not help but draw parallels.

One man’s “trash” is another man’s treasure

In the basketball sense, I am referring to Dennis Rodman, who was spotlighted in the third episode as the eccentric but talented player who had trouble fitting in with his previous teams. Although he had issues off the court, he rejuvenated his career in Chicago, playing alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. The tutelage of Phil Jackson certainly helped, as well, as they collectively let “Dennis be Dennis,” giving him the freedom that he needed mentally, all while trusting he would still produce at a high level.

What happened?…

Well, I don’t want to spoil anything here… but the Bulls won the title! For the third year in a row, nonetheless. They let Rodman go on a 48-hour vacation to Vegas, only to see him come back and outwork everyone else in practice, and which led to him helping the team win the last of their six championships all in Michael Jordan’s career.

What does this teach us about hiring/building sales teams?

I’m sure anyone who’s managed teams for long enough can think of someone they can relate this to: A talented but eccentric team member who might have a different way of doing things, but ultimately performs well and contributes greatly to the team as a whole. 

While many of you might be thinking, “It’s not worth the hassle,”that might be the case in some circumstances. For those of you who don’t know,  Rodman was almost black listed from the league due to some of his antics on the San Antonio Spurs right before his debut start with the Chicago Bulls. But where most General Managers in the NBA saw Rodman as “too much trouble,” Jerry Krause (we’ll get to him in a bit) saw him as an inexpensive asset. Krause trusted that the Bulls’ culture and winning-ways would keep Rodman on the right track.

While it was a risk for Krause to take on Rodman,  it was a calculated gamble that he ended up winning big on. We often find that when some of our clients are looking for top talent, they can be scared away by hints at eccentricities. If an interviewee comes off that they might be “difficult to manage,” or shows signs of not getting along with previous direct reports or peers, they often times get written off and rejected. Now most of the time, that might be the right decision. But sales leaders and hiring managers in general should always keep an eye out for the folks who show promise and might just need a change of scenery to maximize their talents. Maybe in their last job their boss was a jerk who only had their own best interest at heart. Perhaps when they joined their last company, they were told one thing when they were hired and presented with a whole different set of job responsibilities. Or maybe the culture was toxic and bred a lot of negativity and selfish behavior. There are a million different reasons why people don’t stay with their last employer.

Sometimes the question “Well, if they were such a strong performer, then why did he/she get let go or leave on their own?” can be very misleading.

If you believe in your leadership team and the overall foundation of your company’s cultural,  don’t look past these candidates. They might be the missing “winning” piece you’ve been looking for. Just ask Michael Jordan if he would take Dennis Rodman as a teammate again. And at the end of the day, don’t we all want to be “like Mike?”?

Heroes Reborn

"When you look back on the decisions you've made in your short life, the one thing you don't want to feel is regret".

Dubbed the poor man's X-men, Heroes returns to the NBC line-up on Thursday September 24, 2015.  Several original characters were announced not to return either because they had successful movie or tv careers on other shows, so it's going to be a rebuild.  I'm interested in seeing who comes back and the new characters that will have their story line develop.  I saw a storyline from the "Dark Matters" chapter that discrimination against "evolved humans" will take place.  

There was a part where a brother who was human had an evolved sister that went to college and tried to get a job, but human resources told her the position was filled before interviewing her.  Their justification for not giving her a job was that the company only hires humans despite her being qualified for the job. When the brother pointed out that was discrimination, the human police beat him up.  I think the writers are capturing real life events plaguing our society, so it's going to be good.  

To be honest I stopped watching the show after season 1, so hopefully it's better than it ended. It's a new beginning, so I'll give it a fresh start.

Prison Architect Alpha Game Review

I got another simulator game off steam this week titled Prison Architect. The basic concept of this game puts the gamer as an owner and manager of a private prison where you take income from housing various prisoners ranging from minimum to maximum security.

First off this game is addictive, and I never understood how prison was a business until now. Prison Architect gives you complete control of constructing the prison from the ground up to creating and managing the infrastructure that helps run the operations of the prison.

Some of the details that this game reveals about how the modern prison's are ran and operated shocked me. I learned to use government grants to help fund projects like researching mental health and wellness initiatives to making hiring decisions on my staff that benefited each business unit such as hiring a warden with a psychology background and education to ensure the mental health of the inmates is satisfactory. Then you have to employ regular and temporary staff like cookers and maintenance to help maintain the prison and prisoners.

What impressed me the most was the social science aspect of pairing certain inmates with each other. Certain inmates will feel more comfortable with other inmates and as a leader or manager having influence over the social interactions can ensure the consequences are satisfactory or unsatisfactory based on if you want that prisoner to make it.  Random shake downs and increasing the security staff are preventative measures that can be taken to ensure less internal crimes occur.

I enjoyed placing metal detectors in the cafeteria and at the holding cells to ensure the prisoners do not steal tools that would help them escape or endanger fellow prisoners. The game allowed me to add workshops to the prison as well as reform programs that reduced the specific prisoner's repeat-offender rate.

One interesting piece I liked about the game were incident reports and the micromanagement of operations the player can utilize in order to increase effectiveness of staff performance. The player tells the prisoners what to do indirectly by setting their schedule.  By setting a schedule you can ensure performance is maintain to optimum levels.  Making prisoners feel comfortable and providing them with the opportunities helped reduced crime and turnover ratio for early release.

After playing Prison Architect, I felt in control of building a corrections system that provided my staff with stable work and prisoners with an education that helped them reform and become productive citizens upon release.  I can't wait for the final version of the game to be released. Right now, I give Prison Architect a 8.5/10.