Isiah Wins Again By Losing

Isiah Thomas lives in a fantasy world. If the former NBA star-turned NBA coach-turned NBA executive was governed by normal workplace rules, he'd probably be brought out back and shot. He's made one the NBA's most important franchises a laughing stock both on the court and off of it, lost his organization millions of dollars, and even more in bad publicity he incurred through a lovely sexual harassment lawsuit. He was bad at a GM, so they made him coach...now he's fired from both...and what's he doing now?

He's been reassigned to the team as an advisor, according to ESPN (click here), but has been banned from contacting the players...lest he try to meddle some more...

So he screws up the team as GM, gets to take on the team as coach and GM...doesn't do any better there...and gets a 3 year contract extension...then he really, really does poorly...and the team fires him...but keeps him on as an advisor....

Are you kidding me? What is he going to advise on? How to lose money? How to get sued? How to lose basketball games? How not to manage a cap? How to acquire bad players? How to not coach?

The Daily News tries to explain with a great headline reading "Isiah Thomas is not fired, just banned": click here

But Deadspin, always a good source of honest reporting and a laugh, said it perfectly in their heading "Isiah Is Smarter Than All Of Us: Isiah Thomas Pretty Much Got a Promotion": click here

The best part of the article being: "that makes Isiah a tremendously well-paid secretary (and coffee boy for Jim Dolan). Isiah is making $18 million to stay away from his employers. The man was a genius all along!"

If you are in HR...look at the history of this man and the Knicks and teach it to your colleagues as a cautionary tale

What I’m Hearing – Tolerating Poor Performance

If you follow basketball, you know that the New York Knicks have not been doing too well the past few years. Between numerous losses and the Anucha Browne-Sanders sexual harassment case, it’s been rough for the team and the fans.

Yesterday, the Knicks’ owners announced that Donnie Walsh will take over Isiah Thomas’ role as President of basketball operations for the team. Word on the street says that Mr. Walsh will also become Head Coach, ending Isiah Thomas’ tenure.

Undoubtedly in our own organizations we have an “Isiah Thomas,” someone whose attitude or poor performance drags down the department or the organization as a whole. Should we allow these individuals to stay on in their roles long after it has become obvious that the employment relationship isn’t working to everyone’s advantage?

Watson Wyatt has conducted research showing that top performing organizations terminate employees who perform unacceptably. Certainly, losing an employee can put additional strain on the remaining group. However, in many cases the team works more effectively after removing negativity and ineffective relationships. Why then do we tolerate poor performance?

Let’s hope the Knicks fare better next season, and that we use their experiences to better our own organizations.