I’m not a fan of the Dallas Cowboys but I have to say from an HR perspective, many of us our missing the boat on owner Jerry Jones.
Here’s the deal: you’ve got a guy who played college football, made a ton of money, and then he decided he was going to buy the Dallas Cowboys. It’s his team, he pays the bills, he is an owner unlike many National Football League owners in that he actually wants to be involved and has background at a high level into the sport.
Let’s back up for a minute. In business, most of our owners were at one point entrepreneurs/startup types that had an idea and ran with it. They worked their butts off and became successful, and while they might not be super involved in the day-to-day operations currently, they clearly have the ability to jump back into the mix if they had to.
3 reasons people hate Jerry Jones
In many circumstances, these owners are still the lifeblood of their companies – they drive revenue, they motivate, they live and die their brand. Not bad traits to have from an owner (or anyone else working for you).
So, why do we hate on Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys? Here are three reasons:
- We hate him because he’s wants to be involved with the business he runs!
- We hate him because we feel there are more qualified people to run his billion dollar investment!
- We hate him because he wants to be involved with every staffing decision that is made in his business!
Passionate for the business
You know what happens when an owner steps down and let’s someone else take over operations in a majority of cases? You get less passion for the business, you get increased entitlement, you get a decrease in knowledge and a decrease in motivation. It’s shown time after time when original owner steps aside (it’s something I think about often in my new role – don’t let this happen!).
Jerry Jones isn’t bad for Dallas or the NFL – he’s great for it – and you won’t find a person more passionate for “his” business to succeed, for “his” employees to do well, for “his” investment to pay off even greater in the future.
You know what you get when you take away “his” or “hers?” You get “yours” and “theirs.” That isn’t better – it’s worse!
This originally appeared on the blog The Tim Sackett Project.