Judging Hardwick's tenure at Richmond: When is the right time to go?Michael Gleeson
The Age
March 1, 2017 7pmRichmond resisted a board challenge last year, from restless types who wanted change yet came without a plan.
The incumbents promised regeneration with a plan and the dissidents' ill-conceived coup collapsed before it began.
The board then turned over some members, adding Emmett Dunne to bolster its football credentials. This week they announced two more additions to fill casual vacancies.
They are both successful, smart and respected, and so appear to be canny additions to the board. Yet their arrival might, at first blush, discomfort coach Damien Hardwick.
The first appointment is Joe Powell, former head of SEEK employment, a job finders' site.
The other is Henriette Rothschild, who was head of the Hay Group, a management consulting and leadership group. She stood down as its head a year ago and wrote an interesting column for the Financial Review about leadership and knowing when the time was right to move on.
In a rare moment of headline accuracy in the clickbait-era, the article was titled: "The Ultimate Leadership Challenge - Knowing When To Go".
Rothschild proffered four reasons for why business leaders should choose to leave, the final one of which explained: "It is tempting to wait until 'the job is done'. However, in today's changing environment, the leadership role is never completed. A leader who thinks they are the only one who can finish the job is at risk of arrogance". Quite.
She went on. "So when is the right time? Any less than two or three years in a role is unlikely to result in meaningful impact. The timeline for what is 'enough' varies by organisation, by leader, and by the complexity of the work. However, if as a leader, you haven't had the impact you want within four to eight years, you're probably in the wrong role."
Has Hardwick had the impact the Tigers want? In a business sense, yes. In a football sense, no.
Has he had enough time? In a business sense, yes. In a football sense, no, not given where they came from. Luke Beveridge and the Bulldogs recruiters might have reshaped the speed with which change can happen, but they are an outlier to normal football and coaching behaviour.
Hardwick has had the impact he has wanted, up to a point. He made Richmond competitive again and got them to finals again. But then they didn't win any.
Other coaches lose jobs for missing finals. Hardwick is judged for having made them.
Plainly, not all of Rothshild's thoughts on business change can be transposed onto football. She is talking about companies, not clubs, and the football environment is far more complex than many marketplaces.
But they are interesting, for they clearly guide her thinking in business and it is her thinking in business that has brought her onto the Richmond board.
Coaches of football clubs operate in a different market to business leaders. CEOs and chairs of boards have many choices of alternative employment (there is apparently a reasonably well-paid opening with Australia Post at the moment) so volunteering to change is an easier one for a boss than an AFL coach in a small and closed market.
Furthermore, and this is the big one, business leaders are judged on improvement, not on winning.
A business leader who drags a poorly performing business up to a point of profitability and market respect is lauded as a titan. A coach who does likewise is only considered not to be terrible.
Ken Hinkley was coach of the year only a few years ago after he took Port Adelaide from irrelevance to finals – and won there – which by any business measure is an outstanding success. But he failed to win a flag, has missed finals for two years and understands his tenure might last as long as it takes for it to be mathematically impossible for his team to make finals this year.
Hardwick was judged for speaking of a necessary step backwards last year after several steps forwards. It provoked the agitators.
He is entering his eighth season and has a contract for a ninth. Will eight years prove to be enough to make a judgment on impact, or will it be nine?
Football success is only defined one way – ladder position and cups. (And in soccer's case, not even that matters much. Just ask Claudio Ranieri.)
Rothschild's piece ended with this: "As leaders we need to stop assuming we are the only one who can 'finish the job'. We need to embrace change for ourselves, even if it means leaving an organisation and a team you enjoy leading. Knowing when to step down is perhaps the ultimate leadership challenge."
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/judging-damien-hardwicks-tenure-at-richmond-when-is-the-right-time-to-go-20170301-guo7n5.html
