Bet you thought I was going to talk about my workplace? Maybe one day. In the meantime let's take this case. , difficulties from the previous year and previous management are documented. A boss who did not believe in them and left in the middle of the night. Then they hire a no name boss who somehow took a once chaotic workplace and made them thrive . That same no name boss so energized by an opportunity he did not think was possible. I don't care if t Just read the passages in bold first. I dare you not learn anything. This management case study is like the lyrics from "Hey Jude" "Take a sad song and make it better, remember to let her into your hearts and you can start to make it better".
Ed
Smith brightens the Falcons' days
By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
Oct 17, 3:09 am EDT
The first time Todd McClure heard the term, back before the start of the regular season, he did a double take. The Over 30 Club? The Atlanta Falcons' veteran center thought the team's first-year coach, Mike Smith, might be messing around when he called for a meeting with the team's 11 thirtysomethings.
Soon McClure, 31, and his fellow Falcons graybeards were up in gray-haired coach's office, looking around in wide-eyed wonderment. "Man, that's the first time I've been in this office in awhile," one player joked, provoking laughs and knowing eye-rolls from his audience.
Smith told the veterans he wanted to meet with them regularly to discuss anything they had on their minds, from practice schedules to the overall mood of the team. The grateful players went back and forth with the coach on a few topics, goofed on one another in the process and left the room blown away by what had just gone down.
Six weeks into a season in which the Falcons have emerged as the NFL's feel-good story of early autumn, McClure credits the new coach for putting the fun back in the Falcons' universe – and for caring enough to involve the players in the process.
"Twice a month Coach Smith gets the older guys together and lets us know what's going on and what he's thinking," he says. "He entrusts the team to those veteran leaders, and he lets us sell his system to the young guys and patrol the locker room. It's nice to be able to go up there and have that relationship with the man in charge."
As opposed to last season, when Falcons players literally couldn't get a hello in the hallway from their head coach – one of many flaws that made Bobby Petrino's 13-game reign of error one of the biggest disasters in NFL history. How much better are things under Smith, 49, the former Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator who generated almost zero buzz before getting the Atlanta job last January?
"The best analogy I can give is it's like Dorothy when she was looking for the Wizard of Oz," veteran safety Lawyer Milloy says. "When she finally accomplishes her goals, you just see the dark skies open up and all of a sudden it's glorious sunshine."
Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!
Even better, Petrino's replacement is the NFL's version of Glinda, minus the pink dress and fairy dust. A man whose pre-Falcons profile was as extraordinary as his name, Smith has been energized by an opportunity he never saw coming and carries a near-constant smile to prove it.
Smith, the surprising choice to rescue the Falcons from the dual-edged disaster of Michael Vick's dog-fighting conviction and Petrino's horse's-ass disposition, has snuck up on the outside world like the team he coaches. Heading into their bye week and coming off back-to-back victories over the Packers and Bears, the Falcons (4-2) have already equaled their '07 victory total and are in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC South.
There are many reasons for Atlanta's early success, from the influx of impact players like rookie quarterback Matt Ryan and free-agent halfback Michael Turner to the effective teaching of a coaching staff that features 188 collective years of NFL experience. The biggest factor, however, is also one of the simplest: Smith, through the tenets of positive thinking and open communication, has turned a once miserable workplace into a fruitful one.
"I'm a very communicative guy, and I want my players to communicate with me as well," Smith says. "We've tried to focus on camaraderie, teamwork, resolve and positive energy. It's kind of a novel thing, huh? One of the things I say to the team is, 'Rules without interaction will lead to rebellion.' You've got to have interaction – that's just being a good person, and it's important in any business."
Now contrast that with Petrino, who came to the Falcons from the college ranks (Louisville) and quickly fled back (Arkansas), saying goodbye to his players via form letter on a Black Tuesday in December. The previous day, former franchise quarterback Vick had been sentenced to 23 months in prison. Hours later, the Falcons suffered a humiliating Monday night home defeat to New Orleans that dropped them to 3-10.
The toxic workplace, in McClure's eyes, was a function of Petrino's disdain for his players. "I guess that's kind of the sense we got," he says, "because it wasn't ever really expressed that he did enjoy being around us. You'd pass by him in the hallway and you might get a head-nod, at best. With some guys, he wouldn't even look up. That's kind of hard to take, because communication is the key to a good team environment."
According to Milloy, Petrino's rules included no talking on team planes, during pregame meals or in the locker room before taking the field. "If you talked, you had to whisper," Milloy says. "In the locker room before a game, you could listen to your iPod, but otherwise it was dead silence. No TV, no sound system, no talking. During the meals, you could hear the spoons and forks clanking against the plates.
"We had to spend nine months out of the year with somebody like that. It's one thing to have college kids and send a position coach to deal with them. In the NFL, there are real men with real concerns, and I don't think he knew how to handle that. Last year – and I wouldn't have said this at the time – I just never felt like we had a chance."
Milloy says he would've tried to force his way out of Atlanta had the atmosphere not improved. McClure says there's no way he would've put up with another season of Petrino.
"I don't know if I've ever really said this to anyone except my wife," McClure says, "but I told her in the middle of the season that if he had come back I was going to go upstairs and do what I could to get out of here. Because it was just miserable – the meeting room was so stale, and we all sat there straight-faced. If you stay serious all the time, you just kill yourself. Under Coach Smith, it's been like night and day."
Though Smith heard the horror stories, he never spoke to the players about the past, telling them at their first meeting in April, "It's 2008, and we're all starting with a clean slate." Even before that time he had placed phone calls to numerous veterans and met with some in person, as he and new general manager Thomas Dimitroff, a fellow rookie, went about reshaping the team's roster.
Milloy says he and his teammates knew so little about Smith, they began "doing research on the Internet to try to learn about what kind of person he was. From his first speech we heard a guy who was kind of beside himself to be in that position, and he showed it by smiling the whole time he was talking. Smitty had so much passion for the sport, and you could tell it was genuine. You could just feel his energy."
The Falcons are feeling it even more now. In successive weeks, Atlanta pulled off an upset at Lambeau Field and stunned the Bears after falling behind with 11 seconds to go. Their top five draft picks, including third overall pick Ryan, are either starting or playing significant roles. Turner is second in the NFL with 597 rushing yards, as a formerly dismal offensive line has thrived under position coach Paul Boudreau. Wideout Roddy White is second in the league with 566 receiving yards, and defensive end John Abraham (another Over 30 Club member) has an NFL-best seven sacks.
Along with Boudreau, experienced assistants like offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, receivers coach Terry Robiskie, quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave, defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, defensive line coach Ray (Sugar Bear) Hamilton and defensive backs coach Alvin Reynolds have connected with players while stressing fundamentals. And while Smith may be relentlessly positive, there's no ambiguity about who's the boss.
"Oh yeah, I've seen him (lose his temper) and it's not pretty," McClure says. "With Coach Smith, I don't think there's much of a middle ground with him. He's either nice and upbeat, or he needs to get a point across and you know he means business.
"Three or four weeks ago in practice, the defense was supposed to be doing a specific stunt, and he started screaming at (second-year defensive end) Jamaal Anderson, 'You gotta get across the guy's face!' Then Jamaal threw his palms up, and all hell broke loose. Coach screamed, 'Don't you ever throw your palms in the air on this field!' The funny thing is, he came to find out later that Jamaal wasn't at fault. And to his credit, he apologized."
It's the kind of mistake for which, as he grows into his job, Smith might get ribbed during an Over 30 Club meeting. If so, chances are he'll laugh right along with his veterans.
"One thing you've got to do in any business, there's got to be a time for some levity, enjoyment and having fun," Smith says. "If you can't do that around each other, it's hard to be successful."
Somewhere in Fayetteville, Ark., a failed Falcons coach is frowning.
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