cool global BIZ

Football's San Francisco 49ers Reflect Winning Workplace Culture and Management

 

HOW DO YOU handle a soul-crushing defeat if normally-reliable colleagues fall short? Strengthen the fortress and build up your teammates, don't divide and conquer.

After the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers fell short of reaching the Super Bowl, losing to the New York Giants on Sunday, they did not blame the young player whose turnovers played a role in the loss. They rallied around him, and rightfully pointed out that the whole team missed opportunities throughout the game.

Under new coach Jim Harbaugh, general manager Trent Baalke and their staffs, the 49ers' classy handling of defeat reflects their winning culture and season -- a success by nearly every measure. Corporate types can learn a lot about leadership from first-rate coaches and athletes, who handle more pressure in one game than most of us see in our entire careers. In short, act like real and selfless teammates, not self-serving divas. Easy to say, hard to do. Look at any workplace.

 

McKinsey Calls for Resource Revolution As Global Demand Soars for Food, Water, Energy

 

 

"Sustainable energy from the source" by Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig, under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Ahlefeldt-Laurvig is an illustrator in Copenhagen, Denmark, at HikingArtist.com.

 

NEXT TO GLOBAL warming, perhaps the most critical and urgent issue of the day? The supply and demand for basic resources as the world population -- a billion here, a billion there -- continues to explode. In a recent study, the McKinsey Global Institute urges companies and governments to launch a "resource revolution" to improve resource productivity, and to meet the vast global need for energy, materials, food and water in the near future. A McKinsey e-mail to subscribers reads:

Are You a Manager on a Mission, Like Denver Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow?

 

HIS IN-YOUR-FACE spirituality may turn off some folks. His football passes can be wild and erratic. And his power scrambling surely will shorten his promising career. But Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow boasts those magical qualities and intangibles that every executive and manager wishes he had: Fire and spirit. Courage and credibility. Leadership mojo.

You can measure the visible traits of people all day. You can write performance reviews late into the night. But those assessments exist only on paper, only by the numbers -- and only in your biased and fallible judgment. As critics are discovering with Tebow, their damning reviews mean little, and results mean everything. On Sunday eve, the young pro quarterback led his team to another near-miraculous triumph. Pure and simple, Tebow is a winner, a leader who believes in himself -- and who inspires others. Whether he reaches the Super Bowl or not, he is a man on a mission.