Jason Howell Company

The drama around an athlete who at one point proved to be worth $100 million but now does not, is a good example of how to use crisis as a catalyst for changing a culture of losing.

Happier times with Albert Haynesworth

The Redskins have had their share of challenges over the past few years and aptly mirror the decline of effective institutions like their hometown of Washington, DC.   But much like the Great Recession has had our politicians scrambling for a win, the Redskins too are fighting hard even for preseason victories.  You can see it.   Whenever there is crisis things eventually change.  It is perhaps the one good thing about crisis  -that it passes and so too any idea of complacency. 

Like many of you I have experienced challenge both personal and professional.   I decided to start a business while watching the largest businesses retrench, reassesss and restructure.  Here are a few things you can still find businesses doing:

1. Cutting costs
2. Centralizing command
3. Defining their true purpose

What an exhaustive list!  OK, not really but that is the point.  The three things I listed are not ground breaking but why were they not tackled (to use another football reference) during the good times?  Complacency leads to hubris which leads to failure…every time.  The failure or “crisis” has concentrated the minds of people who run businesses, run our country and run our Washington Redskins football team.  Crisis helps because crisis works.  An old boss of mine might say that crisis warrants some “failure analysis” which is never fun because 1) you failed and 2) you didn’t mean to.   Leadership training and career coaching should always include the inevitability of dealing with crisis and turning it around because in the end, it is good for business.

Now I just hope we win a few more ‘Skins games than last year.

Jason Howell is the author of AMERICA: Still the Land of Opportunity, Always a Home for the Brave.\” For more insights on success in business and in life, pick up your copy today.