What Can We Learn from Tom Brady and the Patriots?
To begin, I am not a Patriots fan. But I can certainly appreciate what they have been able to accomplish.
Let’s start with Tom Brady. Every year he re-negotiates his contract down. Making $14 million a year (against the cap, actual cash guaranteed was only $1 million) instead of 24 million a year is the difference in the Patriots always having 2–3 more fundamental pieces on their team. This is a big part of their success.
If Joe Flacco was a $14 million a year hit instead of $24.5 million a year hit, would the Ravens have had the one or two pieces that could have gotten them over the hump and into the playoffs? One can only speculate. But the question on everyone’s mind is… why doesn’t my quarterback do this? The answer is trust. Tom Brady isn’t just selfless.
Star players might be tempted to do this more but they are essentially making a $50–100 million investment and bet in their front office. That is a LOT to gamble on a hope that the front office isn’t going to make a boneheaded move. But Brady trusts Bellichick and Kraft implicitly on this and it has paid off. Seven Super Bowls and five championships later and you see that this bond is the glue that holds their organization together.
There is a lesson in this for leaders. Does your team seem to want to soak every nickel out of your organization? That might be a “you” problem not a “them” problem. When employees sacrifice salary for other things (winning culture, fulfillment, benefits) they are making a bet on someone other than themselves.
I have been a part of winning cultures where shared sacrifice for a winning goal meant that money was just the cherry on top. I have also been a part of cultures where money was the only thing to paste over the misery.
You might have “greedy” employees or you might have a culture problem. There may be some things to learn from the Patriots in this regard.
This post by Nathan Martin originally appeared on NathanJMartin.com
